Fall 2017 program

This fall, The Contemporary Austin features solo exhibitions by John Bock, Ryan Gander, Wangechi Mutu, and Carol Bove at its two locations—the Jones Center, 700 Congress Avenue in downtown Austin and the fourteen-acre sculpture park lakeside in West Austin at Laguna Gloria, 3809 West 35th Street.

Through January 14, 2018 at the Jones Center
John Bock’s Dead + Juicy centers around a newly commissioned film shot in and around Austin, Texas. Labeled an “uncanny musical” by Bock (German, born 1965 in Gribbohm and based in Berlin), the film blends classic westerns and dark comedy with thriller and horror aesthetics in a loose narrative propelled by disturbing combinations of viscous materials and unexpected objects, from Q-tips and second-hand furniture to human hair and a taxidermied rat. The film is accompanied by an exhibition of reconfigured assemblages and sculptures created for the film, reconstructed in stage-like environments.

Wangechi Mutu brings together new and existing work by the artist (Kenyan, born 1972 in Nairobi, lives and works between New York and Nairobi), including a site-specific edition of Throw, 2017 (2016), an action painting generated by a performance in which Mutu walked to The Contemporary through the streets of Austin carrying a heavy basket of wet, black viscous substance. Once at the museum she threw this substance against a wall, creating a composition that will dry, harden, and degrade over time. Also on view are the three-channel digital animation The End of carrying All, 2015; and many works not yet seen in a museum setting, including a large-scale strings of Prayer Beads, 2016–2017; a series of mysteriously anthropomorphic sculptures, Heeler I-XIX, 2016; and other works that combine dirt, sticks, rocks, paper pulp, cow horns, and other materials—many drawn directly from the landscape of the artist’s native country of Kenya.

Ongoing at Laguna Gloria
Wangechi Mutu is complemented by a rare example of an outdoor sculpture by the artist. The bronze, figurative Water Woman, 2017, is situated at the water’s edge in the museum’s sculpture park and appears both ethereal and entirely at home in this locale.

The sculpture park also presents The day to day accumulation of hope, failure and ecstasy, including three newly commissioned sculptures by Ryan Gander (British, born 1976 in Chester, England). Inspired by small brass key chains created for a performance by Gander titled Earnest Hawker in 2015, the three bronze sculptures are oversized renditions suspended overhead from trees on the site. The zenith of your career (The Last Degas) continues the artist’s exploration of Edgar Degas’s iconic bronze dancers; A bright spark in a dim world (Panopticon Art School and Museum) takes the labyrinthine form of an 18th century model for a prison, imagining it as an ideal architectural model for a combined art school and museum; and the mysteriously stepped An institutional maze (Steptrapode) is based on concrete erosion defense structures, common on the coast of Wales near Gander’s birthplace.

Opening November 18, 2017 at Laguna Gloria
Finally, The Contemporary Austin will present its first, entirely outdoor exhibition at the sculpture park at Laguna Gloria. Carol Bove (American, born 1971 in Geneva, Switzerland) will include new and recent sculptures arranged throughout a grassy meadow on the grounds. With large-scale steel assemblages of new and found elements, Bove reinvents the classic sculpture garden through abstract forms inspired by industrial materials and landscapes. The exhibition is anchored by From the Sun to Zurich, 2016, a white, spray-painted steel tube sculpture the artist refers to as a “glyph,” suggesting a universal spiral or an ancient hieroglyphic language.

The Contemporary Austin
Austin’s only museum solely focused on contemporary artists and their work, The Contemporary Austin offers exhibitions, educational opportunities, and events that start conversations and fuel the city’s creative spirit. Known for artist-centric projects and collaborations, The Contemporary invites exploration in both its urban and natural settings—downtown at the Jones Center on Congress Avenue, lakeside at the Laguna Gloria campus, and around Austin through the Museum Without Walls program.

*(1) John Bock, Dead + Juicy (still), 2017. HD video, sound. Commissioned by The Contemporary Austin for the exhibition John Bock: Dead + Juicy, 2017. Artwork © John Bock. Courtesy the artist; Anton Kern Gallery, New York; and Regen Projects, Los Angeles. Photo: David Schultz. (2) Wangechi Mutu, This second Dreamer, 2017. Patinated bronze and wood, 8 1/2 x 14 3/4 x 16 1/4 inches. Edition of 3, 2 AP. Collection of the Linda Pace Foundation, San Antonio, Texas. Artwork © Wangechi Mutu. Image courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels. Photo: David Regen. (3) Wangechi Mutu, Water Woman, 2017. Bronze, 36 x 65 x 70 inches. Edition 2 of 3, with 2 AP. Installation view, The Contemporary Austin – Laguna Gloria, Austin, Texas, 2017. Artwork © Wangechi Mutu. Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels. Image courtesy The Contemporary Austin. Photo: Brian Fitzsimmons. (4) Ryan Gander, The day to day accumulation of hope, failure and ecstasy — A bright spark in a dim world (Panopticon Art School and Museum), 2017. Bronze and stainless steel, 83 x 45 x 30 inches. Commissioned by The Contemporary Austin with funds provided by the Edward and Betty Marcus Foundation. Installation view, The Contemporary Austin – Laguna Gloria, Austin, Texas, 2017. Artwork © Ryan Gander. Courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery, London / New York. Image courtesy The Contemporary Austin. Photo: Brian Fitzsimmons. (5) Carol Bove, From the Sun to Zurich, 2016. Stainless steel and urethane paint. 93 3/4 x 199 1/8 x 87 1/8 inches. Artwork © Carol Bove. Courtesy the artist, Maccarone New York/Los Angeles, and David Zwirner New York/London.