Upcoming Exhibitions April 2nd through July 10th, 2016

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty (Gallery 1- 11)

We Were Here: Absence of the Figure (Snyder Gallery)

Pacific Project: Yuki Kihara (Project Video Room) Marilyn Minter : biographical info

~Minter was born in 1948 in Shreveport, , and raised in Florida.

~In 1976, she moved to New York after receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree at .

~Throughout the 80’s and early 90’s Minter received some recognition and a lot of criticism for her work, but her career really took off in the late 90’s and 2000s and is now at the pinnacle of success in her career.

~Currently lives in New York City and teaches in the MFA department at the School of Visual Arts .

~ This is her first major museum retrospective exhibition and it spans over 3 decades of work.

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirtyis organized by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. The exhibition is supported by generous Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty grants from Gregory R. Miller & Co., Amy and John Phelan, Jeanne Greenburg/Salon 94, and Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch. The exhibition tour includes Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; MCA Denver; OCMA; and the Brooklyn Museum.

Mirrors

• This section highlights Minter’s early investigations of the world around her—the domestic environment, the artist’s studio, printed mass media. • This section includes her earliest photographic works made 1969 as well as her explorations of photorealism and pop art from the 1980s. • During this period Minter starts to use appropriated images and investigates themes of beauty and the female body that become the central topics of her work for years to come. Coral Ridge Towers (Mom Smoking Extra Long) 1969/1995 Black and white photograph 30 x 40 inches Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Big Girls, 1986 Enamel on canvas 80 x 90 inches (two panels) Collection of Bill Contente, New York

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Appetites

• Looks at the visual representation of food and sex sourced from both cooking and pornographic magazines in order to address our culture’s obsession with visual pleasure and desire • She uses paint to draw out similarities between raw food and bodily fluids. • While the food imagery was well received, her pornographic imagery was considered too risqué for a female painter and faced a firestorm of criticism. • The controversy centered on feminist debates surrounding the exploitation of the female body in pornography versus pleasure and physical arousal produced by sexually graphic imagery made by artists. • As a woman artist making this work, her work is made from a position of criticality, a move to take control of this kind of imagery and make a statement about power and equality. Appetites Series

100 Food Porn, 1989-90 Enamel on Metal 24 x 30 in each Courtesy of Artist , Salon 94, Steve Miller, Hort Family, Johanne C. Miller, Chapel Hill, Sally and John Bugg Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Rouge Baiser 1994 Enamel on metal 48 x 48 in Courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Raw

• Following her work with pornographic imagery Minter turned a critical eye towards blemishes, imperfection and grime through isolated body parts. • In this section Minter re-engages with photography as well as . This shift landed her several commissions from the fashion industry and gave her new material to further explore representations of beauty, glamour, wealth and the desire for perfection. • In fashion photography imperfection –dirt, stubble, pimples, freckles, sweat—are digitally corrected, however Minter takes them as her subject. Soiled, 2000 C-Print 60 x 40 inches Courtesy the artist, Salon 94, New York, and Regen Projects, Los Angeles

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Clip, 2005 Enamel on Metal 30 x 24 in Collection of Gregory R. Miller and Michael Weiner, New York

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Blue Poles, 2007 Enamel on Metal 60 x 72 in Private Collection, Switzerland

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Wet

• This section of the exhibition includes video and photographs as well as that all depict licking, dripping and devouring mouths. • Minter is drawing from artificial super sweet references to candy and soda--orange Crush and Pop Rocks– to draw out the grotesque side of decadence and indulgence. The images are mesmerizing and repulsive at the same time. • The focus on the mouth as site of consumption is Minter’s way of commenting on our seemingly insatiable desire for wealth and glamour. Orange Crush, 2009 Enamel on Metal, 108 x 180 in Private Collection Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Gasp, 2004 C-print 26 ¼ x 39 ¾ in Collection of Anita Sayed, Denver

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Black Orchid, 2012 C-print 86 x 57 in Courtesy of artist, Salon 94, New York, and Regen Projects, Los Angeles

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Pop Rocks, 2009 Enamel on Metal, 108 x 180 in Collection of Danielle and David Ganek Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Wangechi Gold 4, 2009 C-print 60 x 40 inches Courtesy the artist, Salon 94, New York, and Regen Projects, Los Angeles

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Glazed

• This section of the show includes several larger works that appear as though seen through glass and layers of graffiti and steam. • To make these works Minter uses Photoshop to layer multiple images into a composition that she then translates to the two dimensional surface of the picture plane. She uses source images made of of many different photographic details compiled together as a guide for the paintings. • Minter’s paintings take a long time to make and they are made by her along with multiple assistants. • The final layer involves applying enamel paint with a single finger tip. Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Glazed, 2006 Enamel on metal 96 x 60 in Collection of and Nicolas Rohatyn, New York

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Private Eye, 2013 Enamel on Metal 120 x 72 in Courtesy of artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Not in These Shoes, 2013 Enamel on Metal 108 x 162 in Courtesy of artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles

Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Still from Smash, 2014 HD digital video, 7:55 min, Courtesy of the artist, Salon 94, New York, and Regen Projects, Los Angeles Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty

Key Points

• This retrospective covers over three decades of her very productive career, demonstrating the range of work she has produced in different developmental stages.

• Minter always had a keen ability to reproduce imagery, much of her work comes back to that skill.

• Most importantly she is interested in metaphor and paradox.

• Minter uses imagery from fashion and popular culture to address our culture’s relationship to media and celebrity culture as it is tied to obsessions with unrealistic ideals of beauty, wealth and power-- what she has called the “pathology of glamour.”

