Nasher Sculpture Center announces  spring lineup for 360 Speaker Series

Nasher Sculpture Center Announces Spring Speaker Lineup for 360: Artists, Critics, Curators

The Nasher Sculpture Center is pleased to announce the spring line-up for the 2013 Nasher lecture series, 360: Artists, Critics, Curators, which brings art world speakers to the Nasher for conversations about the ever-expanding definition of sculpture and the thought-processes behind innovative contemporary artwork, architecture and design.

Lectures are free with museum admission: $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5 for students, and free for Members. Seating is limited, so reservations are requested. Immediately following the presentation, guests will enjoy a wine reception with RSVP. For information and reservations, email [email protected] or call 214.242.5159. Updates and information are available at www.NasherSculptureCenter.org/360.

Monthly Lectures:

Heather Cook, Artist

Saturday, March 16: 2 pm

Heather Cook transforms simple materials like denim and cotton jersey into illusionistic, topographic surfaces that occupy a space between painting and sculpture.  Cook’s subtle manipulations of fabric using bleach, creases and silkscreen yield compelling objects that flow over wall and floor, evoking both classical drapery and of-the-moment Los Angeles culture.

Born in Dallas, TX, Cook received her BFA in 2002 from the University of Texas at Austin and earned an MFA in 2007 from Art Center College of Design. In 2011, Cook was the subject of a two-person exhibition with Nathan Hylden at Volker Bradtke, Dusseldorf. Cook's work has more recently been featured in Crossing Mirrors, Rosenblum Collection, Paris and American Exuberance, Rubell Family Collection. Miami. Other group exhibitions include Gruppenausstellung 2, Max Hans Daniel Gallery, Berlin; Heather Cook, Alex Olson, R.H. Quaytman, Ry Rocklen, Gedi Sibony, Rental, New York; Abstract Abstract, Foxy Production, New York; and Samedi/Samedi, Galerie Art:Concept, Paris. Cook had her first solo exhibition at David Kordansky Gallery in 2011. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles. 

Matthew Collings, Writer, Artist, Curator

Thursday, March 21: 7 pm

Matthew Collings is an English writer-critic/artist/curator/television presenter. He authored This is Modern Art and Blimey among other books, and is widely recognized for his televised series, the hugely popular This is Civilisation, as well as many other outstanding documentaries about art for the BBC and Channel 4. He writes a regular column for ArtReview.

Matthew Collings is presented in conjunction with Fort Worth Contemporary Arts. 

Nathan Mabry, Artist

Saturday, April 13: 2 pm

Los Angeles-based artist Nathan Mabry has quickly established himself as a powerful young voice on the West Coast art scene with an impressive and critically acclaimed body of work that primarily includes sculpture and work on paper. Formally trained as a ceramicist, Mabry’s large-scale sculptures are cast from clay models and found objects.

Drawing inspiration from a variety of sources including archaeology, Dadaism, surrealism and minimalism, Mabry purposefully embraces different stylistic associations and makes references across the art historical timeline; in his own words, he “crashes” multiple aesthetics together. In Mabry’s work, we are reminded that there are universal themes throughout visual history, the mythology of sex and religion prominent among them. Retroactively, societies have assigned a level of ritualistic import to artifacts; by surviving the passage of time, yesterday’s quotidian objects become today’s precious artifacts. Mabry co-opts these sacred relics for use in his work, but his deft and esoteric wit–often seen in the puns and idioms found in his titles–deflates their piousness. Mabry’s practice, in its exploration of how objects function within the collective conscious, centers on a desire to create works that fully engage with the nuances and complexities of contemporary society.

As part of the ongoing Sightings series, the Nasher Sculpture Center has asked Mabry to install works in the garden. For Sightings, Mabry will create a new sculpture based on an ancient Jalisco figure in the Nasher Collection for the outdoor terrace, as well as install his group of six figures based on Rodin’s Burghers of Calais, titled Process Art (B-E-A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E) – never before shown in the United States – outside on the steps of the Terraced Garden.

Liz Larner, Artist

Saturday, May 18: 2 pm

Liz Larner’s work navigates the vast and still unexplored possibilities of sculpture’s formal language, which she uses to structure a discourse that is distinctly her own. Made to be approached and reflected upon, Larner’s work requires a negotiation of space and encourages viewers to extend their perceptions beyond the visual. Larner reminds viewers that it is as important to revere one’s embodied condition and the complex experience of the physical, as it is to embrace the conceptual pleasure of comprehending the spirit of emotion through sensate perception.

Larner’s work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions throughout Europe and the United States. Survey exhibitions of her work have been held at the Kunsthaus Graz, Austria (2006); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2001); the MAK, Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna (1998); and the Kunsthalle Basel, Basel (1997). Monographs have been published by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the MAK Austrian Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, and The Kunsthalle Basel in Switzerland.  Awards include the Pacific Design Center Stars of Design Award (2005); Lucelia Artist Award by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C. (2002); Anonymous Was a Woman Award (2000); and the Guggenheim Fellowship (1999). 

Liz Larner lives and works in Los Angeles. 

360: Artists, Critics, Curators Speaker Series is supported in part by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs. Media sponsor is Glasstire.

Nasher Sculpture Center
2001 Flora Street
Dallas, Texas 75201
214.242.5100
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