NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES ).'82/+0'3+9-'22+8? NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Charlie James Gallery is delighted to present Crowning Glories, Nancy Buchanan’s second solo show at the gallery, opening July 15th. Words on the show from the artist: Crowning Glories As a graduate student, I was mentored by minimalist light-and-space artists, including Robert Irwin and Larry Bell and came to appreciate the total environment surrounding an artwork. I also appreciated the beauty of waste materials. When I made a rug of human hair and poodle fur, organized by length, color and texture, I was surprised by some viewers’ visceral responses. This opened a new direction, and from that time on, I have made works involving hair. Some, like Twin Corners and Hairdos, were installations. Hairdos utilized another waste material: aluminum turnings from metal recyclers—the dichotomy here was that the turnings looked soft, but of course were razor-sharp. For Twin Corners, I painted my body to mimic the space nearby. I also made a large pencil drawing of one of the large aluminum spheres. Hairdo Redux is a new version of this, charcoal on tissue. In 1972, for The New Art in Orange County exhibition, I sacrificed my own long hair in the performance Hair Transplant: I dyed it red and curled my waist-length hair, then replaced Bob Walker’s moustache and body hair with my cut-off locks. The mother of the nine muses, Mnemosyne, stores her own memory within her long hair. The substance of hair does recall one’s heritage: the chain of maternal DNA can be found within individual hairs. My 1975 performance A Little Style involved arranging the hair of five women on or into semi-geometric forms, while each spoke about difficult childhood memories. — Nancy Buchanan, July 2020 Nancy Buchanan is a conceptual artist working in many forms; her performance works began in 1972, when she was a member of the infamous F Space Gallery in Santa Ana, CA; her earliest videotapes were recorded on open-reel Portapacks; and she has produced installations, drawings, and mixed-media work. Buchanan’s work has been included in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Centre Pompidou, and the Getty Research Institute (where her papers and works are archived). She was the subject of a solo screening of her videotapes at REDCAT in 2013, and her videos have been included in international exhibitions. Buchanan is the recipient of four National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist grants, a COLA grant, and a Rockefeller Fellowship in New Media. In 2016, she organized It’s Your Party, a durational performance at UC Irvine’s xMPL Theater as the second event in The Art of Performance. Buchanan lives and works in Los Angeles. NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Hair is a product available from almost every human being. And, to celebrate its diversity and beauty, for the past several years I have been making illustrative portraits of hair and hair styles, sometimes incorporating actual samples. Locks of hair have long been kept as mementos of loved ones, and the Victorians crafted jewelry and picture frames from human hair. The issue of hair and appearance continues to be front and center, not only in artwork, but in politics, as The CROWN Act (Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) is a law recently enacted in several states that prohibits discrimination based on hair style and hair texture. — Nancy Buchanan, July 2020 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Long wavy white on black Pencil & pastel on paper 19.5 x 15.5 inches Framed 2017 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Hair portrait white on black Pencil on paper 11.5 x 9.5 inches Framed 2013 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Bobby pins Scratchboard with color added 11.5 x 9.5 inches Framed 2015 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Curls with hair & mirrors Mixed media with mirrors & hair on paper 21.5 x 17 inches Framed 2019 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Small long white on black Pencil & ink on paper 15.5 x 13 inches Framed 2019 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Natural Pencil & ink on paper 14.25 x 13.5 inches Framed 2018 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Less wavy white on black Pencil & pastel on paper 15 x 12 inches Framed 2015 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Kim as Roman Lady Mixed media on paper with hair 20 x 23 inches Framed 2018 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Hair portrait XCU Pencil on paper 15 x 20 inches Framed 2014 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES White on black curls Pencil & pastel on paper 16 x 12.5 inches Framed 2016 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Hair bun Pencil, pastel & ink on paper 12 x 11 inches Framed 2018 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Hairbrain Cast acrylic with artist’s hair, acrylic stand with mirror 8.5 x 8.5 x 7 inches 2020 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES In 2012 I began