NYAB Event - Orly Genger “Iron Maiden”

Orly Genger “Iron Maiden”

Larissa Goldston Gallery

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Larissa Goldston Gallery presents Iron Maiden, Orly Genger’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery. Iron Maiden coincides with the May 2 opening of Red, Yellow and Blue, a monumental installation using over 1.4 million feet of rope, in New York’s Madison Square Park.

In a departure from her large-scale rope installations, Iron Maiden is Genger’s first exhibition comprised solely of cast metal sculptures. This body of work continues her interest in the contrast of hard and soft materials, juxtaposing the fluid malleability of rope and wax with the rigidity and immutability of bronze, aluminum, and stainless steel. The sculptures are knotted and molded from rope and other materials in the artist’s studio then cast in a lost-wax process rendering a single unique work.

The sculptures on view conflate the materiality of Genger’s signature climbing rope with cast arms and legs of action figures, reiterating the artist’s interest in body builders and the physicality and muscularity of her knotted sculptures. Aside from her indexical presence in the knots (based on the size of her hand) or fingerprints visible in the cast works, the figure has long been present in Genger’s work, from early collage drawings depicting disembodied super hero limbs to large sculptures and performances including figures being consumed and others breaking free.

Orly Genger was born in New York City in 1979. She received her BA from Brown University in 2001 and attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002. She has since had solo exhibitions or projects at The Aldrich Contemporary Arts Museum, the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and Madison Square Park. Her work has also been included in exhibitions at MASS MoCA and MCA Denver. She was the 2011 recipient of the Rappaport Prize. Genger has been featured in Sculpture Magazine, Art in America, Interior Design, Modern Painters, ArtNews, The Village Voice, The Boston Globe and The New York Times, among others.

[Image: Orly Genger, Untitled, (2012)]