The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture @ SAAM - Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

The Shape of Power

Stories of Race and American Sculpture

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

November 8, 2024 - September 14, 2025

ROBERTO LUGO

DNA Study Revisited, 2022

Urethane resin life cast, foam, wire, and acrylic paint 

Smithsonian American Art Museum, 

Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund, 2024.19

Photo courtesy the Smithsonian American Art Museum 

“The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum examines for the first time the role of sculpture in understanding and constructing the concept of race in the United States over nearly three centuries. Featuring 70 artists whose work crosses time, scale and media, the exhibition brings together American sculpture in its many forms to explore the ways in which it has shaped and reflected attitudes and understandings about race, and has served as an expression of resistance, liberation and a vital means for reclaiming identity. The exhibition includes 82 sculptures created between 1792 and 2023 ranging in size from palm-sized coins to monumental statues created from diverse media such as bronze, marble, shoes, paper and hair. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is the sole venue for this groundbreaking exhibition.

Judith Baca, Rina Banerjee, Ed Bereal, Huma Bhabha, Sanford Biggers, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Sonya Clark, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Nicholas Galanin, Raven Halfmoon, Luis Jiménez, Simone Leigh, Yolanda López, Roberto Lugo, Pepón Osorio, Betye Saar, Alison Saar and Nari Ward, among other contemporary artists, have work displayed alongside works by artists who were active in the 19th and early 20th centuries, including Daniel Chester French, Sargent Johnson, Edmonia Lewis, Isamu Noguchi, Hiram Powers, Frederic Remington and Augusta Savage.

“As stewards of the largest collection of American sculpture in the world, SAAM has a vital responsibility to foster conversations about the role sculpture has played in shaping our ideas of race in the United States, from its historical roots to contemporary perspectives by leading artists of the times in which these works were created,” said Jane Carpenter-Rock, acting director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “The presentation of the artworks in ‘The Shape of Power’ exhibition are an invitation to think deeply and openly to engage with ideas that are crucial to our understanding of the past and our present.”

“American sculpture remains an understudied area of art history with the last major publication to survey the medium’s development in the United States dating back more than 50 years ago,” said Karen Lemmey, the Lucy S. Rhame Curator of Sculpture at the museum. “‘The Shape of Power’ and its accompanying publication offers new scholarship that provides a fuller picture of American art history and a more nuanced understanding of our nation’s past and present.”  

The exhibition is organized to allow for juxtapositions of historical and contemporary works that invite dialogue and reflection on notions of power and identity. This includes works ranging from Edmonia Lewis’ “Hagar in the Wilderness” (1875) that depicts the biblical story of an enslaved woman, to Roberto Lugo’s life-size self-portrait “DNA Study Revisited” (2022) painted head to toe in patterns representative of his ancestors and proportional to the percentage in his family’s heritage. Taken together, the works on view express the special capacity of sculpture to give palpable physical form to how concepts of race have been reflected, defined and redefined in the United States.  

“The Shape of Power” draws extensively on works from the museum’s collection, which is the largest collection of American sculpture in the world. The exhibition includes key loans from private and public collections, including the American Numismatic Society; Chrysler Museum of Art; El Museo del Barrio; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  

Planning the exhibition included an unprecedented collaborative effort that engaged a range of scholarly and community partners who provided insights that helped guide the themes and interpretive elements. The curatorial team engaged with colleagues at museums across the Smithsonian Institution to provide an interdisciplinary perspective on the exhibition’s theme, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian; the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience; students and faculty at Howard University and members of George Mason University’s student organization the Native American and Indigenous Alliance; as well as nearly all 39 living artists participating in the show. Members of the exhibition’s advisory council, composed of interdisciplinary scholars who teach in different regions across the country, contributed to the catalog. A free exhibition audio guide features the voices of artists, university students and curators.

The exhibition extends beyond the traditional suite of galleries to include monumental sculptures on long-term view at the museum, including the recently unveiled installation “Bridge” (2013–2014) by Los Angeles-based artist Glenn Kaino, which pays tribute to Olympian Tommie Smith’s historic gesture at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games; and Luis Jiménez’s work installed outside the museum entrance, “Vaquero” (modeled 1980, cast 1990), which translates to cowboy in Spanish and emphasizes the Spanish and Mexican roots of this classic American icon. A printed gallery guide is available to orient visitors to these spaces.

