Faculty News: “Activated Artifacts : Mel Ziegler” – PERROTIN Galerie, NYC June 20 – August 16, 2019
Professor Mel Ziegler opens his new exhibition, Activated Artifacts, in Galerie Perrotin New York this summer. Opening on June 20 and closing on August 16, the exhibition includes new and recent works alongside his collaborative work with his late partner, Kate Ericson.
Activated Artifacts is Ziegler’s fifth exhibition and first solo for Perrotin’s New York location.
His new work Hooks, taken from a larger series of works called 10×10’s, finds vintage and antique hat hooks installed in a geometric grid. The community is encouraged to leave their own hats on the hooks engaging with the work and changing the original form.
At the center of the exhibition is work 1000 Portraits, completed in 2018, comprised of 1000 digital prints on canvas. Each is portrait of the one of the president’s faces on the Mount Rushmore National Memorial taken from memorabilia from his personal collection. Ziegler explains “My goal with these souvenirs was always to make an artwork out of them with the aim of de-monumentalizing this monument.”
The gallery’s second floor will have several series of drawings on paper on view. These drawings will range for preparatory works for projects that now exists or have yet to become realized, including drawings of his 1984 work, Instant Landscape, where a 40 foot industrial trailer was parked in front of New York City’s Artist Space as part of a group show.
Landscape drawings in oil pastel also will hang in the upper gallery space as well as the Dianna Drawings series. As the emotional anchor of the exhibition, Dianna Drawings collects a series of paper napkins drawings made in 1995 when Ericson was terminally ill. These drawings are sketches and plans for projects and were created as part of the collaborators daily routine of visiting their local diner in NYC, Dianna’s Place. Perrotin describes the works as reflecting a profound sense of optimism and spirit, still visible in Ziegler’s practice today.”
If you are in New York City this summer, an opening reception is scheduled for Thursday, June 20, 2019 from 6pm to 8pm. Perrotin New York is located at 130 Orchard Street, New York, New York 10002. The gallery’s normal hours are Tuesday thru Saturday from 10am to 6pm.
Visit the Ericson & Ziegler artist page at https://www.perrotin.com/artists/Kate_Ericson_et_Mel_Ziegler/181#news
Professor Mel Ziegler is on faculty with the Department of Art at Vanderbilt University where he teaches courses in installation, sculpture, and social practices and currently serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Studio Arts Curriculum. Professor Ziegler is the founder and director of The Sandhills Institute, a catalyst for the creation of civically-engaged integrated art in and around the agricultural community of Rushville, Nebraska. The Institute has hosted numerous artist for residencies during the summer months engaging the land and the community of Rushville. Ziegler, with his wife Lisa Ziegler, purchased the Main Street Rushville Grocery Store and have been working on rennovating the location into a cultural center with the purpose to expose rural America to civically engaged integrated art by world-renowned artists rooted in collaborative research and creative expression.