{"id":2407,"date":"2018-02-22T21:50:08","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T21:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=2407"},"modified":"2018-02-22T21:50:08","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T21:50:08","slug":"howardena-pindell-what-remains-to-be-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=2407","title":{"rendered":"HOWARDENA PINDELL: WHAT REMAINS TO BE SEEN"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOWARDENA PINDELL:<\/h1>\n

WHAT REMAINS TO BE SEEN<\/h1>\n

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago<\/h2>\n

Feb 24\u2013May 20, 2018<\/h4>\n
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Howardena Pindell, Night Flight, 2015\u201316. Mixed media on canvas; 75 \u00d7 63 in. Garth Greenan Gallery. Photo courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is proud to present the first major survey of the work of groundbreaking, multidisciplinary artist Howardena Pindell (American, b.\u00a01943). The exhibition spans the New York\u2013based artist\u2019s five-decades-long career, featuring early figurative paintings, pure abstraction and conceptual works, and personal and political\u00a0art that emerged in the aftermath of a\u00a0life-threatening car\u00a0accident in\u00a01979. The exhibition traces themes and visual experiments that run throughout Pindell\u2019s work up to the present.<\/p>\n

Trained as a\u00a0painter, Pindell has challenged the staid traditions of the art world and asserted her place in its history as a\u00a0woman and one of African descent. Since the 1960s, she has used materials such as glitter, talcum powder, and perfume to stretch the boundaries of the rigid tradition of rectangular, canvas painting. She has also infused her work with traces of her labor, such as obsessively affixing dots of pigment and circles made with an ordinary hole-punch. Despite the effort exerted in the creation of these paintings, Pindell\u2019s use of rich colors and unconventional materials gives the finished works a\u00a0sumptuous and ethereal quality.<\/p>\n

Howardena Pindell, Untitled #20 (Dutch Wives Circled and Squared) (detail), 1978. Mixed media on canvas; 86 \u00d7 110 in. (218.4 \u00d7 279.4 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, gift of Albert A. Robin by exchange, 2014.15. Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York.<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/div><\/figure>
Howardena Pindell, Autobiography: Water (Ancestors\/Middle Passage\/Family Ghosts), 1988. Mixed media on canvas; 118 \u00d7 71 in. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund. Photo courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York.<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/div><\/figure>
Howardena Pindell, Untitled, c. 1968. Acrylic and cray-pas on canvas; 46 \u00d7 42 in. Garth Greenan Gallery. Photo courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York.<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/div><\/figure>
Howardena Pindell, Untitled #5B (Krakatoa), 2007. Mixed media on paper collage; 13 \u00d7 22 \u00d7 4 in. Garth Greenan Gallery. Photo courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York.<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/div><\/figure>
Howardena Pindell, Video Drawings: Swimming, 1975. Chromogenic development print; framed: 13 15\/16 \u00d7 16 1\/16 in. (35.4 \u00d7 40.8 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Anixter Art Acquisition Fund, 2016.6. Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York.<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/div><\/figure>
Howardena Pindell, Free, White and 21, 1980. Videotape (color, sound). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, gift of Garth Greenan and Bryan Davidson Blue, 2014.22. Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York.<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/div><\/figure>
Howardena Pindell, Night Flight, 2015\u201316. Mixed media on canvas; 75 \u00d7 63 in. Garth Greenan Gallery. Photo courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York.<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/div><\/figure>
Howardena Pindell, Video Drawings: Abstract, 1976. Chromogenic development print; framed: 13 \u00bc \u00d7 16 in. (33.7 \u00d7 40.6 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Anixter Art Acquisition Fund, 2016.8. Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York.<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

The work she has created since 1979, when the accident left her with short-term amnesia, engages the world beyond the painting studio. Expanding on the experimental formal language she previously developed, Pindell has explored a\u00a0wide range of subject matter, from the personal and diaristic to the social and political. Her Autobiography<\/em> series transforms postcards from her global travels, which she used to reconstruct her memories, into photo-based collages. Other bodies of work, such as her Rambo<\/em> series, respond to broader cultural concerns and critique sexism, racism, and discrimination at large.<\/p>\n

The exhibition also highlights Pindell\u2019s work with photography, film, and performance, mediums she has used to explore her place in the world. Her chance-based experiments include photographing her drawings juxtaposed over a\u00a0television screen, as well as creating Free, White and\u00a021<\/em> (1980), a\u00a0performance for film based on her personal experiences of racism. The exhibition also includes Pindell\u2019s most recent works from the last two years, which draw on the beauty and innovation of her approach to abstraction to build upon contemporary conversations around equity and diversity.<\/p>\n

Howardena Pindell: What Remains To Be Seen<\/em> is cocurated by Naomi Beckwith, Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator at the MCA, and Valerie Cassel Oliver, Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.<\/p>\n

The exhibition is presented in the Griffin Galleries of Contemporary Art on the museum\u2019s fourth floor.<\/p>\n

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