The exhibition is organized by Karen Lemmey; Tobias Wofford, associate professor of art history at Virginia Commonwealth University; and Grace Yasumura, assistant curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The Shape of Power

Stories of Race and American Sculpture

Exhibition Catalog

Smithsonian American Art Museum 

in association with Princeton University Press

292 pages -  ISBN 9780691261492

Publication: The exhibition catalog is co-published by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Princeton University Press. It is written by Lemmey, Wofford and Yasumura with contributions by Renée Ater, Jacqueline Francis, Elizabeth Hutchinson, Tess Korobkin, Jami Powell, James Smalls and Claudia E. Zapata. The book is available for purchase ($65) in the museum’s store and online.

SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM

8th and G Streets, NW, Washington, DC 2000

americanart.si.edu

Beyond Form Lines of Abstraction, 1950 - 1970 @ Turner Contemporary, Margate - Guest curated by Dr Flavia Frigeri

Beyond Form 

Lines of Abstraction, 1950 - 1970

Guest curated by Dr Flavia Frigeri

Turner Contemporary, Margate

3 February - 6 May 2024

Lenore Tawney At Work In Studio, New York, USA 

Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Turner Contemporary presents Beyond Form: Lines of Abstraction, 1950 - 1970, a group exhibition presenting abstraction as a radical global language shared by women artists in the twenty years following World War II. Guest curated by Dr Flavia Frigeri, the exhibition brings together the works of more than 50 artists to examine how, through abstract forms, materials and modes, women pushed the boundaries of artmaking while tackling seismic cultural, social and political shifts. Comprising over 80 artworks, predominantly sculpture, the exhibition traces how the language of abstraction developed on a global scale. 

Beyond Form re-evaluates how art, gender and the act of making intersected in the postWWII period, when men often eclipsed women’s artistic contributions. It highlights the pioneering efforts of women artists in the development of abstraction, asserting their vital role in the discourse of the times.

In the 1950s and 1960s, women actively resisted the pressure to return to domestic roles, instead capitalising on their substantial wartime work experiences. By embracing abstraction, these artists leveraged a form of expression that resonated with the era’s protofeminist sentiments. Through employing techniques like hanging, stacking and weaving they subverted established art-craft hierarchies and challenged entrenched gender norms. Their innovative use of sculptural materials allowed them to investigate critical social topics and explore themes concerning the human form, political discourse and more.

Looking beyond the Western canon, Beyond Form presents abstraction as a constellation of interconnected stories. It celebrates artists from Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, positioning them as central figures in the history of abstraction and brings to light many works that have previously gone unseen.

The exhibition includes sculptures by Mária Bartuszová, Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse and Hannah Wilke. It highlights Marisa Merz’s Living Sculpture (1966), a piece realised within the intimate confines of a domestic space before the artist had a studio. It also explores Carla Accardi and Marta Pan’s innovative use of modern materials to redefine space and perception. The fibre art of Maria Teresa Chojnacka and Ewa Pachucka is also featured, symbolising resistance and liberation from state censorship or monitoring. Complementing the sculptural focus of the exhibition are select paintings and reliefs, such as Carmen Herrera’s East (1965) and Agnes Martin’s Morning (1965), enriching the understanding of this artistic period.

Together, the works included in Beyond Form map a constellation that speaks to the global, collective language of abstraction that transcends geographical and cultural boundaries through the universal medium of sculpture.

Beyond Form is guest curated by Dr Flavia Frigeri, art historian and 'Chanel Curator for the Collection' at the National Portrait Gallery, London. At Turner Contemporary the exhibition is realised with Sarah Martin, Head of Exhibitions.

Dr Flavia Frigeri said: “There have been other exhibitions bringing together art by women from the post-war era, but what makes Beyond Form unique is connecting artists from across the globe through radical abstraction using forms and materials most recognisable in other contexts. We see a collection of artists who, at a surface level, are working in disparate locations, but are connected by a universal desire to express their personal, cultural, and political perspectives in ways that subvert the canon of the time.”

A publication with a new essay by Dr Flavia Frigeri accompanies the exhibition, published by Eiderdown Books.

