Canvas Constructions: Karen Carson and Allan McCollum
 
Lower Level Galleries
June 20, 2015 — October 04, 2015
This exhibition pairs Four Panel Zipper Piece (1972) by Karen Carson (U.S., born 1943) with Constructed Painting: Rosamund (1971) by Allan McCollum (U.S., born 1944), two large-scale works that explore the materiality of canvas beyond a surface for picture making.
These seldom exhibited early works by Carson and McCollum are part of a history of painting that expands beyond the confines of the stretcher, engaging directly with the physical space of the gallery.
Carson's zipper pieces were a feminist-inspired response to the predominance of hard-edge geometric forms in painting and sculpture during the late 1960s. Four Panel Zipper Piece will change shape while on view.
To make his process- and systems-based painting, Rosamund, McCollum arranged individual, hand-dyed strips of canvas into a distinctive pattern and adhered them with rubberized caulk that seeped between the edges. The painting, which honors Los Angeles arts advocate and curator Rosamund Felsen, is a signature of McCollum's foundational work that challenged formalist tenets of painting.
ARTISTS
CREDITS

Canvas Constructions: Karen Carson and Allan McCollum is organized by Nina Bozicnik, Assistant Curator. The exhibition is supported by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and season supporter ArtsFund. It is additionally supported through generous gifts made to the Henry Now Campaign by the Barton Family Foundation in memory of Irving Marcus; Cathy and Michael Casteel; the Jon and Mary Shirley Foundation; William and Ruth True; and the Bagley and Virginia Wright Fund.

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