Beth Lipman “The Ravelled Edge”

Nohra Haime Gallery

This event has ended.

The Ravelled Edge by Beth Lipman is a site-responsive installation for the windows at Nohra Haime Gallery.

The Ravelled Edge reflects on the transitional moment we are in, on the precipice of an existential threat of climate change. It is a commentary on geological time in the evolution of the earth. As we live through the 6th extinction, this exhibition reminds passersby of the entropy that is occurring.

The window is a liminal interior setting yet accessed through the public realm of the street. In a city where windows are almost always commercially utilized, this question of desire or consumption is being negotiated using an artificial construction for wilderness. The exhibition occurs within an architectural space paradoxically proposing the premise of wilderness as seen in the time-lapsed element of living flowers deteriorating. As these flowers wilt over time, their decay contrasts heavily with the immortal glass flora that remains the same. Cultural objects become the surrogate of the Anthropocene. The viewer becomes one with the work as an element of the natural amongst the artificial wilderness.

This installation contemplates the juxtaposition of exterior and interior, domesticity, and wilderness, alluding to the ferocity of this moment of transition. Lipman captures the movement of pedestrians to create a narrative. Glass, clay, wood, metal, and fresh cut flowers invite the viewers into this delicate ecosystem. While there is growth, there is also a dark exploration of decay.

Lipman has received numerous awards including a USA Berman Bloch Fellowship, Pollock Krasner Grant, Virginia Groot Foundation Grant, and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant.

Current exhibitions include “Collective Elegy” now on display at the Museum of Art and Design, (NYC) through January 2, 2022, courtesy of Altura Foundation, and “All in All”, a sculptural response to the life of Abigail Levy Franks at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (AR).

Lipman’s extensive museum exhibitions include Ringling Museum of Art (FL), ICA/MECA (ME), RISD Museum (RI), Milwaukee Art Museum (WI), Gustavsbergs Konsthall (Sweden) and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (DC) and others. Her work has been acquired by numerous museums including the North Carolina Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art (NY), Kemper Museum for Contemporary Art (MO), Smithsonian American Art Museum (DC), Jewish Museum (NY), Norton Museum of Art, (FL), and the Corning Museum of Glass (NY).