ExhibitionNovember 11, 2024
Lygia Clark and Sonia Boyce at Whitechapel Gallery
The Whitechapel Gallery presents two exhibitions specially conceived to be in dialogue with each other. Lygia Clark: The I and the You and Sonia Boyce: An Awkward Relation explore pivotal moments in the artists’ careers, where each began experimenting with participatory practices. Although separated by time and geography, and working in different cultural and socio-political contexts, the artists share a deep interest in addressing and shifting the relationship between artists.
The I and the You marks the first major UK public gallery survey of the pioneering and influential Brazilian artist, Lygia Clark (Brazil, 1920 – 1988). The exhibition focuses on Clark’s artistic journey from the mid-1950s to early 1970s, a particularly volatile period in Brazil’s history in which radical modes of artistic practice also emerged. Encompassing paintings, works on paper, a selection of Clark’s renowned ‘Bichos’, as well as other groundbreaking participatory works, The I and the You shows how Clark’s early formal experimentations and growing interest in the philosophy of experience and therapeutic potential of art led to a gradual closure of the gap between the work and the viewer.
An Awkward Relation, from artist and educator Sonia Boyce (b.1962, London, UK), has been especially conceived to be in dialogue with the exhibition of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark. Boyce was introduced to Clark’s work in the 1990s and felt a strong synergy with the Brazilian artist’s experiential and participatory practice. An Awkward Relation brings together a number of pivotal and rarely seen works to explore themes of interaction, participation and improvisation – all of which have played a definitive role in Boyce’s practice since the 1990s and reflect a shared interest with many of the radical approaches that Lygia Clark pioneered in her work.
The exhibitions will be on view until 12 January 2025. For more information visit: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/lygia-clark-sonia-boyce/
The I and the You marks the first major UK public gallery survey of the pioneering and influential Brazilian artist, Lygia Clark (Brazil, 1920 – 1988). The exhibition focuses on Clark’s artistic journey from the mid-1950s to early 1970s, a particularly volatile period in Brazil’s history in which radical modes of artistic practice also emerged. Encompassing paintings, works on paper, a selection of Clark’s renowned ‘Bichos’, as well as other groundbreaking participatory works, The I and the You shows how Clark’s early formal experimentations and growing interest in the philosophy of experience and therapeutic potential of art led to a gradual closure of the gap between the work and the viewer.
An Awkward Relation, from artist and educator Sonia Boyce (b.1962, London, UK), has been especially conceived to be in dialogue with the exhibition of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark. Boyce was introduced to Clark’s work in the 1990s and felt a strong synergy with the Brazilian artist’s experiential and participatory practice. An Awkward Relation brings together a number of pivotal and rarely seen works to explore themes of interaction, participation and improvisation – all of which have played a definitive role in Boyce’s practice since the 1990s and reflect a shared interest with many of the radical approaches that Lygia Clark pioneered in her work.
The exhibitions will be on view until 12 January 2025. For more information visit: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/lygia-clark-sonia-boyce/
