Ernesto Neto
March 6 - May 29, 2004
Ernesto Neto, The Garden, 2003. In collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum. White polyurethane foam, 109 x 281 x 390 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, NY. Photo: Oren Slor | |
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The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is pleased to present Ernesto Neto's 2003 collaboration with the
FWM, a massive room-sized installation of hand-sculpted foam. Ernesto Neto is on
view from March 6 through May 29, 2004. An opening reception will be held at the
FWM on Friday, March 5, 2004 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. with a lecture by the
artist at 6:00 p.m. that evening.
By delicately carving giant blocks of industrial foam, Neto has created a
cavernous but highly sensual environment of undulating walls and tactile
topographies that beckons visitors into its interior. The enveloping shapes and
textures of Neto's installation stand suspended between architectural and bodily
space, creating a strong physical relationship with the viewer that must be
experienced rather than merely seen.
Through large fabric sculptures and participatory environments, Neto's work
often probes the spatial and sensory relations between the viewer's body and the
environment in which the work is situated. In his own words, his artworks exist
as “a place of sensations, a place of exchange and continuity between
people, a skin of existence and relationships.”
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Ernesto Neto, The House, 2003. In collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum White polyurethane foam, 109 x 140 x 141 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, NY. Photo: Oren Slor |
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This new collaborative work by Ernesto Neto is a participatory environment that
extends his earlier artistic experiments with unconventional materials. In a
recent solo exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Neto
produced an installation of dangling, membrane-like forms of white nylon filled
with Styrofoam beads. Measuring 45 by 15 feet, these fabric sculptures nearly
filled the entire room, completely transforming the gallery environment.
Curator Olga Viso describes Neto's work as that which will “arrest us
visually but also make us keenly aware of the spaces inside, around and between
our bodies. We become voyagers in sensorial odysseys.” Neto has also used
fabric forms filled with spices to incorporate aromatic scents and powder-like
textures into his artworks.
Neto also recently created a multiple with the FWM in 2003, Cabeluda, which is
available for sale through the FWM Multiples Program. Both Cabeluda and Silent
Cliff (also made at the FWM) debuted at the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (New York) in
2003.
Ernesto Neto was born and lives in Rio de Janeiro. He was educated at the Escola de Artes Visuais Pargua Lage, Rio de Janeiro and the Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro. Solo exhibitions include Directions, The Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (2002); 49th Venice Biennalle, Brazilian Pavillion, Venice (2001); Institute of Contemporary Art, London (2000); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (2000); and Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (1999). Neto's work has also been included in group exhibitions such as Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2000); Wonderland, The St. Louis Art Museum (2000), Best of the Season, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield (1999); XXIV Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, São Paulo (1998); Sidney Biennial, Sydney (1998); and Loose Threads, Serpentine Gallery, London (1998).
The Fabric Workshop and Museum is the only contemporary art museum in the United States devoted to creating new work in fabric and other materials in collaboration with emerging and established artists from around the world. Founded in 1977, The Fabric Workshop and Museum has developed from an ambitious experiment to a renowned institution with a widely recognized residency program, an extensive collection of work by resident artists, in-house and touring exhibitions, and comprehensive educational programming that includes lectures, tours, in-school presentations, and student apprenticeships. All FWM exhibitions and programs are free and open to the public. Hours: Mon. - Fri. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat., 12 noon to 4 p.m.
The exhibition program of The Fabric Workshop and Museum is supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, LLWW Foundation, The Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Independence Foundation, The Claneil Foundation, the Miller-Plummer Foundation, The Barra Foundation, and the Board of Directors and members of The Fabric Workshop and Museum.
For more information, please contact Meg Baird at
215-568-1111,
pr@fabricworkshopandmuseum.org. For general information, call
215-568-1111.
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