Galerie Lelong is pleased to participate in The Armory Show 2017 with a presentation of works by McArthur Binion, Petah Coyne, Andy Goldsworthy, Jane Hammond, Alfredo Jaar, Samuel Levi Jones, Rosemary Laing, Jaume Plensa, and Nancy Spero.
At The Armory Show 2017, Galerie Lelong will introduce work from McArthur Binion’s newest series, DNA: Sepia. Binion layers personal documents under grids of oil paint stick, reimagining a minimalist aesthetic through the use of innovative visual language and explorations of color, texture, and composition. His work will be included in the upcoming 57th Venice Biennale, Viva Arte Viva, curated by Christine Macel. Samuel Levi Jones examines and subverts the grid pattern in his own work by tearing covers from hardbound books and washing them clean of text or images to expose the gaps in narrative history. Gris (2017), a new work composed of Ohio state law book covers, examines human subjectivity within interpretations of the law.
Alfredo Jaar’s works borrow from political, philosophical, and literary sources to emphasize the continuation of history and the corresponding consequences. The neon sculpture, Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness (1995), quotes the Japanese author and Nobel Laureate Kenzaburō Ōe’s 1977 novel of the same name. Jaar’s This is what happened, Miss Simone (2015) quotes the song “Mississippi Goddam” by the iconic American singer Nina Simone, which was written in response to the 1960s hate crimes targeting African Americans in the South. Viewers are invited to take a piece of the work with them and contemplate what might fill in the blank of the phrase “____ GODDAM” for our current era.
Andy Goldsworthy and Rosemary Laing both engage with landscape and the body’s relationship to space and the environment. Recent photographs and moving images by Goldsworthy, which document the artist’s process and experimentation, will be on view. As with his renowned permanent works, Goldsworthy has continued his investigation of understanding the landscape around him through actions like crawling through a rooted hedge or spitting leaves and flowers from his mouth. Laing’s photographic series, The Paper, presents a landscape where decomposing newspapers carpet the forest floor. Through analogue photography without digital manipulation, Laing captures the tension between natural and unnatural disturbances as the newspaper’s written content is allowed to deteriorate with time and natural erosion.
The booth further features a dedicated section of new sculptures by Petah Coyne. Coyne takes inspiration from literature, film, and art history, creating new works that are rich in mystery while still evoking the essence of their cultural influences. Untitled #1419 (Bruno Schulz: The Street of Crocodiles) (2016), a new suspended sculpture, and Untitled # 1425 (Susan Sontag) (2016), a smaller, intimate work, reveal her unique exploration of a range of unorthodox materials such as wax, flowers, glass, feathers, and fabrics. Coyne’s rarely seen photograph Untitled #1007 (Susan's Hem I, Bridal Series) (2001), which captures the erratic movements of a dress hem, completes the trio.
Drawings by Jane Hammond and Nancy Spero similarly involve a search for images to build a new visual lexicon. Feminist artist and activist Nancy Spero groups together varied representations of women such as an abstracted female figure by Picasso and a lingerie model, exploring how deeply heterosexual fantasy is enforced through imagery. Meanwhile, Hammond depicts the process of internet searching in her Results of a Search series. The three-dimensional drawings, titled after the core search term, embrace the anomalies and surprises that ensue.
Finally, a recent sculpture by Jaume Plensa, White Forest (Laura) (2015), will be on view in tandem with a work on paper, Slumberland XIX (Isabella) (2014). Although widely known for his sculptures, Plensa has also created a prolific number of drawings. Utilizing a wide range of materials throughout his career, Plensa works with bronze with a white patina in his White Portrait series to evoke a softness against the hard material. The presentation coincides with Plensa’s solo exhibition at the gallery, Silence, featuring new sculptures in wood and bronze.
Art Fair Hours
Preview: Wednesday, March 1
Thursday, March 2 – Friday, March 3, 12-8pm
Saturday, March 11, 12-7pm
Sunday, March 12, 12-6pm
Art Fair Location
Pier 94
711 12th Avenue
New York, New York 10019