Lehmann Maupin is pleased to announce its inaugural Galleries presentation for the West Bund Art & Design fair (Booth A123). The gallery with locations in New York, Hong Kong, and Seoul will present new and historic works by Kader Attia, Hernan Bas, McArthur Binion, Heidi Bucher, Lee Bul, Teresita Fernández, Gilbert & George, Nicholas Hlobo, Liza Lou, Angel Otero, Tony Oursler, David Salle, Do Ho Suh, and Cecilia Vicuña. On November 8, 2018, as part of West Bund Voice, founder Rachel Lehmann will give a talk at West Bund Art & Design, Hall A, on her private collection highlights and how collecting has shaped her unique vision as a gallerist. Lehmann Maupin artist Hernan Bas will also give a talk on November 8, 2018, at West Bund Art & Design, Hall A.
French-Algerian artist Kader Attia, celebrated for his nuanced exploration of the repercussions and collective trauma, both psychological and physical, of colonialism around the world, will present new sculptural and canvas works. In 2017, Attia was awarded the prestigious Joan Miró Prize for his practice deeply rooted in anthropology, history, and politics. Central to his work is the notion of repair, and how societies address violent or repressive histories in order to heal, as exemplified in his recent solo exhibition at Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Scars remind us that our past is real. The Gwangju Biennale in South Korea prominently features two large commissions by Attia through January 2019, and his solo exhibition at Lehmann Maupin Hong Kong will open November 1, through December 22, 2018.
American-artist McArthur Binion, featured in the last edition of the Venice Biennale, will present a new painting. Over 40 years, Binion has developed a rigorous style that combines collage, drawing, and painting to create autobiographical abstractions, inserting personal references and ephemera into his signature grid format. This complex and laborious method of painting makes his a singular vision from the later half of the 20th century. Binion, an alumnus of the renowned Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, will open a solo exhibition at the Cranbrook Art Museum on November 17, 2018, and his first exhibition at Lehmann Maupin New York will commence in January 2019.
American-artist Hernan Bas will attend West Bund Art & Design, and present a new painting done in his figurative style that harkens back to the opulence and intrigue of 19th century Decadent Era in Europe. Bas often depicts his figures as young men, capturing a period of life change in the transitional moment between boyhood and manhood. Bas’ largest survey exhibition to date is currently on view at CAC Málaga in Spain through December 2018, and he will open a solo exhibition at Lehmann Maupin New York in 2019.
Korean-artist Lee Bul, whom recently closed her critically acclaimed career retrospective at the Hayward Gallery, London that went on to Martin Gropius-Bau, Berlin through January 2019, will present two new multi media paintings. In her most recent series, Lee Bul combines organic and architectural elements on velvet. Using specialized paint that contains fragments of mother of pearl, a living organism itself, Lee Bul roots her otherworldly visions within biology. These natural elements are collaged with Retrofuturistic imagery, exposing the inseparable nature of biotechnology and the augmented human body, as well as the human desire to transcend intellectual, physical, and spiritual limitations.
American-artist David Salle has also created a new painting for this presentation. Regarded as a prominent leader in the return to figurative painting in the 1980s, Salle is known for his colorful and highly energetic paintings, which bring together a diverse and disjunctive set of recognizable and improvised images. Salle helped define and develop the postmodern sensibility that sought to deconstruct any hierarchy between image and meaning and allowed for a fluid dialogue between all of the arts—performance, literature, music, visual art, and media.
Korean-artist Do Ho Suh will show a new installation informed by architecture and his personal experience of living for extensive periods in Korea, New York, and London. Suh is an artist whom can legitimately claim status as a “global citizen,” using this perspective to comment on ideas and issues related to mobility, identity, and displacement. Recently, a monumental sculptural installation depicting a traditional Korean house that appears to have fallen from the sky was commissioned and unveiled in London, and the artist won critical acclaim for his installation commissioned by the Victoria and Albert Museum of London and presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale this year. This summer, Suh had concurrent exhibitions at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., and Towada Art Center, Japan.
In addition to the many new works created by artists for West Bund, Lehmann Maupin will incorporate historic selections by Cecilia Vicuña and Heidi Bucher. Vicuña, a noted poet and painter, had recent solo exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, California, and major presentations at Documenta 14, Kassel and Athens, in 2017. The Chilean artist, now based in New York, is known for her works that draw upon indigenous culture to address contemporary issues. Bucher, a Swiss artist whom passed away in 1993, has a current major retrospective survey at Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, London. In recent years, Bucher has seen increased interest in her works that serve as early predecessors to many living artists today, in which she seamlessly integrated two contemporaneous themes: the architecture of public and private spaces, and issues of femininity and the body.
Together, these and the other artists included in Lehmann Maupin’s inaugural presentation at West Bund Art & Design will showcase the diverse, and internationally relevant artists represented by the gallery, whose work is shaping contemporary culture today.