Radical Materiality

Lehmann Maupin presents Radical Materiality, a group exhibition featuring Mary Corse, Liu Wei, and Nari Ward, three artists whose practices push the boundaries of traditional genres and material specificity through innovative experimentation with unconventional mediums. .

Mary Corse’s minimalist paintings are created by incorporating reflective glass microspheres, a process she has developed over the last five decades. Associated with the Light and Space painters of 1960’s California, Corse’s work both embodies and defies this male-dominated movement that focuses on the subjective experience of light and color, and thus, visual perception. Best known for her white paintings, Corse’s application of the paint emphasizes the multi-chromatic visual effect created in the contrast between the glass beads and her textural brushwork. Each visual experience is therefore uniquely dependent on the viewer’s engagement and physical interaction with each painting.

Nari Ward and Liu Wei will each present sculptural works made from found materials selected for their thematic possibilities. Ward’s Scape (2012) is comprised of shoelaces installed directly into the wall in the shape of a fire escape ladder, a signifier of the urban landscape. Shoelaces have become a common medium for Ward, who often uses repurposed, common, or castoff objects as the base of his sculptures. Formally, the shoelaces act as a line, facilitating Ward’s interest in drawing and mark-making. “The laces, for me, are a way of bringing a different kind of movement and intensity into the piece,” Ward says, emphasizing how the non-traditional materials he uses become intimately linked to the narrative content of the finished piece.

Liu Wei’s work often utilizes industrial materials and forms in an abstract manner to offer insights into the complexity of the human condition. His sculptural work repurposes salvaged demolition debris in order to call attention to the accelerated urbanization and construction typical of the artist’s home cityscapes of China. In Exotic Lands No. 21 (2013), Liu Wei repurposes industrial doors in order to highlight the simplistic beauty in basic and typically commercial elements. The artist’s Puzzle series, assemblages of mirrors in overlapping and irregular geometric forms, transforms the original purpose and context of the mirror and ultimately distort the viewer’s perceptual experience.

Together, these three artists demonstrate how the materials used in art production can have aesthetic or formal implications while also providing a narrative framework within their practice.

About the artists:

Mary Corse (b. 1945, Berkeley, California) received her BFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1963, and her MFA from the Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles in 1968. Corse’s work has been included in several group exhibitions at significant institutions, including Venice in Venice, a collateral exhibition curated by Nyehaus in association with the J. Paul Getty Museum at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2011); the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2011); and Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2011). Her works are in the permanent collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Fondation Beyeler, Basel; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and other significant public and private institutions. She lives and works in Los Angeles.

Liu Wei (b. 1972, Beijing, China) graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou, China in 1996. His work has been featured at several significant institutions with recent solo exhibitions at PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2016); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2015); and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2014). Recent group exhibitions include Qatar Museums, Doha (2016); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2016); Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, and San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas (2015); Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2014); The Queens Museum, New York; Long Museum, Shanghai (2014); Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2011); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2010); National Art Museum of China, Beijing (2010); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2010); Long March Space, Beijing (2010); Saatchi Gallery, London (2008); Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm; and Mudam Luxembourg (2008). He has participated in numerous international biennials and triennials, including the 13th Biennale de Lyon (2015); 11th Sharjah Biennial (2013); 4th Gwangju Triennial (2012); Shanghai Biennial (2010); Busan Biennial (2008); Guangzhou Triennial, (2008); and 51st Venice Biennial (2005). His work is included in numerous museum collections at Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway; M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong; and the Rubell Family Collection, Miami, among others. Liu Wei lives and works in Beijing.

Nari Ward (b. 1963, St. Andrew, Jamaica) received his BA from City University of New York, Hunter College, New York in 1991, and his MFA from the City University of New York, Brooklyn College in 1992. Ward’s mid-career survey exhibition, Sun Splashed, is currently on view through August 22, 2016 at The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, after first opening in 2015 at the Perez Art Museum, Miami. His work has been included in several group exhibitions at significant institutions, including Savannah College of Art and Design Museum, Savannah (2015); Louisiana State University Museum of Art, Baton Rouge (2014); Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia (2011); Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams (2011); Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (2002); and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2001, 2000). The artist has participated in a number of biennial exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial (2006); Prospect 1 New Orleans (2008); and Documenta XI, Kassel, Germany (2003). Ward’s work is included in numerous museum collections at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Baltimore Museum of Art; Brooklyn Museum; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, North Carolina; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others. He lives and works in New York City.

Summer hours of Lehmann Maupin
Monday – Friday, 10am – 6pm