Lehmann Maupin (Booth C13) is participating in the third edition of Frieze New York, with a vibrant, multi-artist booth, showcasing work by Liu Wei, Angel Otero, and Nari Ward. Additionally, the gallery will be debuting work by the newest artist to join Lehmann Maupin, French-Algerian artist Kader Attia.
Linked by a shared use of found materials, as well as an introspective and multifaceted relationship with their respective communities, these four artists explore personal histories in their practices. Lehmann Maupin’s booth will feature a suite of paintings by Otero, a selection of sculptures by Ward, an intimate re-imagination of a traditional musical instrument by Attia, and will be anchored by Liu’s massive Library II-II (2013).
Liu Wei’s transformation of found materials, through a process of re-contextualization and reorganization, continues with his Library sculptures, which are shown in the US for the first time at Frieze New York. Built from piles of reclaimed books, Liu compresses and carves the mass of pages in ways that evoke a sprawling, intricate and eminently changeable metropolis. Echoing the constant state of development and demolition that characterizes the modern city, especially in Liu’s native Beijing, these works question the permanence of societal pillars, both physical and literary. In addition, a group of older works by the artist will also be on view at the booth.
Nari Ward, whose work will feature prominently in the booth, will present a new group of sculptures created from found materials and a selection of collaged panels from the artist's Domino Pitch series, which will be exhibited for the first time. The Domino Pitch works, which Ward has made over the course of more than twenty years, are a nod to his early lineage of drawing which he focused on before developing his sculptural practice. For Ward, dominoes have served as a playful metaphor of change and the passage of time, and have been at the root of the artist's sustained investigation of the physical possibilities of the two-dimensional picture plane. Additionally, Ward will recreate his large wall drawing Knot Endings (2010) comprised entirely of shoestrings embedded directly into the wall.
Angel Otero continues his investigation into the construction of memory in his most recent works. Working with photographic images that he digitizes and obscures, Otero filters imagery through a complex process of abstraction that allows him to also engage in a range of formal concerns. His works convey the contours of history and time through his unique visual vocabulary that is rooted in the material qualities of painting.
Kader Attia, whose work often explores the legacy of Western cultural hegemony and colonialism on non-Western cultures, will present Reenactment (2014). A soldier’s helmet that was used during the Rif war (a 1920-26 conflict in which colonial French forces decimated the Moroccan Berbers in North Africa) is reinvented as an oud, a traditional Arabo-Berber guitar-like instrument. Attia sees the creation of this type of cultural hybrid object as a form of resistance, transforming the power of an artifact of Western aggression into a symbol of freedom. The gallery is also pleased to announce that the artist will present his first solo exhibition at Lehmann Maupin in the fall of 2014.
-Lehmann Maupin
Image: © Liu Wei
Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin
