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11/9/2009

Two exhibitions

Yvon Lambert, New York

Yvon Lambert is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by artist Ian Wallace, a leading figure in conceptual photography in Vancouver, Canada. This show will run concurrently with an exhibition of new work by Jill Magid. Both exhibitions open with a reception for the artists on Saturday, September 12, 2009 from 6 - 8 pm and will be on view until October 24, 2009.

Wallace’s artistic style draws from numerous influences including modernism, classical and minimalist painting, literature and cinematography. The works in this exhibition consist of several pairings of photolaminated paintings that continue the dialogue of opposition characteristic of Wallace’s practice. Contradictory elements frequently present themselves in the composition of Wallace’s artwork: near and far, identical and different, open and closed, present and absent. These distinctions are not only formal, in the dynamics of figure and ground, but also technical, in his juxtaposition of painting and photography. Wallace seeks to transcend the traditional image and create a dialogue within each work by engaging conceptual elements with photography.

Wallace is decidedly influenced by high modernist art and architecture, which he finds to provide the formal language that most clearly describes the conundrums of our personal and institutional relationships with the world today. The minimalist, linear elements of high modernism are reflected in Wallace’s own work. In the 1960s Wallace created a series of large monochromatic paintings. In the 1970s the artist began staging large-scale photographs that he would later color by hand, merging photography and painting, a technique that is fundamental to his practice. Subsequently, Wallace’s method evolved to become what he is best known for: photographs laminated on canvas with a stripe of painted color.

Ian Wallace was born in Shoreham, England in 1943 and he has lived and worked in Vancouver since 1944. He received his MA in art history from the University of British Columbia in 1968. In 2008 Wallace had concurrent major solo exhibitions at the Witte de With, Rotterdam; Kunsthalle Zurich; and Kunstverein für die Reinlande und Westfalen, Dusseldorf. The three institutions jointly published a monograph on the artist titled Ian Wallace: A Literature of Images. Ian Wallace’s work has been exhibited in exhibitions at venues including: The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Renia Sofia, Madrid; The Vancouver Art Gallery; Kunstverein in Hamburg; and the Art Gallery of Ontario. In June 2009 the Canada Council awarded Wallace the prestigious Molson Prize for the Arts recognizing his influential artistic contributions to Canada.

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Yvon Lambert is pleased to announce Objects to be Handed Over or Destroyed, Jill Magid’s first solo exhibition at Yvon Lambert New York. In Objects to be Handed Over or Destroyed Magid explores the nature of government secrecy and obligatory silence through her work with the Dutch secret service. This show will run concurrently at Yvon Lambert with an exhibition of new work by Ian Wallace. Both exhibitions open with a reception for the artists on Saturday, September 12, 2009 from 6-8 pm and will be on view until October 24, 2009. Magid will also have a solo exhibition at Tate Modern from September 10, 2009 to January 3, 2010. Under compulsion to commission an artwork for its new building, the AIVD—the General Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands, or the Dutch secret service—decided to use it as an opportunity to improve its public image. In 2005, Magid was selected by the AIVD to “provide the AIVD with a human face.”

After gaining security clearance, Magid was given unprecedented access to interview agents within the organization. Over the course of three years, these interviews took place as conversations in banal public places such as bars and cafes or even airports, and Magid recorded them in various notebooks along the way. By collecting the agents’ personal information, Magid hoped to discover the ‘face of power’ at the center of the organization. Magid fulfilled her commission for the Dutch secret service with the exhibit, “Article 12”, in 2008 in The Hague. Independently, Magid continued to explore the emotional, philosophical, and legal conflicts between ‘protective’ institutions and individual identity in an unpublished manuscript detailing her experience with the organization and its agents, as well as her transformation from data collector to agent handler. In advance of the opening in The Hague, Magid gave the service a copy of her working manuscript to redact for source protection. The AIVD did not like what they read and confiscated a number of artworks after the show had already opened, including seven of the 18 Spies series. The organization then returned to Magid, via a representative from the Dutch Embassy in Washington, D.C, a heavily redacted version of the text she had voluntarily shared. The exhibition at Yvon Lambert New York will include new photographs featuring the artist’s handwritten notebooks (now property of the AIVD); new prints featuring the prologue and epilogue of Becoming Tarden, the novel Magid wrote about working with the AIVD; and a performance in the gallery on Thursday, September 24 at 7pm. Further details of Magid’s exhibition at Tate Modern will be released at a later date. The artist will also launch a website to coincide with the opening of her show in London: http://www.becomingtarden.net.

Jill Magid was born in Bridgeport, CT in 1973. She received her Master of Science in Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge and was an artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam from 2000-2. Magid has had solo shows in various institutions around the world including Tate Liverpool (2004), the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (2005), Gagosian Gallery, New York (2007), Sparwasser, Berlin (2007), the Centre D’Arte Santa Monica, Barcelona (2007), and Stroom, Netherlands (2008). Jill Magid lives and works in New York.

Image: Ian Wallace

Opening Saturday, September 12 from 6-8 pm

YVON LAMBERT New York
550 West 21st Street, New York
Tuesday- Saturday : 10am - 6pm
Free admission

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