Since the 1970s, Michelle Stuart has been internationally recognized for a rich and diverse practice, including site-specific earth works, intimate drawings, paintings, sculpture and photographs, all centered on a lifelong interest in the natural world and the cosmos. A pioneer in the use of nontraditional media, Stuart brings forth imagery by using organic and site-specific materials in unique ways that expand the notion of what art and painting can be.
In this exhibition of paintings from 1985 to 1990, the artist merges science, botany and the collection of organic specimens with a practice that is painterly yet remains deeply connected to the sites from which they are derived. Specimens collected from treks in locations such as Alaska, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Arizona are embedded in encaustic and pigment and arranged in modular grid-like patterns that recall the minimalist compositions of artists such as Agnes Martin and Sol LeWitt. As Stuart has noted, “I find great satisfaction in the rigorous structure of the grid, but I like the organic on the grid so that there’s a combination of structure and chaos”. Often, these all over compositions evoke images of galaxies or the night sky, another fascination of the artist. Stuart’s encaustic grid paintings reference the physical and the metaphysical, collapsing time, place, and memory while remaining anchored in their own materiality.
A selection of drawings from 1969 to 1974 informs the paintings by providing a foundation for the development of her process.
Stuart’s work has recently been acquired by an extraordinary number of public institutions including: The Hirshorn Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Centre Pompidou, SFMOMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, the Chicago Art Institute, the Hammer Museum, The Dia Art Foundation, the Tate, Glenstone, and The Rachofsky Collection, among others.
Stuart’s practice will be the subject of the upcoming feature-length documentary, Michelle Stuart: Voyager
, which reflects the grand themes found in her work – an intense celebration of nature, a revelation of perception, a path to a deeper memory and a profound understanding of ourselves within the cosmos.
