MICHELLE GRABNER:
Paintings and Sculptures
Season Opening
Friday, September 1, 2017, 5 – 9 PM
Exhibition
September 2 – October 27, 2017
Michelle Grabner
(b. 1962) has been painting and working with paper for decades using various
themes, patterns and materials. Recently, she has expanded her practice to
include working with bronze by recycling her source materials to create
intricate repeating patterns. For her third exhibition with the gallery, she
presents paintings and sculptures that have weight, texture and undercurrents
of mathematics, economics, environmental and social concerns.
Patterns are
based on mathematical sequences that repeat themselves. Whether created by
humans, nature or machines, patterns can be observed in our behavior, woven
materials, the environment, music… Our daily routine is a series of patterns:
domestic, family and professional responsibilities, education, hobbies,
budgets, and everything that comprises our lives. Today’s hobbies of knitting
and crocheting originated from the necessity to clothe ourselves and keep warm.
The blankets and afghans created were initially bright, taut, comforting and
cared for items. They became smoother and looser with use until we outgrew
them. Our consumption and style-oriented culture deemed home-made material and
pattern change necessary to reflect economical and politics goals as well as
the pursuit of fashion. Grabner found another use for well used hand-made
knitted items: abstract-based patterns for her paintings and most recently,
bronze sculptures which are being exhibited for the first time in Europe.
Abstraction and
the ability to transpose and compose have always been strengths of Michelle
Grabner. Once used as a stencil for paintings and covered by paint, these
blankets are dipped in wax and suspended before being cast in plaster moulds
which are eventually cast in bronze using the lost wax technique. The drips and
irregular gravity related shapes result from the process and add to the
evolving patterns. A recycling economy is created from blanket to painting,
sculpture mould to sculpture. Ecological, economical, entrepreneurial as well
as artistic expression and communication are her domain.
Mutations are
common in a career. Grabner’s is multifaceted and simultaneous as it includes
her own art practice, teaching, curating, writing, being a spouse, mother and
great friend. None has the upper hand, all are important and thriving in their
own cross-fertilizing ways. Seeing the radial symmetry of her metal-point works
evolve to burlap based paintings and then to gingham photos and painting, I
wonder where her ability to see mathematical and other patterns will take her
to next.
Michelle Grabner
holds an M.F.A. in Art Theory and Practice as well an M.A. in Art History. She
and her husband artist Brad Killam run The Suburban and The Poor Farm in
Wisconsin. She has co-curated the 2014 Whitney Biennial, the 2016 Portland
Biennial and she and
Jens Hoffmann are Co-Artistic Directors of FRONT, an international exhibition
in Cleveland, OH that will open in summer 2018. Her paintings and sculptures are in the collections
various museums including the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College,
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Milwaukee Art Museum, Museum of
Contemporary Art, Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Smithsonian American
Art Museum, Washington DC, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Daimler
Contemporary, Berlin, MUDAM – Musée d’Art Moderne, Luxemburg, Victoria and
Albert Museum, London, and private collections in the United States and various
European countries. Her writings are regularly published in ArtForum. Michelle Grabner is the Crown
Family Professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