still life drawings of toys “distressed” by my dogs. I always felt a deep connection to Mike Kelley’s works that incorporated discarded crocheted afghans and old stuffed animals. In a way, these distressed toys resemble hair in that their scars contain the history of those who loved/abused them. Additionally, both series challenge the “cuteness” or attractiveness of the subjects. Hair, isolated from its human bearer, is uncanny. A lock of hair for the lost loved one. A chewed-up toy substitutes an abject aura for the quality of a new item. — Nancy Buchanan, July 2020 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Lavendar Grimace Pastel & pencil on paper 13 x 15.5 inches 2016 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Lulu’s Hippo Pencil on paper 10.5 x 13.5 inches 2019 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES For Mike Pencil on paper 20.5 x 15.5 inches 2012 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES For Mike 2 Scratchboard 11.5 x 9.5 inches 2012 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Cow Scratchboard 11.5 x 11.5 inches 2014 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Piggy Pencil on paper 22 x 26 inches 2019 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES cHair Mixed media with antique hatpins 20 x 11 x 11 inches 2020 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Rock ‘n’ Roll Silver gelatin print 10 x 8 inches Edition of 100 (14 remaining) 1974 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Hairdo Redux Charcoal on tissue paper over digital print 29 x 25.5 inches 2020 NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Zany gallery Los Angeles Times article featuring At Home installation, F Space Gallery, Santa Ana, 1971 Twin Corners, 1974 Installation with aluminum turnings & photo (digital print, 2020) NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Rock ‘n’ Roll, 1974 Performance at Gerard John Hayes Gallery, Westwood; Raffle ticket portrait by Marsha Red Adams; performance doc photos by David Daniel NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Some Hair, installation, F space, 1972, photos by Barbara T. Smith NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Hair Transplant, 1972, Performance for The New Art in Orange County, F Space Gallery, Photos (printed 2020) by Barbara T. Smith & Babs Jackson NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES Hair Art, Dirty Art The Wig Makes the Woman, 1974 1974, Xerox NANCY BUCHANAN CROWNING GLORIES A Little Style, 1975 Performance for Double X at Wilshire West Plaza; large poster plus 3 individual photos from piece, photos by Boris Sojka NANCY BUCHANAN EDUCATION CSU Channel Islands The Experimental Television Center: A History, Etc . 1969 BA, University of California, Irvine 205 Hudson St. Gallery, Hunter College, New York, NY 1971 MFA, University of California, Irvine XX Redux, Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University, Orange, CA EXHIBITIONS/VIDEO SCREENINGS/MEDIA PRESENTATIONS PROTEST, Femlink TV <http://www.femlink.org/> Mamia Brétéché Gallery, Paris, France 2020 Digital Power, online exhibition, ACM SIGGRAPH 2014 50 Shades of Cake, Future Studio, Los Angeles, CA Do Not Link, http://www.upstream.gallery RISE: Love, Revolution & The Black Panther Party; LA Art 2019 California Winter, Kristina Kite Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Share, Los Angeles, CA With a Little Help from My Friends — A Benefit for Bryan State of Mind: New California Art circa 1970; Smart Chagolla, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles Museum of Art, Chicago, IL These Creatures, Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art, Rancho RE-ACTION: GENEALOGY AND COUNTERCANON, Barjola Museum, Cucamunga, CA Gijón; Oviedo University, Sala Laudeo The Vision Board, Paul Kopeiken Gallery, Culver City, CA 2013 Influx: Art at LAX, Los Angeles International Airport, Book Launch — Hair Stories, POTTS, Alhambra, CA Terminal One 2018 Functional – Small Ceramic Works, Future Studio Gallery, re.act.feminism 2-A performing archive; Akademie der Los Angeles, CA Künste, Berlin, Germany Collecting on the Edge, Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Nancy Buchanan: Lines of Enquiry, (solo screening) Utah State University, Logan, Utah REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA Remote Castration, LAXART, Los Angeles, CA Exploring the Social Conscience: Art Prints and Human Group video screening, Provisional Gallery, San Francisco, Rights, Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, John Jay College CA of Criminal Justice, New York, NY Tow Truck Towing a Tow Truck, as-is.la, Los Angeles, CA 2012 re.act.feminism 2; Galerija Miroslav Kraljević, Zagreb, 2017 Pursuing the Unpredictable: The New Museum 1977 – 2017, New Croatia; Museet for Samtidskunst, Roskilde, Denmark; York, NY Tallinna Kunstihoone, Tallinn, Estonia Faces: Gender, Art, Technology: 20 years of interactions, State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970, Berkeley connections and collaborations, Schaumbad, Graz, Austria Art Museum, Berkeley, CA; Morris and Helen Belkin Art MFRU