Hugo Boss Prize Exhibition Featuring New Works by Anicka Yi Opens on April 21

Exhibition: The Hugo Boss Prize 2016: Anicka Yi, Life Is Cheap Venue: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York Location: Tower Level 5 Dates: April 21–July 5, 2017

(NEW YORK, NY, April 20, 2017)—From April 21 to July 5, 2017, an exhibition of new works by artist Anicka Yi, winner of the 2016 Hugo Boss Prize, will be on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Interweaving Yi’s ongoing study of microorganic forms, data collection, and sensory perception, this exhibition presents a densely layered examination of the intersecting systems— biological, social, political, and technological—that define our lives. Yi is the 11th artist to receive the biennial prize, which was established in 1996 to recognize significant achievement in contemporary art and which recently marked its 20th anniversary.

The Hugo Boss Prize 2016: Anicka Yi, Life Is Cheap is organized by Katherine Brinson, Curator, Contemporary Art, and Susan Thompson, Assistant Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Drawing on scientific concepts and techniques to activate vivid fictional scenarios, Yi’s installations ask incisive questions about human psychology and the workings of society. Yi uses unconventional materials to examine what she calls “a biopolitics of the senses,” or how assumptions and anxieties related to gender, race, and class shape physical perception.

For this exhibition, Yi worked with a team of molecular biologists and forensic chemists to create an installation in which natural and technological forces appear as surging, unruly forms that are nonetheless clinically contained. Visitors first pass through an entryway, or “holding pen,” where canisters emit a scent conceived by the artist. Yi has consistently sought to generate a sensory immersion that goes beyond visual experience, with an emphasis on smell and its potent link to memory and subjectivity. This aroma, titled Immigrant Caucus, combines chemical compounds derived from Asian American women and carpenter ants. Yi posits the scent as a drug that manipulates perception, offering humans the potential to experience the installation with a new, hybridized perspective.

The gallery’s central space features two opposing dioramas, each providing a view into a self-contained biosphere. The first, titled Force Majeure, is lined with tiles that hold a gelatinous substance called agar, on which the artist has cultivated various strains of bacteria sampled from sites within Manhattan’s Chinatown and Koreatown neighborhoods. This living composition also blooms across several sculptures inside the diorama, as if an invasive life force has overrun the environment. At the far end of the gallery, a second diorama, Lifestyle Wars, houses a colony of ants—insects that interest Yi because of their intricate division of labor and matriarchal social structure, as well as the sophisticated olfactory system that guides their behavior. The ants navigate a network of pathways that are reflected infinitely across mirrored surfaces, evoking a massive data-processing unit in which their industrious movement embodies the flow of information. The colony is exposed to the same hybrid scent that fills the entry corridor, creating the possibility of a shared psychic experience between ant and human.

Last October, Yi was selected as the winner of the 2016 Hugo Boss Prize from a short list of six finalists that included Tania Bruguera, Mark Leckey, Ralph Lemon, Laura Owens, and Wael Shawky. The 2016 jury comprised of Katherine Brinson; Dan Byers, Mannion Family Senior Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston; Elena Filipovic, Director and Chief Curator, Kunsthalle Basel; Michelle Kuo, Editor in Chief, Artforum International; and Pablo León de la Barra, Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator, Latin America, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The jury described their decision in a statement: “In recognition of the milestone 20th anniversary marked by this year’s prize, we carefully considered the spirit of the project over the past two decades and the innovatory achievements represented by the list of past recipients. In selecting Anicka Yi as the winner from an exceptionally strong group of nominated artists, we wish to highlight the singularity of her vision and the generative new possibilities for artistic production offered by her practice. We are particularly compelled by the way Yi’s sculptures and installations make public and strange, and thus newly addressable, our deeply subjective corporeal realities. We also admire the unique embrace of discomfort in her experiments with technology, science, and the plant and animal worlds, all of which push at the limits of perceptual experience in the ‘visual’ arts.”

