Beverly Semmes “Bow”
Susan Inglett Gallery
[Image: Beverly Semmes "Blue Curtain" (2017) Tulle, 132 x 192 x 12 in. (Detail). Photo credit : Adam Kremer, New York.]
This event has ended.
Susan Inglett Gallery opens the season with “Bow,” a room size fabric and ceramic installation by Beverly Semmes.
Ethereal blue tulle dresses line the gallery walls shoulder to shoulder. Bent or bowed at the waist, attenuated sleeves sweeping the floor, the forms suggest a deflation of breath and anticipated inhalation. Gently disturbed by passing bodies and the breeze, this corporeal curtain is in a constant state of subtle movement. Three imposing ceramic sculptures occupy the center of the space. Constructed from dozens of smaller pots these strange sentries are armed with multiple handles. Inviting and intimidating, the colossi stand with the dresses, alert to some unseen force or presence. Like the title “Bow,” which can be read as an ornament, a curtsy, or a weapon, these works draw meaning from a range of cultural, social, and political contexts. In this exhibition Semmes deepens her longstanding engagement with feminism and the erotics of materiality, exploring the dynamic relation of body to sculptural form.
Semmes was born in Washington, D.C. and lives and works in New York City. A large scale work from 1993, “Blue Gowns,” is on loan from the Rubell Family Collection to “Revival” at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. through mid-September 2017. A recent traveling solo exhibition of Semmes work, “FRP,” organized by Ian Berry, Director of the Tang Museum, debuted at the Tang in 2015 and traveled to the Weatherspoon Art Museum and the Faulconer Gallery at Grinnell College in 2016. Over the course of her career Semmes has had many solo exhibitions, including exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Camden Art Centre, London and the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio. Her work is included in numerous museum collections, including the Albright Knox Art Gallery, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Denver Art Museum, and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. In the spring of 2016 Semmes served as the Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist at Washington University in St. Louis. In the spring of 2017 Semmes was Visiting Professor at Cornell University’s College of Art Architecture and Planning Semester in NYC Program. This is the artist’s third solo exhibition at Susan Inglett Gallery.
Media
Schedule
from September 13, 2017 to October 21, 2017
Opening Reception on 2017-09-13 from 18:00 to 20:00