Clarrie Wallis, Director of Turner Contemporary said: “Beyond Form: Lines of Abstraction, 1950 - 1970 stands as a crucial global exploration of post-war abstraction, showcasing its multifaceted nature and its transformative impact on the language of sculpture. By liberating themselves from traditional constraints and embracing new materials, women artists were revolutionising the way they conveyed ideas through sculpture and ushering in a new era of creative expression.”

Exhibiting artists: Carla Accardi; Novera Ahmed; Anthea Alley; Ruth Asawa; Mária Bartuszová; Lynda Benglis; Margaret Benyon; Anna-Eva Bergman; Sandra Blow; Lee Bontecou; Louise Bourgeois; Rosemarie Castoro; Jocelyn Chewett; Maria Teresa Chojnacka; Lygia Clark; Saloua Raouda Choucair; Dadamaino; Dorothy Dehner; Claire Falkenstein; Habuba Farah; Maria Freire; Elisabeth Frink; Sue Fuller; Barbara Hepworth; Carmen Herrera; Eva Hesse; Sheila Hicks; Ilona Keserü; Bice Lazzari; Felicia Leirner; Kim Lim; Agnes Martin; Mary Martin; Marisa Merz; Yuko Nasaka; Louise Nevelson; Ewa Pachucka; Marta Pan; Howardina Pindell; Pilloo Pochkhanawala; Bridget Riley; Meg Rutherford; Ana Sacerdote; Behjat Sadr; Nasreen Mohamedi; Mona Saudi; Hedde Sterne; Arpita Singh; Jean Spencer; Hedda Sterne; Lenore Tawney; Marilia Gianetti Torres; Paule Vézelay; Daniela Vinopalová; Hannah Wilke; Gillian Wise.

TURNER CONTEMPORARY

Rendezvous, Margate, Kent CT9 1HG

turnercontemporary.org

Black Artists of Oregon @ Portland Art Museum

Black Artists of Oregon

Portland Art Museum

September 9, 2023 – March 17, 2024

Charles Tatum (American, 1937–2008)

Cosmic Woman, 1973

Wood panel sculpture, 25” x 14” x 14.5" 

Collection of Patricia Soltys 

Photographer: David Czuba

Natalie Ball 

Mapping Coyote Black, textile, 2015, 10" x 10" 

Courtesy of the Artist

Photographer, E.G. Schempf

Jeremy Okai Davis (American, born 1979)

Hue (Streat), 2021 

Acrylic and One Shot on canvas, 50" x 50" 

Photographer: Mario Gallucci

Penda Diakite (Malian-American, born 1992) 

Mandiani, 2021 

Acrylic, rubber, collage on wood panel 60" x 48"

Photographer: Penda Diakite

The exhibition Black Artists of Oregon, presented by the Portland Art Museum, highlights and celebrates the work of Black artists in Oregon over more than a century, exploring this history both through the lens of Black artists whose works are represented in the Museum’s collection as well as the works of influential artists who, historically, have not been exhibited or held in museum collections. 

Considering both the presence and absence of Black artists is critical to understanding the breadth of Black artistic production in Oregon—even in the midst of historic exclusion—as well as how the impact of that history affects our understanding of American art history and the history of the Pacific Northwest. This exhibition serves to deepen the awareness of the talented artists who have shaped and inspired artists regionally and nationally, and it is the first of its kind to consider the work of Black artists collectively in Oregon.

Beginning in the 1880s and spanning through today, Black Artists of Oregon captures the Black diasporic experiences particular to the Pacific Northwest with 67 artists and over 200 objects. Artists represented in the exhibition includes Thelma Johnson Streat, Al Goldsby, Charlotte Lewis, Isaka Shamsud-Din, Ralph Chessé, Charles Tatum, Arvie Smith, Shedrich Williames, Harrison Branch, Bobby Fouther, and Carrie Mae Weems, among others. The exhibition and programming also include the works of contemporary and younger artists working now, functioning as bright threads and offering intergenerational conversation throughout the exhibition, including sidony o’neal, Jeremy Okai Davis, damali ayo, Sharita Towne, Melanie Stevens, Lisa Jarrett, Tristan Irving, Ebin Lee, and Jaleesa Johnston.

