ExhibitionJune 5, 2023
The Swiss Institute of Contemporary Art in New York presents Jac Leirner
From May 10 through August 27, 2023, Jac Leirner (1961, São Paulo) will be on view at the Swiss Institute of Contemporary Art in New York. This is the first solo exhibition of the Brazilian artist in this city and it gathers her works from the 1980s until today.
Leirner's work has been characterized by the selective accumulation of everyday objects such as cigarettes, bills, cards, plastic bags, among others. In this exercise that seems both compulsive and controlling, she paradoxically blurs the nature and purpose of those things, turning them into parts of her works. For example, the museum highlights pieces such as Blue Phase (1992), a loop sculpture made of bills, which by its stacked form hides the identity and function of money. It also makes reference to minimalism, in which the collection of her objects, in this case: notebooks, pencils of artistic institutions, nail files, are transformed into lines and rows.
Also, her recent work July 4th (2023) is exhibited, which consists of antiqued replicas on fake parchment of the Declaration of Independence. These materials refer to the interplay between the personal and the political and how certain materials can reflect on social interactions.
On the other hand, Village Inside I and II (2023) made with printed material sourced from the East Village are exhibited. Covering two canvases, the flyers, menus, napkins, matchbooks and so on, offer an interpretation of the neighborhood's vibrant life. Hardcore Dummer (Talco I, 2023), a piece made from broken drumsticks used in the 1980s punk scene in São Paulo; evoke the artist's various geometric experiments, taking into account the different formats she has used and which are exhibited in the show.
Leirner's artistic trajectory spans more than forty years of experimentation with materials, objects and products; which in the impulse to accumulate become surprising findings enriching the artist's language. Somehow her continuous reference to formal and these materials makes them dispensable as biographical, collective and sublime.
Leirner's work has been characterized by the selective accumulation of everyday objects such as cigarettes, bills, cards, plastic bags, among others. In this exercise that seems both compulsive and controlling, she paradoxically blurs the nature and purpose of those things, turning them into parts of her works. For example, the museum highlights pieces such as Blue Phase (1992), a loop sculpture made of bills, which by its stacked form hides the identity and function of money. It also makes reference to minimalism, in which the collection of her objects, in this case: notebooks, pencils of artistic institutions, nail files, are transformed into lines and rows.
Also, her recent work July 4th (2023) is exhibited, which consists of antiqued replicas on fake parchment of the Declaration of Independence. These materials refer to the interplay between the personal and the political and how certain materials can reflect on social interactions.
On the other hand, Village Inside I and II (2023) made with printed material sourced from the East Village are exhibited. Covering two canvases, the flyers, menus, napkins, matchbooks and so on, offer an interpretation of the neighborhood's vibrant life. Hardcore Dummer (Talco I, 2023), a piece made from broken drumsticks used in the 1980s punk scene in São Paulo; evoke the artist's various geometric experiments, taking into account the different formats she has used and which are exhibited in the show.
Leirner's artistic trajectory spans more than forty years of experimentation with materials, objects and products; which in the impulse to accumulate become surprising findings enriching the artist's language. Somehow her continuous reference to formal and these materials makes them dispensable as biographical, collective and sublime.
Gallery
