Artful Life By Cathy: Inaugural Exhibition "Revolution in the Making" Hauser, Wirth & Schimmel, Los Angeles

Friday, March 11, 2016

Inaugural Exhibition "Revolution in the Making" Hauser, Wirth & Schimmel, Los Angeles

Revolution in the Making, Inaugural Exhibition at Hauser, Wirth & Schimmel, Los Angeles

Curators: Paul Schimmel and Jenni Sorkin

March 13 – September 4, 2016

Article by Cathy Breslaw

www.cathybreslaw.com

vanguardculture.com

Magdalena Abaknowicz Wheel with Rope, Wood, burlap, hemp, metal line2 wheels, each: 7ft 8 1/8 in / 2.34 m

2 ropes, each approx. 190 ft / 58 National Museum in Wroclaw (Poland) 1973

Out of a 100,000 square foot, 100 year old former flour mill, Hauser, Wirth & Schimmel have carved out an architectural space created for viewing and experiencing art, housed in the recently developing Arts District of Los Angeles. As Schimmel addressed the press at the gallery’s preview opening: “It is a space meant to expand the notion of what a gallery can be – nurturing a cultural community, a seamless urban experience that doesn’t separate art from life. “ With the inaugural exhibition, “Revolution in the Making”, curators Paul Schimmel and Jenni Sorkin mimic the revisionism of this commercial manufacturing space with the revisionistic qualities in the work of women sculptors spanning the past seventy years. The gallery invites art viewing throughout the humongous breezeways, spacious gallery spaces, bookstore, planned public gardens, soon-to-be restaurant and educational programs - all designed to urge visitors to slow down, view art more experientially and to re-visit these spaces not as a destination, but as part of day-to-day life. Artists Ruth Asawa, Lee Bontecou, Louise Bourgeous, and Louise Nevelson are the authentic revolutionaries in sculpture, as they emerged during the post-war period when male abstract expressionist painters and sculptors dominated the art world. The women sculptors that followed and into today, stand on the shoulders of these women who transformed the language, materials and artistic approaches to abstract sculpture, bringing a female sensibility, and a success and acceptance that hadn’t previously existed. Also represented in the exhibition are the women artists who followed during the decades of the 60’s and 70’s including Eva Hesse, Lynda Benglis, Sheila Hicks, Magdalena Abakanowicz, and Gego who were noted as post-minimalist artists who used process oriented materials and methods using wire, latex, rope, organic and natural materials like saplings and earth, and ephemeral materials like wax and paper. Through stacking, layering, pouring, cutting, draping, gouging, weaving and intertwining, these artists investigate multi-dimensional space, non-archival materials, and intuitive processes of art-making that created both physical and psychologically challenging works. Artists representing works originally created in the decades of the 80’s and 90’s, saw a transitional shift from more object based works, to an expanded use of space into making installation-based works. Liz Larner, Marisa Merz, Isa Genzken, Cristina Inglesias are part of this Post-Modernist era exhibited in this show. The newer generations of artists who were commissioned to produce works for this show include: Phyllida Barlow, Karla Black, Jessica Stockholder, Abigail DeVille, Sonia Gomes, Rachel Khedoori, Lara Schnitger, Shinique Smith, and Kaari Upson. These works create immersive, richly hued environments that embrace domestic materials, craft, recycled and repurposed materials. These are mostly 3-D installations that invite viewers to become part of the art piece as felt while walking through Abigail Deville’s structural mazes created from reclaimed plywood theater flats, lumber and debris. This exhibition of 100 works by 34 artists from across the globe invite us to witness both historical and current art-making simultaneously, educating viewers about female art-making across a broad timeline uncommonly seen in gallery exhibitions.