June 13–July 19, 2014
Opening: Friday, June 13, 6–8pm
Anne Mosseri-Marlio Galerie
Malzgasse 20
4052 Basel
Switzerland
Hours: Wednesday–Friday 1–6pm,
Saturday 11am–4pm and by appointment,
open Monday, June 16, 10am–1pm
T +41 61 271 7183
mail [at] annemoma.com
Anne Mosseri-Marlio Galerie is very pleased to present the second exhibit featuring works by American artist and curator Michelle Grabner. For the past 20 years, Grabner has been dedicated to identifying, indexing, and transposing patterns and building elemental compositions foundational to the language of abstraction. Found compositions such as radial symmetry, gingham weave, and simple warp-and-weft patterns are the organizing principles that structure her paintings, photographs, weavings, and drawings. The re-articulation of vernacular motifs in Grabner’s work disperses abstraction’s authority into pragmatic and domestic systems of organization while the haptic quality of her work reinforces the monumental thingness of everyday structures.
This exhibition features a new body of photographs that record the shallow depth of fabric. Simple folds or severe cropping of gingham weave becomes the compositional conceit in these images. The shallow space of these photographs open up the topography of surface fibers. The enlarged negative gaps between the fabric’s warp-and-weft weave give monumental physicality to commonplace textiles. Also on display will be a variation on Grabner’s “My Oyster” series. These hanging objects display a selection of her abstract motifs intermixed with various biographical elements including a family portrait taken in Grabner’s garden and a selection of her husband’s abstract sculpture. The “My Oyster” series is an exercise in contextualizing the boredom of repetitious activities with the external forces that shape Grabner’s non-studio life.
Michelle Grabner (b. 1962, Oshkosh, Wisconsin) is based in Chicago and rural Northeast Wisconsin. She is Professor in the Department of Painting and Drawing at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Grabner, along with Stuart Comer and Anthony Elms, co-curated the 2014 Whitney Biennial. In the past two years, she mounted two mid-career surveys: I Work from Home, hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, curated by David Norr (catalog) and The INOVA Survey at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, curated by John Riepenhoff (catalog). In addition to her art practice, she also writes on art. Grabner and her husband Brad Killam run the exhibition space The Poor Farm (Little Wolf, Wisconsin) and the venerated 15 year-old artist space The Suburban (Oak Park, Illinois) featured in the Tate Modern’s ten-year anniversary exhibit No Soul For Sale in 2010. Her works are in the collections of the Walker Art Center, Milwaukee Art Museum, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Daimler Collection, Berlin.
For further information, please contact the gallery at T +41 61 271 7183 or mail [at] annemoma.com.
