Oldenburg and van Bruggen, Study, Soft Shuttlecock (1994). All Images Courtesy The Pace Gallery.
Now through February 22, Pace Gallery‘s 534 W. 25th Street location is hosting “Grounded”, an exhibition featuring floor-based sculpture by major figures in contemporary art. The show contains work produced from 1967 to 2013 that invite the viewers to experience a new perspective on sculptural forms. The artists that contribute to this show include works by Carl Andre, John Chamberlain, Tara Donovan, Tom Friedman, Tim Hawkinson, Maya Lin and others, focusing on the spatial interactions between art, the ground, and the viewer’s perception.
Carl Andre, 16 Pieces of Slate (1994).
In 1965, Carl Andre’s piece Shape and Sculpture revolutionized existing notions of sculpture by laying the work flat, and inviting viewers to walk over it. This exhibition will present Andre’s early minimalist work 16 Pieces of Slate produced in 1967 as one of the original pieces to work at floor level, and invites a number of other artists to explore similar relations to the ground as an artistic exhibition space.
The work of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, for example is on view, a husband and wife team known for their playful renderings of ordinary objects enlarged to a monumental scale. In Soft Shuttlecock, Study (1994), a badminton birdie is blown up from 2 to 80 inches in diameter, then deflated to lie flat on the floor, inviting the viewer’s warped aerial perspective. The work of Maya Lin approaches the subject of natural landscapes and challenges perceptions of space through topographic platitudes. Her piece 106° East Meridian (2013) takes as its subject the longitudinal degree that runs through Manhattan in 14 feet of marble.
Other works, like Lucas Samaras’s Stiff Box #2, explore the intersections of sculptural convention with the idea of floor-mounted works. While the piece immediately calls to mind traditional sculptural practice, its interaction with the ground calls for a reconsideration of the place a work takes in the continuum between artist and environment, viewer and viewed.
Lucas Samaras, Stiff Box #2 (1971).
This dynamic show blends the playful vitality of a shift in perspective with an extensive lineup of some of the most accomplished artists of the last 50 years. A range of materials and subjects are deflated, flattened, and steamrolled into sculptures over which the viewer is invited to tower.
Grounded is on view until February 22nd.
—A. Corrigan
Related Links:
Press Release [Pace Gallery]
