Lynne Harlow
Ask the Sky, Baker Bridge Road
February 27 – April 9, 2016
Opening: Saturday, February 27, 6-9pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, March 19, 3pm
MINUS SPACE is thrilled to present the exhibition Lynne Harlow: Ask the Sky, Baker Bridge Road. This is the Providence, Rhode Island-based artist’s third solo exhibition at the gallery and it will feature a site-sensitive installation investigating a single color as it relates to space, material, and sensation.
Lynne Harlow’s Baker Bridge Road series consists of ten new works that respond to a specific pale pink color used by Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius (1883-1969) on an exterior wall of the house he designed and built for his family at 68 Baker Bridge Road in Lincoln, Massachusetts in 1938. Wishing to reduce the glare from the sun on the second floor deck of the house, Gropius recruited his friend and colleague, artist Lyonel Feininger to create a color that Gropius characterized as reflected light at dusk. Although only slightly discernable from the rest of the house’s primarily all-white exterior, the wall was painted Feininger’s delicate pink color in 1949. This singular color, as well as its complex relationship with its surrounds, is the point of departure for Harlow’s Baker Bridge Road installation.
Arranged according to a precise visual and material progression, the exhibition will present works that evolve from compact and dense in nature to light and ethereal in appearance. For these works, Harlow employs a broad array of divergent materials, including Plexiglas, LED-lit acrylic, paper, fabric, paint, and projected light. The largest work included in the exhibition, which consists simply of pink light projected on a white wall, most closely approaches Gropius’ original color association: reflected light at dusk.
About her body of work, Harlow questions, “How little is enough? How much can be taken away before a piece crumbles?” She continues, “I arrive at my pieces by reducing physical and visual information. This process of reduction, a steady taking away, is ultimately intended to be an act of generosity. In each piece I’m looking for the point at which these reductions allow me to give the most. It’s an appealing contradiction because it prompts one to reconsider the concept of abundance and the nature of giving.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lynne Harlow (b.1968 Attleboro, MA; lives Providence, RI) has exhibited her work nationally and internationally for the past 15 years, including in the United States, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Her work was recently included in the 2013 deCordova Biennial at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA. Her additional museum exhibitions include MoMA PS1 (New York, NY); Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art (Ithaca, NY); Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (Brattleboro, VT); and Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca (Oaxaca, Mexico).
Harlow has received awards from the Chinati Foundation, Rhode Island Foundation, and BAU Institute, and her work has been reviewed in publications, such as Artforum, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Providence Journal, and Artnet Magazine, among others. Harlow’s work is included in public collections, such as The Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Public Library, and Hunter College (all New York, NY); RISD Museum (Providence, RI); and The Philips Collection (Washington, DC). Harlow holds an MFA from Hunter College and a BA from Framingham State College.
ABOUT MINUS SPACE
Opened in 2003, MINUS SPACE specializes in contemporary reductive abstract art, and represents pioneering emerging and established artists and estates from the United States, Europe, South America, and Australasia.
#lynneharlow
#askthesky
#asktheskybakerbridgeroad