Carrie Mae Weems 

Untitled (Woman with daughter), from the series Kitchen Table, 1990 

Gelatin silver prints 

Gift of the Contemporary Art Council 

© Carrie Mae Weems 

Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York., 94.19a-c

Isaka Shamsud-Din 

Rock of Ages, 1976 

Oil, gold leaf, and mirror on canvas 

Gift of Roxie Schell and Damon Tempey 

© Isaka Shamsud-Din, 2018.36.1

Thelma Johnson Streat 

Monstro the Whale, 1940 

Wool 

Courtesy of the Fine Arts Collection, 

U.S. General Services Administration. 

New Deal Art Project, public domain, L42.32.1

Shedrich Williames (American, born 1934) 

Untitled, 1972

Gelatin silver print, image: 13 3/16 in x 10 3/8 in 

sheet: 14 in x 10 15/16 in 

Gift of Al Monner, 94.36.1

Iván Carmona Rosario (Puerto Rican, born 1973)

Mariconeo, 2022

Mineral silicate paint on ceramic, 82" x 20" x 16" 

Courtesy of the artist

Photographer: Mario Gallucci

Through the narrative flow of the exhibition, visitors are experience work by Black artists across decades and generations. Particular attention is given to the works of Black artists who were producing work during the Black Arts Movement of the late 1960s, ’70s, and early ’80s, such as Portland-based painter Isaka Shamsud-Din. The exhibition is also mark regional artistic connections with global movements for Black liberation, as seen in the work of Charlotte Lewis alongside Portlanders Organized for Southern African Freedom and artists like Sadé DuBoise, whose “Resistance” poster series contributed to Portland’s 2020 George Floyd protests. Without chronological constraints, the exhibition is grounded by the work of elder artists, intergenerational conversations, and live activation in the exhibition galleries.

Black Artists of Oregon builds upon guest curator Intisar Abioto’s original research since 2018 exploring the lineage and legacy of Black artists in Oregon. The exhibition continues Abioto’s research, which is grounded in Black American practices of listening, keeping, and passing on each others’ stories.

“Far from isolated or ancillary, Black arts and cultural production in Oregon has been in conversation and interchange with the world, and a part of its arts and cultural movements, all this time,” says Intisar Abioto. “Black Artists of Oregon is a heralding of Black presence, interchange, influence, and impact.”

Arvie Smith 

Dem Golden Slippers, 2007 

Oil on linen, Gift of Donna Hammar 

© Arvie Smith, 2010.80

Harrison Branch (American, born 1947) 

Untitled, Corvallis, Oregon, 1975

Gelatin silver print, image: 7 5/16 in x 9 1/2 in 

sheet: 13 1/2 in x 15 3/4 in 

Gift of the Photography Council, 2002.58.4

Adriene Cruz (American, born 1953) 

Egungun, 2013 

Mixed media embellished fabric 32 x 36 inches 

Collection of Adriene Cruz

Melanie Stevens (American, born 1979) 

Reflection II: Charles In Form, July 2023 

Linocut print 22 x 30 inches 

Courtesy of the artist

Bill Rutherford (American, born 1937) 

Wabi Sabi: Imperfect Beauty 

Eucalyptus on marble base, 12 x 7 x 7 inches 

Courtesy of the Artist

Artists featured in Black Artists of Oregon 

manuel arturo abreu (b. 1991)

damali ayo (b. 1972)

Natalie Ball (b. 1980)

J.S. Bell (1882-1925)

Harrison Branch (b. 1947)

Nikesha Breeze (b. 1979)

Grafton Tyler Brown (1841-1918)

Richard Brown (b. 1939)

Iván Carmona Rosario (b. 1973)

David Ornette Cherry (1958-2022)

Ralph Chessé (1900-1991)

Robert Colescott (1925-2009)

Licity Collins  (b. 1972) 

Adriene Cruz (b. 1953)

Cleo Davis (b. 1974)

Jeremy Okai Davis (b. 1979)

Baba Wagué Diakité (b. 1961)

Penda Diakité (b. 1992)

Modou Dieng Yacine (b. 1970)

Sadé DuBoise (b. 1993)

Ray Eaglin (1941-2004)

Mo Fee (1969 – 2020)

Bobby Fouther (b. 1950)

Henry Frison (1940-2020)

