ART CITIES:Paris-Isa Genzken

Isa Genzken is arguably one of the most important and influential artists of the past 30 years. Her work has been part of the artistic discourse since she began exhibiting in the mid-1970s, but over the last decade a new generation has been inspired by her radical inventiveness. The past 10 years have been particularly productive for Genzken, who, with a new language of found objects and collage, has created several bodies of work that have redefined assemblage for a new era. These groups of sculptures range from smaller, diorama-like works to room-filling installations.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: David Zwirner Gallery Archive

Isa Genzken presents “Paris New York”, her first solo show in Paris since 2010. The exhibition features an installation of Genzken’s recent “tower” sculptures. These works stem from the artist’s decades-long fascination with architecture and urban skylines. At once makeshift and monumental, these architectonic forms consist of vertical structures of medium-density fiberboard adorned with mirror foil, spray paint, and other media, complicating the distinctions between interior and exterior space. Engaging the architectural and sculptural histories of modernism, the towers are physically imposing, yet the materials and their open and porous forms allude to the inherent vulnerability of the modern built environment. In one tower, Genzken interweaves mannequins—a ready-made sculptural form that she refers to as “Schauspieler” (Actors) and that appears frequently in her assemblages—further challenging the geometries and spatial orders of the structures. The inclusion of these mass-produced consumerist models of the human form, as well as other found material and imagery, makes for an uncanny visual and spatial encounter. Also on view is a recent group of aluminum wall-mounted panel works. Genzken creates these panels by layering various industrially produced, commercially available materials on top of the flat aluminum support. These new panels vary greatly in the density of their material embellishment. Several of them feature smears and pools of acrylic lacquer that rest loosely at times on the surface of the panel, while others are densely covered in photographs, ephemera, and swatches of tape, foil, and fabrics. Visually, the works reference the materials and surfaces of minimalist sculpture, the gesturalism and materiality of twentieth-century abstraction, the cladding on corporate office towers, and modern screens and information surfaces, among other art-historical and modern design traditions. These recent works testify to the importance of Genzken’s art today, as it continues to redefine the way individuals relate to their ever-changing visual and material environments.

Info: Curator: Sabine Breitwieser, David Zwirner Gallery, 108, rue Vieille du Temple, Paris, Duration: 29/8-10/10/20, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.davidzwirner.com