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OFF THE WALL

January 16 – February 20, 2009

OFF THE WALL, Van de Weghe Fine Art

OFF THE WALL, Van de Weghe Fine Art
January 17 - February 21, 2009, Installation view

OFF THE WALL, Van de Weghe Fine Art

OFF THE WALL, Van de Weghe Fine Art
January 17 - February 21, 2009, Installation view

OFF THE WALL, Van de Weghe Fine Art

OFF THE WALL, Van de Weghe Fine Art
January 17 - February 21, 2009, Installation view

OFF THE WALL, Van de Weghe Fine Art

OFF THE WALL, Van de Weghe Fine Art
January 17 - February 21, 2009, Installation view

Press Release

Van de Weghe Fine Art is pleased to present Off the Wall, an exhibition of sculptures by thirteen artists that address the structure of the gallery wall in a variety of ways: it is referenced obliquely, used as a physical support, and incorporated as a compositional element. Carl Andre’s 3rd Copper Square, 2007, embodies the artist’s continued use of the floor as exhibition space. Andre rejects the vertical support of the wall in favor of gravity and its stabilizing influence, while Alexander Calder uses it to much different ends, setting the forms and colors of Modern painting into motion in his mobile Untitled, 1938. Mathieu Mercier’s Plastic Anchors Wall, 2002, embeds similarly colored anchors into the gallery’s wall so that the piece does not so much sit on the wall as within it. The elements of Sam Durant’s Scrap Recycling Project With American Ingenuity, 1995, lean against the wall, which becomes a subtle backdrop for a landscape of sorts. Michael Joo’s two sculptures, each Untitled, 2003, treat the wall as a fantastical, permeable surface or ghostly portal, while Tom Friedman’s small hairy sculpture, Untitled, 1999, uses the wall to imply terrain on which something lives and crawls. Friedman’s obsessive sensibility is also demonstrated in a second work, Untitled, 2000 - a perfectly round “spot” on the floor comprised of loose eraser shavings. Donald Judd’s wall-mounted, stainless steel and Plexiglas construction, Untitled, 1966, utilizes the vocabulary of architecture while remaining distinct from it, confronting the viewer at eye level. Sara Sze’s Folded Chair, 2000, becomes part of the wall, which is used as a compositional element distorting and supporting the work. Jim Lambie’s Grand Funk, 2004 makes use of the ceiling as exhibition platform, from which a disco-ball-like form is mounted, and reflects shards of light on to the surrounding walls. Franz West’s Untitled, 2008, challenges the notions of both painting and the finished sculpture. Blair Thurman’s coiled painting, Moonage Daydream, 2007, is inspired by old Hot Wheels tracks and appears to be something between a ski jump and a film strip about the moon. Steven Parrino’s Glam Racket, 1997, a voluminous, amalgam of six large, silverpainted canvases, is crumpled and taped into a mass that rests on the floor. Sara Greenberger Rafferty’s piece, Splat!, 2005, reminds us that the exhibition space is not only a support and enclosure for artworks, but a stage on which artist, artwork and audience all perform. The gallery will host a reception Saturday, January 17, from 6:00 – 8:00 pm. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 10:00am – 6:00 pm, and by appointment. For further information, please contact the gallery.