Julian V.L. Gaines (b. 1991)

Al Goldsby (1930-2002)

Sherrian Haggar (1946-2019)

Elijah Hasan (b. 1966)

Patricia Herron (b. 1951)

Jason Hill (b. 1976)

Janice Ingersoll (b. 1949) 

Tristan Irving (b. 1990)

Lisa Jarrett (b. 1977)

Jaleesa Johnston (b. 1989)

Nick Jones (b. 1945)

Arnold Kemp (b. 1968)

Rupert Kinnard (b. 1954)

ebin lee (b. 1989)

Charlotte Lewis (1934-1999)

Geeta Lewis (b. 1956)

Mark Little (b. 1948)

Willie Little (b. 1961)

Latoya Lovely (b. 1982)

Ivan McClellan (b. 1982)

Chris McMurry (b. 1970)

Christine Miller (b. 1990)

sidony o’neal (b. 1988)

Katherine Pennington (b. 1953)

Otis Quaicoe (b. 1988)

J.L. Quenton (b. 1953)

Philemon Reid (1945-2008)

Bill Rutherford (b. 1937)

Isaka Shamsud-Din (b. 1940)

Arvie Smith (b. 1938)

Melanie Stevens (b. 1979)

Thelma Johnson Streat (1911-1959)

Kayin Talton-Davis (b. 1980)

Charles Tatum (1937-2008)

Mickalene Thomas (b. 1971)

Sharita Towne (b. 1984)

Thomas Unthank (b. 1936)

Maya Vivas (b. 1990)

Samantha Wall (b. 1977)

Carrie Mae Weems (b. 1953)

Shedrich Williames (b. 1934)

Tammy Jo Wilson (b. 1974)

Mosley Wotta (b. 1983)

Eatcho (b. 1980) 

PORTLAND ART MUSEUM

1219 SW Park Avenue Portland, OR 97205

www.portlandartmuseum.org

Leo Amino, Minoru Niizuma, John Pai @ Tina Kim Gallery, NYC - The Unseen Professors - Curated by John Yau

The Unseen Professors

Leo Amino (1911-1989), Minoru Niizuma (1930-1998), John Pai (b. 1937)

Tina Kim Gallery, New York

November 18, 2021 – January 29, 2022

                                        

Leo Amino (1911 –1989)

Refractional #184, 1983

Polyester resin

© The Estate of Leo Amino, Courtesy of Tina Kim Gallery

Minoru Niizuma

Crenel, 1975 

Verona red marble, 39 x 19 x 19 inches, 99.1 x 48.3 x 48.3 cm. 

© The Estate of Minoru Niizuma, Courtesy of Tina Kim Gallery

John Pai

Involution, 1974

40 x 40 x 40 inches, 101.6 x 101.6 x 101.6 cm.

© John Pai, Courtesy of Tina Kim Gallery

Curated by John Yau, the exhibition, The Unseen Professors: Leo Amino (1911-1989), Minoru Niizuma (1930-1998), John Pai (b. 1937), focuses on the sculptures of Leo Amino, Minoru Niizuma, and John Pai, three Asian artists who were born in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea between 1911 and 1937, and immigrated to America. Eventually, all of them moved to New York City, where they worked and taught for many years in leading institutions, such as Cooper Union, Pratt Institute, and Columbia University. In fact, despite belonging to different generations, their teaching careers overlapped for more than decade (1964-1977), during which time a generation of artists associated with Minimalism and site-specific art gained much of the art world’s attention. 

During the period in which they were teaching and exhibiting, both here and abroad, the following essays were published: “Specific Objects” (1965) by Donald Judd and “Sculpture in the Expanded Field” by Rosalind Krauss. Neither of them mentions a single sculptor of color at a time when there were almost no critics of color who could offer an alternative vision to their influential viewpoints. By gathering together a group of sculptures made of different materials (wood, polyester resin, marble, granite, and steel), this exhibition will demonstrate that there was a group of artists who had roots in other histories and philosophies than the one that was narrowly defined by Judd and Krauss.

