Various Artists: Statuesque

The term “statuesque” suggests attributes of classical beauty, elegance, and proportion. The statue was, at one time, the model of artistic form. But the classical statue is now a historical style, evoking an earlier era. This exhibition of recent works by six international artists poses the question of what it means for a contemporary sculpture to be like a statue. How do today’s artists draw upon and reinvent this tradition?

Featuring Paweł Althamer (b. 1967, Warsaw, Poland), Huma Bhabha (b. 1962, Karachi, Pakistan), Aaron Curry (b. 1972, San Antonio, TX), Thomas Houseago (b. 1972, Leeds, England), Matthew Monahan (b. 1972, Eureka, CA), and Rebecca Warren (b. 1965, London, England), Statuesque brings these sculptors together as a group for the first time. Despite their highly individual styles, shared characteristics also emerge. The exhibition signals a resurgence of interest in the human figure among young sculptors. At the same time, none of the artists work in a naturalistic style, preferring to reference the figure rather than to replicate it. They often use the materials of monumental sculpture, such as bronze, but in ways that retain a sense of spontaneity and even fragility. Their figurative forms are built or assembled by hand rather than cast from live models or appropriated from popular culture. Neither literal portraits nor traditional monuments, these sculptures embody the realms of myth, dream, and fantasy. Their artistic references range from ancient Egyptian and African sculpture to works by Michelangelo, Rodin, and Picasso. By turns colossal, complex, dazzling, and confronting, their impact is visceral, charging one of art’s most traditional subjects with a renewed sense of expressive potential and contemporary relevance.

Statuesque is curated by Nicholas Baume.

Paweł Althamer
Paweł Althamer and the Nowolipie Group
Sylwia, 2010
Aluminum
10 ½’ x 4’ x 3’
Ed. 1 of 3
Courtesy Rubell Family Collection, Miami

Paweł Althamer was born in 1967 in Warsaw, Poland. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, where he studied in the Department of Sculpture. In 2004, Althamer received the Vincent van Gogh Biennial Award from the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. His solo exhibitions include One of Many, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan (2007); Black Market, neugerriemschneider, Berlin (2007); and Au Centre Pompidou, Espace 315, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2006). Althamer is represented by the Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw, Poland, and neugerriemschneider, Berlin. He currently lives and works in Warsaw, Poland.

Huma Bhabha
The Orientalist, 2007
Bronze
41 x 33 x 70 inches
Cement base: 2’ H x 3’3” x 3’11”
Courtesy the artist and Salon 94, New York

Huma Bhabha was born in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1962. She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence in 1985 and her MFA from Columbia University in New York in 1989. She was awarded the Emerging Artist Award from The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT, in 2008. Bhabha has had solo exhibitions at Grimm Fine Art, Amsterdam (2009); Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris (2009); and Salon 94, New York (2007). Her group exhibitions include Whitney Biennial 2010, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Every Revolution is a Roll of the Dice, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (2009); and After-Nature, New Museum, New York (2008). She is represented by Salon 94, New York and currently lives and works in Poughkeepsie, NY.

Aaron Curry
Horned Head Trip (reclining), 2010
Powder coated aluminum
111 x 112 x 80 inches
Courtesy Private Collection

Yellow Bird Boy, 2010
Powder coated aluminum
114 x 97 x 60 inches
Courtesy Ruth and Jacob Bloom

Big Pink, 2010
Powder coated aluminum
105 x 102 x 62 inches
Courtesy Il Giardino dei Lauri, courtesy of Kim Heirston Art Advisory LLC

Aaron Curry was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1972. He received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002 and his MFA from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 2005. His solo exhibitions have taken place at David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (2009); Hammer Project: Aaron Curry, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2008–9); and Aaron Curry: Bad Dimension, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, Italy (2009). His works have also been shown in group exhibitions including Alexander Calder: Form, Balance, Joy, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2010); Beg Borrow and Steal, Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2009–10); and Second Nature: The Valentine-Adelson Collection at the Hammer, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2009). Curry is represented by Michael Werner Gallery, New York, and David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

Thomas Houseago
Untitled (Red Man), 2008
Bronze
156 x 60 x 48 inches
Cement base: 1’ x 7’ x 5’
Courtesy of Toni and Daniel Holtz

Unititled (Lumpy Figure), 2009
Bronze
101 x 39 x 55 inches
Steel base: 1.5 x 48 x 72 inches
Courtesy the artist and Michael Werner Gallery, New York

Untitled (Sprawling Octopus Man), 2009
Bronze, edition of 3
101 x 84 x 60 inches
Steel base: 1 x 60 x 96 inches
Courtesy Private Collection

Thomas Houseago was born in Leeds, England, in 1972, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Houseago studied at Jacob Kramer Foundation College, Leeds (1991) and got his BA from St. Martin’s School of Art, London (1994). Solo exhibitions include: Thomas Houseago, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin (2009); Thomas Houseago: Ode, Galleria Zero, Milan (2009); and Herald St, London (2008). He has also participated in group shows including Whitney Biennial 2010, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Beg Borrow and Steal, The Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2009); and Construct and Dissolve, Galerie Sabine Knust, Munich (2009). Houseago is represented by Michael Werner Gallery, New York.

Matthew Monahan
Nation Builder, 2010
Bronze
107 x 62 x 27 inches
Cement base: 1’ H x 3’ x 3’
Courtesy Ruth and Jacob Bloom

Matthew Monahan was born in Eureka, California, in 1972. He received his BFA in 1994 from The Cooper Union School of Art in New York. He has had solo exhibitions at Modern Art, London (2009); Anton Kern Gallery, New York (2008); and Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2007). His group exhibitions include Life on Mars: 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh (2008); Unmonumental: The Object in the 21st Century, New Museum, New York (2007); and the Whitney Biennial 2006, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Monahan is represented by Anton Kern Gallery, New York, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

Rebecca Warren
Large Concretised Monument to the Twentieth Century, 2007
Bronze
Figure: 70 7/8 x 74 3/4 x 27 1/2 inches
Pedestal: 39 ¾ x 77 ¾ x 31 3/8 inches
Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, and Maureen Paley, London

Rebecca Warren was born in London, England, in 1965. She received her BA from Goldsmiths College at the University of London in 1991 and her MA from the Chelsea College of Art in London in 1993. Warren was an artist in residence at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford University from 1993–94. She was nominated for the Vincent van Gogh Biennial Award from the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, in 2008 and the Turner Prize from Tate Britain, London, in 2006. She has had solo exhibitions at Matthew Marks Gallery, New York (2009); Serpentine Gallery, London (2009); and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin (2007). Her group exhibitions include: Classified, Tate Britain, London (2009); Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art, Barbican Art Gallery, London (2008); and Unmonumental: The Object in the 21st Century, New Museum, New York (2007). Warren is represented by Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, and Maureen Paley, London. She currently lives and works in London.