The New York gallery Sperone Westwater presents an exhibition of sculptures by Helmut Lang, Austrian artist. Lang’s artistic practice is characterized by his use of materials and textures, assembled from diverse sources and repurposed.
Shredded fragments from his “Séance de travail” archive serve as raw material for the largest series of works and are transmuted with resin and pigment into a series ofpillar-like sculptures, each measuring between 10 and 12 feet high. The resulting columnar forms exude an organic quality, a starting point for a larger meditation on acts of creative destruction and gestures of renewal. The sculptures appear both hard and fragile. Their geometric shape and structure are juxtaposed with the random accumulation of archival fragments contained within. In this group of nearly 200, each assumes a distinct individualized character.
A series of wall sculptures, composed of resin and pigment pressed together in plankton-like sheets, offers a delicate, almost ephemeral contrast to the taut tall pillars.
Another group of densely layered reliefs builds upon Lang’s use of common manufactured materials, this time incorporating cardboard, string, and tape. He paints each surface with a monochrome finish to emphasize the texture and dimensionality.
Where: Sperone Westwater – 257 Bowery – New York 10002
When: 08/01 to 21/02