It is high time we place the oversights of Judd and Krauss in context. Between 1947 and ’62, Amino, who had taught at Black Mountain College (Summer of 1946 and ’50) and was the first American sculptor to work with polyester resin (plastic) after World War II, showed in all but two Whitney Annuals between 1947 and ’62. Niizuma and Judd had work in the Whitney Annual of 1966 and Niizuma’s work was also shown in the Whitney Annual two years later (1968), in which Judd’s work was not included. Although Niizuma was included in these two exhibitions, none of his sculptures entered the museum’s collection. Pai’s work is not in the museum collection, while Amino has one work. The underrepresentation of these three sculptors, all of whom were actively working and teaching for many years in New York, is one impetus of the exhibition. The larger goal is to introduce a new generation of viewers to three distinguished Asian American sculptors working in different mediums, and employing different processes, as they followed their own trajectory and attained something particular and unique in their work.

By reexamining this period through significant works by Amino, Niizuma, and Pai, The Unseen Professors: Leo Amino (1911-1989), Minoru Niizuma (1930-1998), John Pai (b. 1937) highlights the significant accomplishment of three independent Asian-born artists who never were associated with a mainstream movement or style. Equally important is that the work and material choices of these Asian-American artists have almost nothing in common with each other. Each rigorously pursued their own trajectory and never attempted to become part of the currents dominating the New York art world at that time.  This refusal to work in an approved style may have been due to the realization that they would always be outsiders or outliers, no matter what they did.

LEO AMINO - BIOGRAPHY

Leo Amino was born in 1911 in the then-Japanese colony of Taiwan, before moving to Tokyo at a young age. Immigrating to the US in 1929 as a 17 year old, he attended San Mateo Junior College in California before crossing the country to New York, where he briefly attended New York University. Amino eventually studied direct carving with Chaim Gross at the American Artist’s School in 1937, stepping onto a national artistic stage through his inclusion alongside Isamu Noguchi at the 1939 World Fair in New York. 1939 also marked the first hostilities of World War II, during which Amino was made to work as a translator for the US Navy, beginning his first forays into plastics shortly after the military declassified polyester resin. Their transparent, malleable qualities inspired his forays into acrylic sculpture, making him one of the earliest artists in the US to work with plastics, a practice he continued through the rest of his life. 

Invited to teach at Black Mountain College by Josef Albers for two summers in 1946 and 1950, Leo Amino flourished as an educator and artist. He was included 13 times over 15 years in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Annual exhibition from 1947 - 1962, and was featured in the decade defining 1950 Carvers-Modelers-Welders at The Museum of Modern Art, as well as the 1951 American Sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Amino went on to teach at the Cooper Union from 1952 to 1977, mentoring generations of artists, including Jack Whitten. He passed away in 1989.

 

MINORU NIIZUMA - BIOGRAPHY

Born 1930 in Tokyo, Japan, Minoru Niizuma immigrated to the United States in the postwar period, following his education at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and his subsequent local success exhibiting with the Modern Art Association in Tokyo. Settling in New York in 1959, Niizuma joined the Brooklyn Museum Art School in 1964 as a teacher, while simultaneously stepping deep into the emerging artistic cluster that came to be affiliated with the term “Minimalism.” Throughout his life, Minoru Niizuma worked in series, mostly focusing on refining and iterating a single form over the course of several years. With his carved stone works, sitting on the edge of symbolic figuration with their distinctive juxtapositions of smooth and rugged texture, Minoru Niizuma was included in shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Guggenheim. Minoru Niizuma also privileged other means of exposing the public to his works, his works prized in both institutional and commercial sculpture gardens. As a result, he began to place works in museum collections including the Hirshhorn Museum, the Guggenheim, SFMOMA and the Museum of Modern Art. 

Following his six years at the Brooklyn Museum, Minoru Niizuma was named an adjunct professor at Columbia University, where he taught from 1972 through 1984. In the early 80’s, he began a pivot that would carry him into the last 20 years of his life and work, when he traveled to Portugal as part of the Evora Symposium. The immense array of marble and stone available in the European nation  brought Minoru Niizuma back time and time again, eventually resulting in a partnership with Portuguese President Mario Soares to build artistic exchange between Portugal and Japan. Minoru Niizuma passed away in 1998. 

