Tara Donavan: Fieldwork at Smart Museum of Art at University of Chicago
I first saw Tara Donavan’s works at Pace Gallery in New York. It was the shiny mylar Xmas balls (see below). Tara is known for taking one singular material and making amazing assemblages through placement and repetition. The exhibition gives anybody with OCD and hoarding tendencies something to contemplate... lol
Go check it out...it’s up all summer through Sept 22.
Untitled (Mylar), 2011/2019 Mylar and Hot glue
DETAIL: Untitled (Mylar), 2011/2019 Mylar and Hot glue
Untitled, 2017 Plastic tubes on Corian bases
DETAIL: Untitled, 2017 Plastic tubes on Corian bases
Untitled, 2014/2019 Styrene index cards, metal, wood, paint and glue
DETAIL: Untitled, 2014/2019 Styrene index cards, metal, wood, paint and glue
Untitled, 2018 Mylar, tape and hot glue
DETAIL: Untitled, 2018 Mylar, tape and hot glue
DETAIL: Untitled, 2015 Slinkys
Tara Donovan: Fieldwork is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and curated by Nora Burnett Abrams, Ellen Bruss Curator and Director of Planning at MCA Denver. The Smart Museum’s presentation is overseen by Alison Gass, Dana Feitler Director, and Jennifer Carty, Associate Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art.
Biography (courtesy of Pace Gallery, NYC)
Tara Donovan (b. 1969, New York) creates sculpture, drawings, prints, and large-scale installations that transform the banality of everyday objects into the extraordinary. Known for her commitment to process, she has earned acclaim for her ability to discover the inherent physical characteristics of an object and for her exploration into the nature of accumulation. Donovan’s many accolades include the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award (2008) and the first annual Calder Prize (2005), among others.
She has been the subject of several major solo exhibitions at museums including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1999); UCLA Hammer Museum (2004); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2007); Milwaukee Art Museum (2012); Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York (2015); and Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (2018). Donovan’s first European exhibition was presented in 2013 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark, and traveled to the Arp Museum Bahnhof, Rolandseck, Remagen, Germany.