• Marilyn Minter’s work often include sexuality and erotic imagery as a means of critiquing contemporary culture. She is particularly interested in critiquing the ways in which women’s sexuality is portrayed in the media and believes that women are entitled to sexual pleasure. We Were Here: Absence of the Figure

Featured Artists

Uta Barth Robert Olsen

Stephen Brower Eric Orr

Jedediah Caesar George Stoll

Gianfranco Foschino Amir Zaki

Anthony Hernandez

Jeremy Kidd

Tom LaDuke Robert Olsen Untitled (Gasoline Pump, #3), 2003 Oil on panel 11-1/2 x 8 inches Gift of Gary Mezzatesta

We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Uta Barth

Ground 30, 1994 Ektacolor print on panel 22 x 18 in Gift of Gary and Tracy Mezzatesta

We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Jedediah Caesar Untitled (Helium Brick) 2009 Polystyrene, polyester, pigment, wood 96 x 48 x 48 inches Museum Purchase

We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Gianfranco Foschino Fluxus, 2010 video installation 8 minutes; monitor: 42-1/2 x 25 x 3-1/2 inches Museum purchase

We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Anthony Hernandez

Everything #1 (Tunnel), 2003-2004 Chromogenic print edition 1 of 7 49x48.5 inches Museum purchase with funds provided through prior gift of Lois Outerbridge

We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Jeremy Kidd

Cibadome, 1998 Mounted photograph on topiary 40 x 55 in Gift of Patricia Correia Gallery

We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Tom LaDuke

Ice Age, 2002 Military Enamel, watercolor, aluminum, paint and Sculpey III on aluminum 48 1/8 x 60 1/8 in Gift of Curator’s Circle

We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Eric Orr

MU 5, 1982 Lead panel, gold leaf, bone ash, carbon, blood paint on wood panel 55 ¾ x 44 in Museum purchase with funds provided through prior gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Grant, and Mr. and Mrs. Ted P. Voss

We Were Here: A Selection of Works from the Permanent Collection Amir Zaki

Untitled (Up_UNIV 01), 1999 Laser direct type C print, artist’s proof 1 of 2 48 x 67 ¼ in Museum purchase with additional funds provided by Linda L. and Abbott L. Brown

We Were Here: Absence of the Figure George Stoll

Untitled, 1995 Beeswax, microstalline and pigment 15 x 6 x 10 in Gift of Peter Norton

We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Matthew Booth

Phil M. Leonard, Century City 1988, 2010 Archival pigment print 32x42 inches Anonymous gift

We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Key Points

• This exhibition is a poetic interpretation of the relationship between artworks in the permanent collection and how they can relate to one another visually under a thematic curation.

• We Were Here explores the persistence of the human presence in place and time through contemporary interpretations of landscape, object and environment.

• Most of the artists are still living and reside in Los Angeles.

• The human figure is absent while the selected works trace and document human existence. Yuki Kihara

~Shigeyuki Kihara was born in 1975 in Samoa, half Samoan and half Japanese, she migrated to New Zealand at age 16.

~Kihara identifies herself as a Samoan and as a Fa'afafine. Understood as the 'third gender' in Western interpretation, it’s an accepted part of the Samoan social fabric.

~Kihara immigrated to New Zealand at the age of sixteen to further her studies. She trained in fashion design at Wellington Polytech (now Massey University).

~Yuki is the first New Zealander to hold a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Pacific Project: Yuki Kihara Maui Descending a Staircase II (After Duchamp) 2015 Single channel digital video 6 minutes, 9 seconds Loaned by Milford Galleries, NZ Pacific Project: Yuki Kihara • This piece was found to be unintelligible and criticized at the International Exhibition of Modern Art held at the National Guard 69th Regiment Armory in New York 1913. Americans at the time were used to representational art

• Was ridiculed, parodied (could relate to Yuki Kihara’s experiences and how sexualities are perceived) and labeled “The Rude Descending the Staircase (Rush Hour at the Subway)” and “Explosion in a Shingle Factory” by various newspapers. Rejected by both Cubists and Futurists.

• Duchamp was pleased with the notoriety gained so much so that it encouraged him to move to NY 2 years later • It captured fragments/motion/fluidity (sexual fluidity and concepts of space/time relating to Kihara’s works)

• Cubism/Cubo-Futurism/Abstract Art (Cubism in its general aesthetic and monochromatic nature but Futuristic in its attempt of capturing facets/fragments of time/velocity)

• The motion picture and cinemas were developing around this time. Various artists especially Futurists used the moving image as another tool to further their works Marcel Duchamp Nude Descending a Staircase II • Monochromatic tonality both in Nude Descending and Maui 1912 Descending (though Kihara’s work uses noir aesthetics) Oil on Canvas 57 7/8 x 35 1/8 in Philadelphia Museum of Art Key Points

• Kihara is an interdisciplinary artist whose work engages in a variety of social, political and cultural issues. Often referencing Pacific history, her work explores the varying relationships between gender, race, culture and politics.

• As an adolescent, began identifying with the Samoan space called , “Fa’ afafine” a liminal gender category best translated as a male who identifies as a woman.

• Maui Descending a Staircase II (after Duchamp) draws layers of references from Marcel Duchamp’s "Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2" (1912); both the sequencing of motion and the Samoan colonial experience during the 19th century.

• From a large series Kihara did in 2015 at the Milford Galleries Dunedin called “ A study of a Samoan Savage”; A broad critique of on the representation of the racial steroptype of athleticism and prowess linked to Rugby and American football.

• While Duchamp’s painting alluded to motion photography, linear time and the rise of industry and mechanization in the West, Kihara places Duchamp’s painting within the context of Postcolonial inquiry where Duchamp’s multiple figures in his painting representing a generation of peoples described by Linda Tuhiwai Smith as those in the ‘West whose knowledge and science are ‘beneficiaries’ of the colonization of Indigenous peoples’.