This exhibition is made possible by HUGO BOSS.

Force Majeure and Lifestyle Wars were developed in consultation with Frank A. Cusimano, Harris Wang Lab, Ph.D. candidate in nutritional and metabolic biology, Columbia University, New York; M. Hunter Giese, Wayne Hendrickson Lab, Filippo Mancia Lab adjunct member, Ph.D. student in physiology and cellular biophysics, Columbia University, New York; and Ross McBee, Virginia Cornish Lab, Harris Wang Lab, Ph.D. candidate in biological sciences, Columbia University, New York.

The scent component of Immigrant Caucus was developed in consultation with Barnabé Fillion, Paris; Veronique Nyberg, MANE, Paris; Sean Raspet, Air Variable, Los Angeles; and Dr. Kenneth G. Furton, Ph.D., Provost and Executive Vice President, Florida International University, Miami.

Research for this exhibition has been supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (Grant T32HL120826).

Public Programs Mind’s Eye: The Hugo Boss Prize 2016: Anicka Yi, Life Is Cheap Wednesday, May 10, 2 pm Explore the exhibition with a gallery tour and workshop for visitors who are blind or have low vision. Mind’s Eye tours and workshops are conducted by arts and education professionals through verbal descriptions, conversations, sensory experiences, and creative practices.

Free with an RSVP, required one week before the program date. For more information, visit guggenheim.org/mindseye.

Conversations with Contemporary Artists: An Evening with Anicka Yi Tuesday, June 27, 6:30 pm Anicka Yi joins a panel of interlocutors including art historian Caroline A. Jones and author Jeff VanderMeer. The panelists reflect on topics of shared interest, including “biofiction,” technology, and politics, in an interdisciplinary discussion organized in conjunction with The Hugo Boss Prize 2016: Anicka Yi, Life Is Cheap. Audience members are invited to enjoy the museum’s extended hours following the program.

$15, $10 members, students free with RSVP. For more information, visit guggenheim.org/calendar. This program is part of the Elaine Terner Cooper Education Fund Conversations with Contemporary Artists series.

Hugo Boss Prize History The Hugo Boss Prize 2016 marks the 11th presentation of the award at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Since its inception in 1996, the prize has been awarded to American artist Matthew Barney (1996), Scottish artist Douglas Gordon (1998), Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrč (2000), French artist Pierre Huyghe (2002), Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija (2004), British artist Tacita Dean (2006), Palestinian artist Emily Jacir (2008), German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann (2010), Danish artist Danh Vo (2012), and American artist Paul Chan (2014). Previous finalists have included Laurie Anderson, Janine Antoni, Cai Guo-Qiang, Stan Douglas, and Yasumasa Morimura in 1996; Huang Yong Ping, William Kentridge, Lee Bul, Pipilotti Rist, and Lorna Simpson in 1998; Vito Acconci, Maurizio Cattelan, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, Tom Friedman, Barry Le Va, and Tunga in 2000; Francis Alÿs, Olafur Eliasson, Hachiya Kazuhiko, Koo Jeong-a, and Anri Sala in 2002; Franz Ackermann, Rivane Neuenschwander, Jeroen de Rijke and Willem de Rooij, Simon Starling, and Yang Fudong in 2004; Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, John Bock, Damián Ortega, Aïda Ruilova, and Tino Sehgal in 2006; Christoph Büchel, Patty Chang, Sam Durant, Joachim Koester, and Roman Signer in 2008; Cao Fei, Roman Ondák, Walid Raad, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul in 2010; Trisha Donnelly, Rashid Johnson, Qiu Zhijie, Monika Sosnowska, and Tris Vonna-Michell in 2012; and Sheela Gowda, Camille Henrot, Hassan Khan, and Charline von Heyl in 2014. A timeline and a video on the history the Hugo Boss Prize, as well as an archive of past prize catalogues, are available at guggenheim.org/hugobossprize.