JOHN PAI - BIOGRAPHY

John Pai’s childhood was defined by constant migration between places, his parents moving back and forth to South Korea over the course of World War II and the Korean War. Born in Seoul in 1937, Pai immigrated to the U.S. at age 11, though his parents returned to Korea shortly after. He was marked as an artistic talent early on, from his first solo exhibition at age of 15 at the Oglebay Institute in Wheeling, West Virginia, to his rapid rise as the youngest ever professor at the Pratt Institute. 

John Pai ascended to this latter honor in the midst of studying for his MFA in Sculpture at Pratt, just after completing his BFA in Industrial Design there in 1962. Across his undergraduate and graduate work, he simultaneously served as assistant to the Constructivism-adjacent sculptor Theodore Roszak. By 1965, he was named the Undergraduate Chair of Pratt’s Sculpture Department. John Pai proved a talented educator, holding various chair positions at Pratt until 1972, when he shifted into a standard professorship in order to focus on his own artistic practice. While simultaneously nurturing generations of sculptors and fostering the burgeoning Korean artistic community in New York, John Pai found success exhibiting his oftentimes unfolding, geometric sculptures across Korea. He continued to teach at Pratt until 2000. 

Recently, John Pai has shown at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. He resides in Fairfield, Connecticut. 

 

JOHN YAU  - BIOGRAPHY

John Yau is a poet, fiction writer, art critic, publisher, and curator. Known for his attentiveness to visual culture and linguistic surface, he has published widely. His most recent book of poems is Genghis Chan on Drums (Omnidawn, 2021). Recent monographs include Liu Xiaodong (Lund Humphries, 2021), Thomas Nozkowski (Lund Humphries, 2017) and Catherine Murphy (Rizzoli, 2016). In 1999, he founded Black Square Editions, a small press devoted to poetry, fiction, translation, and criticism. His reviews appear regularly in the online journal Hyperallergic. In 2020, he received the Rabkin Prize for his art criticism.

John Yau recently finished a monograph on Joe Brainard, which Rizzoli will publish in the fall of 2022. His next project is a monograph on John Pai for Rizzoli.

TINA KIM GALLERY

525 W 21st Street, New York, NY 10011

www.tinakimgallery.com

Claude & François-Xavier Lalanne @ The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown - Nature Transformed

Claude & François-Xavier Lalanne  

Nature Transformed 

The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown 

May 8 – October 31, 2021 

It has been more than forty years since an American art museum has mounted a presentation of the work of sculptors Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, and the Clark’s exhibition provides a fresh perspective on these innovative artists. Their imaginative and powerful sculptures have long delighted international audiences and collectors. During their remarkable careers, the married artists worked and exhibited together, often under the joint name “Les Lalanne,” although they seldom collaborated on objects.

Common to both artists was their abiding interest in nature. From their earliest exhibition in 1964, entitled Zoophites, a reference to objects with a mixture of animal and plant characteristics, the artists repeatedly drew inspiration from flora and fauna and morphed these natural forms into something strange and new. In her works, Claude Lalanne (1924–2019) transformed familiar plants and animals into lyrical and sometimes surreal creations while François-Xavier Lalanne (1927–2008) turned his fascination with the mysterious inner life of animals into abstracted and refined sculptural forms that often concealed a practical function. In the work of both Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, artistic vision bends natural forms to new uses.

The Clark is the sole venue for this exhibition, which also marks the first museum presentation of the artists’ work since the 2019 death of Claude Lalanne. Nature Transformed features an equal number of objects by each artist from across their long careers, revealing the power of their artistic imagination, their impressive command of technique, and their enduring visual appeal. The works include sculpture and furniture by both artists and a selection of Claude Lalanne’s wildly inventive flatware and jewelry.

Nature Transformed, presented in the Clark’s Michael Conforti Pavilion and in additional outdoor locations, is curated by Kathleen Morris, the Clark’s Sylvia and Leonard Marx Director of Exhibitions and Curator of Decorative Arts. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, published by the Clark and distributed by Yale University Press.

Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne

Nature Transformed

Kathleen M. Morris

A beautifully illustrated, concise critical analysis of the art, careers, 

and reception of the husband-wife team of artists known as 

Les Lalanne François-Xavier (1927–2008)

 and Claude (1925–2019) Lalanne...

July 6, 2021

THE CLARK ART INSTITUTE

225 South Street, Williamstown, MA 01267

www.clarkart.edu