Monumental
Drawings is
an exhibition of large-scale works that explore drawing as an autonomous
medium, featuring the work of sixteen artists. Long considered a route
towards painting (or, to quote co-curator Papo Colo, the "great
adventure before painting"), for contemporary artists drawing is
a valid medium with its own history, context, and innovations. The large-scale
emphasizes the physicality in line and texture, and at the same time,
the grand expanse also commands the viewer’s attention. Some work
contains large, gestural strokes; other work is rendered with meticulous,
minute detail. In featuring large-scale, or "monumental" works,
the exhibition challenges conceptions of drawing as an intimate or precious
medium. Each drawing will challenge the viewer with its physical scale
and gestural capacities of the hand and body. Taken together, Monumental
Drawings investigates the action of drawing.
Jane Kaplowitz
and Joyce Pensato both probe popular culture as
a starting point to their work. Kaplowitz did stills images from the
film, The Magnificent Seven, creating mural-sized relief, replicating
in pen and ink a cinematic scale and experience. Pensato, long known
for her expressionistic paintings of Bart Simpson, Donald Duck, Mickey
Mouse, and other cartoon figures, here uses drawing to convey the tortured
and whimsical elements found in these benign figures. Known for her
exploration of sexuality, gender and femininity, Nicole Eisenman
will include a large-scale drawing of her provocative and evocative
illustrations.
Artist Kim Jones
will undertake a work in process from his "war drawings,"
series. These drawings depict battles — a series of symbols representing
ammunition, armies, and weaponry — which take place within the
terrain designed by Jones. During the exhibition Jones will extend and
continue the battle on a weekly basis during gallery hours.
The detailed and
intricate drawings by emerging artist Daniel Zeller draw
upon science fictional tropes. Equally fantasmatic, artist Jonathon
Rosen probes the world of medicine, medieval science, and religious
icons to create a distorted and disturbed picture of the world.
Monumental Drawings
will also feature the work of Mark Lombardi whose
complex words, charts, and diagrams act as both figural expression and
poetry. Painter Judy Glantzman will include a drawing revealing
how her work is centered within a drawing tradition. Michael Zansky
uses a jewelers torch — a small welding instrument — to burn
in his images onto the paper scrolls.
The show also features
several emerging artists, most of whom use drawing as
their primary medium, including the color-field drawings by Nina
Bovasso, skeletal forms by Jason Clay Lewis, investigations
of hair by Alice Maher, underground comix-inspired drawings by
Rudy Royval, and expressionistic cartoons by Jason Zalk.
Monumental Drawings
accentuates the importance of drawing as a protagonist.
Making marks on paper — the action of drawing — is a constant
element in each artists’ practice. By enlarging what is more often
seen in small-scale or as an informal, working element, Monumental
Drawings transforms the medium into images that are larger than
life.
Monumental Drawings
is funded in part by The Bohen Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation
for the Visual Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Greenwall Foundation,
the Jerome Foundation and our members.
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Dates
September
18 - October 30, 1999
Opening
Saturday
September 18, 6-8pm
Press
Preview
Thursday
September 16, 11-1pm
Artists:
Nina Bovasso, Nicole Eisenman, Judy Glantzman, Kim
Jones, Jane Kaplowitz, Jason Clay Lewis, Mark Lombardi, Alice Maher
Yigal Ozeri, Joyce Pensato, Jonathon Rosen, Rudy Royval, Mark Dean Veca,
Jason Zalk, Michael Zansky, Daniel Zeller
Curators
Jeanette Ingberman
Papo Colo
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