MARC STRAUS is pleased to present LINE & FORM, curated by Tim Hawkinson and Marc Arranaga and featuring Jarrod Beck, Bettina Blohm, Ann Hamilton, Lisa Hoke, Shirazeh Houshiary, Mark Manders, Agnes Martin, Claes Oldenburg, Raquel Rabinovich, Bruce Robbins.
This exhibition emphasizes the breath of variation possible when artists reduce their work to the most basic formal elements to highlight power and elegance of ostensible simplicity. A stringent economy of line and form take precedence and the works assembled are seen in juxtaposition to the minimal and elegiac sculpture of Jong Oh, whose one-person exhibition is simultaneously on display.
Soft Screw (1975), a rubber sculpture by Claes Oldenburg, is exactly as its title suggests; by changing the scale and consistency of an everyday object the work focuses attention on the beauty of an overlooked form. Lisa Hoke uses only wires and a metal ring with suspended metal weights, challenging the way we experience commonplace materials. In the simplest of gestures Ann Hamilton erases words in a small book, radically transforming a slice of the quotidian into something that forces a pause and reflection. Mark Mander’s Figure with Iron Ruler (2004) includes a forlorn figure emboldened by a suspended string structure.
The earliest works included are paintings from the 60’s and 70’s by Raquel Rabinovich, whose long career began in Argentina and has since been a journey of uncovering the elemental in our environment. Over the years she has developed numerous site specific river installations with rocks and mud. Shirazeh Houshiary’s Surfi-based practice involved making thousands of marks on a simple canvas. Bruce Robbins excavated the history of his own paintings by scorning into the painted surface with lined that reveal under layers. Bettina Blohm and Jarrod Beck investigate the forms of the natural world drawing inspiration from observations of landscape to make free-hand lines reminiscent, perhaps, of ancient calligraphy.