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8.08.2012

Color: Field and Form, Part 7

Part 1: Truitt, Appleby, Jackson, Shils, Donaldson
Part 2: Estrada-Vega, Johnston, Korman, Gimblett   

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Sheila Hicks, La Clef, 1988, rubber bands and metal key, 9.5 x 6 inches

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Sheila Hicks has been at it for over 50 years, Fabienne Lasserre for less than half that. Yet both artists create work that occupies a broad swath of territory embracing sculpture, painting and drawing. Color and materiality are integral to their work. Both are wrapping an armature with thread or fabric to create linear structures, and both are working in ways that are formally precise yet imprecisely provisional. Generally speaking, where Hicks amasses, Lasserre creates negative space. While Hicks has been known as a "fiber artist" for much of her career, Lasserre, known as a sculptor, has to my eye a distinct textile sensibility. Perhaps not surprisingly, both were in a previous show together at Sikkema Jenkins, but here they have shown separately: Hicks again at Sikkema Jenkins, Lasserre at Jeff Bailey Gallery.
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Sheila Hicks
Sikkema Jenkins, April 20 - May 25
Oracle from Constantinople,  2008-10, linen, 96 x 68 x 10 inches
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Detail below
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Installation with minimes, a selection of small weavings
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Hicks has made the minimes throughout her career as a form of drawing. Most are executed quickly on a small frame loom that she carries with her. She uses found or non-precious materials, yet as a body of work they are fabulously rich,  evocative of a life lived here and abroad for almost eight decades. A selection is below.
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Demenageur, 2008, app 9 x 8 inches within the frame
Image from the gallery website
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These two images are of work roughly the same size as above. I photographed them in situ. There is no information about them on the gallery site, but I can tell you that the work above is of leaf strips woven with silk or linen thread; the work below is likely of linen and silk threads that are woven and wrapped. The wrapping brings us to the work of Fabienne Lasserre in the next section
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Fabienne Lasserre in Pitch
(A group show with Lonnie Holley and Halsey Rodman)
Jeff Bailey Gallery, March 23 - April 28
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Fabienne Lasserre, Incomplete (Act), 2011; acrylic, ceramic, steel, 39.5 x 74 x 29 inches
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Installation view with work by Halsey Rodman (left wall and center) and Lonnie Holley (right pedestal and far right wall)
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Additional view of Lasserre's Incomplete (Act)
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On wall above and below:
Pitchable 15, 2012; linen, acrylic, wire, enamel on panel; 24 x 17.5 x 11 inches
Image from the gallery website .


Do (2), 2011; polymer, ceramic, steel, 38 x 36 x 11 inches
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Closer view below
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See more on Sheila Hicks here,  here, and here.
See more on Pitch here.
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7 comments:

Tamar said...

Aaah. I found the Sheila Hicks exhibit enormously engaging, and went to see it several times. I desperately wanted to add to the visual feast by touching the work, but alas had to imagine that sensation. Thanks for reminding me of that wonderful exhibit.

annell4 said...

Beautiful!

Kim Matthews said...

Lots of Hesse influence in the latter's work."Pitchable" certainly evokes "Hang Up." Thanks for posting!

bonny leibowitz said...

wonderful! thank you for posting!

Nancy Natale said...

Thanks for posting works from these two artists together, Joanne. It's interesting to see the different approaches - the emphasis on positive and negative space in the work. Those small pieces from Hicks are very inviting and sort of maquette-like. I could also invision Lasserre's work at a much larger scale - that is, same size elements but continuing for greater distances and more convolutions.

Krista Svalbonas said...

Loved this series of posts and your curation of artists. I'm hoping for a part deux at some point.

Ruth Andre said...

Wonderful exhibit. I love the woven works.