Publication In conjunction with the Hugo Boss Prize 2016, the Guggenheim published a catalogue featuring projects by each of the nominated artists and newly commissioned critical essays illuminating their practices. The catalogue includes texts by Clare Davies, Tim Griffin, Anthony Huberman, Caroline A. Jones, Alex Kitnick, and Lucía Sanromán, along with an introduction by Brinson and Thompson. The volume also contains a special commemorative section devoted to the Prize’s 20-year history with texts by Thompson. Designed by Frith Kerr and Ben Prescott of the London-based firm Studio Frith, the catalogue is available for $40 at the Guggenheim Store or online at guggenheimstore.org.

About HUGO BOSS AG Since 1995 HUGO BOSS has provided critical support to many Guggenheim programs. In addition to the Hugo Boss Prize, the company has helped make possible retrospectives of the work of Matthew Barney (2003), Georg Baselitz (1995), Ross Bleckner (1995), Francesco Clemente (1999–2000), Ellsworth Kelly (1996–97), Robert Rauschenberg (1997–98), and James Rosenquist (2003–04); the presentation Art in America: Now (2007) in Shanghai; the Felix Gonzalez-Torres (2007) and Ed Ruscha (2005) exhibitions in the U.S. Pavilion of the Venice Biennale; and the exhibition theanyspacewhatever (2008–09) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. At the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011, the fashion and lifestyle group HUGO BOSS was the lead sponsor of the Allora & Calzadilla exhibition in the U.S. Pavilion. For more information, visit group.hugoboss.com/en/group/sponsoring/art-sponsoring or hugoboss.com/us/magazine/arts.

HUGO BOSS Global Arts Program Contemporary art is an integral part of the HUGO BOSS corporate culture. In conjunction with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum the Group established the HUGO BOSS Prize in 1996, which has evolved into an internationally renowned art award. The prize was complemented by the HUGO BOSS Asia Art Award in 2013, focusing on upcoming Asian artists. HUGO BOSS has also been supporting numerous international exhibitions of contemporary art. To date, these have presented works by Ross Bleckner (1995), Georg Baselitz (1995 and 1996), Dennis Hopper (2001), James Rosenquist (2003), Olafur Eliasson (2005) and Josephine Meckseper (2007). In 2012 HUGO BOSS sponsored the very first solo exhibition of Jeff Koons at a Swiss museum. Since 2014 the Group has started a special partnership with the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, supporting exhibitions like Konstantin Grcic: Panorama (2014) and The Bauhaus #itsalldesign (2015–16).

About the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation Founded in 1937, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of art, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. The Guggenheim network that began in the 1970s when the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, was joined by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, has since expanded to include the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (opened 1997), and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (currently in development). The Guggenheim Foundation continues to forge international collaborations that celebrate contemporary art, architecture, and design within and beyond the walls of the museum, including the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative and The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative. More information about the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation can be found at guggenheim.org.

VISITOR INFORMATION Admission: Adults $25, students/seniors (65+) $18, members and children under 12 free. The Guggenheim’s free app, available with admission or by download to personal devices, offers an enhanced visitor experience. The app features rich multimedia content on special exhibitions, the Guggenheim’s landmark building, and artworks in the museum’s permanent collection. Verbal Description guides for select exhibitions are also included for visitors who are blind or have low vision. The Guggenheim app is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Museum Hours: Sun-Wed 10 am–5:45 pm, Fri 10 am–5:45 pm, Sat 10 am–7:45 pm, closed Thurs. On Saturdays, beginning at 5:45 pm, the museum hosts Pay What You Wish. From June 20–August 29, the museum is open until 9 pm on Tuesdays. For general information, call 212 423 3500 or visit the museum online at guggenheim.org. guggenheim.org/social #HBP2016

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#1472 April 20, 2017 (Updated from February 15, 2017)

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT May Yeung, Publicist Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 212 423 3840 [email protected]