For The Art Show 2009, Lehmann Maupin Gallery is pleased to present the work of two artists, Lee Bul and Shirazeh Houshiary, who create intellectually provocative and formally sensuous artwork. On view 19 – 23 February 2009, The Art Show is presented by the Art Dealers Association of America and is located at the Park Avenue Armory at 67th Street in New York City.
Lee Bul's intricate maquette sculptures of glass, crystals, and aluminum will be shown alongside her work with mother of pearl inlay and the meticulous paintings and works on paper by Shirazeh Houshiary. This exhibition explores the relationship between these multidisciplinary artists and their interest in examining the distinction between the viewer and the work itself. Each artist also derives inspiration from her inherited cultural background: Lee Bul's layered narrative of modernity and historical memory emerges from the complex relationship between Korea and Japan in the 20th century, while Shirazeh Houshiary's work physically embodies spiritual concepts with inspiration derived from Sufi doctrines and 13th Century Persian mystics.
Born in Seoul in 1964, Lee Bul has been featured in solo exhibitions at institutions throughout the world including the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris (2007); Domus Artium, Salamanca (2007); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2004); Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow (2003); The Power Plant, Toronto (2002); MAC, Galeries Contemporaines des Musées de Marseille (2002); and the New Museum, New York (2002). Additionally, in 1997, the Museum of Modern Art commissioned the artist to create her signature installation of decomposing fish adorned with sequins for the museum's Projects gallery. Lee Bul has received numerous awards, among them a prize at the 48th Venice Biennale for her contribution to both the Korean Pavilion and the international exhibition in the Arsenale curated by Harald Szeemann (1999). She was also a finalist for the 1998 Hugo Boss Prize. Recently she was commissioned as part of Mobile Art: Chanel Contemporary Art Container and her work was included in Prospect.1 New Orleans in 2008.
Shirazeh Houshiary was born and raised in Iran and moved to London in 1974 to study at Chelsea School of Art. She has had solo exhibitions at SITE Santa Fe (2002); Tate Liverpool (2000); the British Museum, Islamic Gallery, London (1997); the Museum Villa Stuck, Munich (1996); the Camden Arts Centre, London (1993); and the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1989), among others. Houshiary's work was a key component of the exhibition Without Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (2006), and currently, she is receiving critical acclaim for her commission to redesign the East Window at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1994. Houshiary's work may be found in the permanent collections of Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; The British Council Collection, London; and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Prato, Italy.
For more information please visit www.lehmannmaupin.com or contact Stephanie Smith at 212 255 2923 or stephanie@lehmannmaupin.com
