The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles Presents Paul McCarthy: Head Space, Drawings 1963–2019

The first comprehensive survey in the United States of drawings and works on paper by the Los Angeles–based artist Paul McCarthy (b. 1945, Salt Lake City), Paul McCarthy: Head Space, Drawings 1963–2019, reveals a rarely examined aspect of the artist’s oeuvre. Produced in thematic cycles, McCarthy’s drawings share the same visual language as the artist’s sculptural and performance works, addressing themes of violence, humor, death, sex, and politics, and featuring extensive art historical and pop-cultural references. By presenting his expansive career of more than five decades through the focused lens of drawing, the exhibition offers a greater understanding of this influential artist and social commentator.

Paul McCarthy: Head Space, Drawings 1963–2019 features 600 works on paper selected from McCarthy’s archive. The works incorporate and utilize a variety of mediums, including charcoal, graphite, ink, marker, and collage, as well as more unorthodox materials such as ketchup and peanut butter. A consummate and accomplished draftsperson, McCarthy approaches his daily drawing practice as a way of thinking—a blueprint for projects and a tool to flesh out complex ideas. Since the 1970s, McCarthy has also incorporated drawing into his performances, implementing it as part of an action and often drawing in character. In recent years, this practice of drawing in character has become central to his large-scale video performance projects, such as WS White Snow (2012–13), CSSC Coach Stage Stage Coach (2017), and NV Night Vater (2019–). In a process McCarthy terms “Life Drawing, Drawing Sessions” the artist and his actors produce drawings in costume among the props and simulacrum of his film sets. These works bring together the materials and crude gestures that have been present in the artist’s work for the greater part of his career.

Paul McCarthy: Head Space, Drawings 1963–2019 will be on view throughout May 10, 2020 at The Hammer Museum 10899 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, CA. photographs courtesy of the gallery

Al Freeman's Cubicle @ 56 Henry NY

Cubicle, an exhibition of new work by Al Freeman, presented at 56 Henry NY. On view in the gallery is a series of wall-hung soft sculptures that represent objects associated with the material culture of corporate offices. Chosen in part for the ubiquity of their presence, the sculptures variously depict a standing water cooler, a yellow internal mail envelope, and a desktop computer monitor, among other objects. Made of stitched pleather forms loosely stuffed with polyester fill, the works enlarge the scale of their referents, replacing rigid structures with sagging forms.

The sculptures also consider the office as a site where oppression, repetition, bad taste, and humor coalesce. A miniature basketball hoop attached to a garbage can suggests an aging fraternity brother advertising his glory days to the chagrin of his coworkers. A computer monitor features the recognizable layout of the Pornhub website, and the shattered screen of a rose gold iPhone supports four lines of cocaine, suggesting the presence of illicit activities in a shared public space. Highlighting the continuities between fraternity culture and corporate politics, the exhibition mines the genre of office pranks—not dissimilar from fraternity hazing rituals—and features one of these practical jokes, which can be viewed upon request.

Cubicles is on view through Dec 22, 2019 at 56 Henry 56 Henry St. NY. photographs courtesy of 56 Henry

Opening Of Torbjørn Rødland's Backlit Rainbow @ David Kordansky Gallery In Los Angeles

Backlit Rainbow marks Torbjørn Rødland's first solo exhibition with David Kordansky Gallery. The exhibition features an installation of new medium- and large-scale color photographs, as well as the U.S. debut of Between Fork and Ladder, the artist’s first moving-image work in more than a decade.

Over the last twenty years, the Norwegian-born, Los Angeles-based photographer has produced a body of work remarkable for its cultural reach, its awareness of photographic history and technique, and its ability to press up against psychological, moral, and philosophical boundaries. Rødland’s images pointedly address their viewers and evoke a wide range of contradictory emotional and intellectual states. Curiosity, humor, pathos, criticality, artifice, reverence for the natural world, and romanticism appear throughout his work and often in the same photograph.

Autre is also pleased to announce that Rødland's work is featured on the cover of our spring 2018 issue, featuring a double interview of the photographer by both legendary art critic and Serpentine Galleries' director, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Autre editor, Oliver Maxwell Kupper. Click here to order your copy while supplies last! Backlit Rainbow will be on view through July 7, 2018 at David Kordansky Gallery 5130 W. Edgewood Place Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Kupper