May’s Picks

SUMMER I
Chiharu Shiota, Katarina Löfström & Poul Gernes
Wanås Konst, Knislinge (Sweden)
May 6^th to November 4^th, 2018
Curators: Elisabeth Millqvist & Mattias Givell
For the first part of its summer program 2018, Wanås Konst Sculpture Park (Sweden) commissioned site-specific works by two women artists: Chiharu Shiota from Japan and Katarina Löfström from Sweden. It is also presenting Pyramide, a monumental sculpture by Poul Gernes (1925-1996).
For this new commission, Chiharu Shiota explores the notion of “house” and develops the visual narration through the use of thread – wool or metal – to talk about human relationships as well as notions of temporality, movement and memory. While she uses red wool for Everywhere (2018), located outside the hayloft, she exclusively uses metal thread for the first time with Relationality (2018), located in the sculpture park.
Katarina Löfström’s kinetic work is also installed in the sculpture park. Open Source (Cinemascope) (2018) is a giant screen (three and half meters high by nine meters long) made of plastic sequins forming luminous waves under the action of the wind and light.
Visitors will also be able to climb Poul Gernes’ 20-foot high Pyramid and enjoy the view. This work was first installed at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark) but was originally conceived for the Israel Square in Copenhagen.

Eva Jospin
Domaine de Trévarez (France)
May 12^th to October 14^th, 2018
For the past few years, the Domaine de Trévarez (Centre-Finistère, France) has been organizing contemporary exhibitions and festivals. This season, Eva Jospin has been invited to occupy the “château rose” and its park.
Panorama, a work initially created for the Cour Carrée of the Louvre, was installed under the greenhouse of the stables: it consists in an octagonal pavilion made of mirror-polished steel panels that reflect the surrounding light and architecture. In contrast, the interior of the structure feels like a dark cave and the visitor discovers a mysterious and delicate forest meticulously sculpted into cardboard. Two new works have been installed in the park: by the western tower of the castle, an installation composed of fake vegetation, and by the great waterfall, a work entitled Nymphée that references the decorative constructions of Renaissance gardens and that will be on view starting at the end of May. 

prop
Phyllida Barlow
The High Line, New York (United States)
Until March 2019
In May, the High Line (New York) unveils prop, a monumental sculpture by British artist Phyllida Barlow. This is her first public art commission in the United States.
Located at the level of 16th Street at a former railway spur – remnant of the neighborhood’s industrial past – prop (2017) is a 30-feet high sculpture made of construction wood, plaster, expanded Styrofoam, fabric and other recycled materials. As it is often the case in the artist’s practice, this work is a reconfiguration of a former piece. Here, prop was part of holedhoarding, an ensemble of sculptures presented in 2017 in the British Pavilion of the 57th Venice Biennale.

Built
Virginia Overton
Socrates Sculpture Park, New York (United States)
May 6^th to September 3^rd, 2018
Virginia Overton is occupying the Socrates Sculpture Park with new works that were specifically designed for the Built exhibition. The artist transforms common industrial materials such as wood beams, sinks or pickup trucks in an ensemble of ten monumental sculptures displayed throughout the park. As Socrates executive director John Hatfield explains, “Virginia Overton’s newly commissioned artworks for Socrates Sculpture Park echo our thirty-year history of transformation, reclamation and labor that continues to be an ongoing effort here in the Park.”

Giuseppe Penone: A Tree in the Wood
Yorkshire Sculpture Park (Wakefield, England)
May 26^th to April 18^th, 2019
According to Italian artist Giuseppe Penone, the tree embodies the perfect sculpture, because all its elements are necessary to its existence. The Yorkshire Sculpture Park, one of England’s major outdoor sculpture parks, presents Giuseppe Penone: A Tree in the Wood, an exhibition composed of historic pieces as well as works that have never before been on view in England. The theme of the tree dominates the galleries’ space. The 30-yard long pine tree trunk that composes Matrice (2015), emptied, cut in half and reconstructed horizontally, stretches on the entire length of the gallery. Outside, several monumental works also relate to the theme of the tree and explore others such as gravity, weight and the relationship between humans and nature.

Richard Long: Circle to Circle
Lisson Gallery, London (Great Britain)
May 11^th to June 23^rd, 2018
Lisson Gallery recounts the use of the circular motif in Richard Long’s artistic practice since the beginning of his career to today. The gallery’s archives give evidence, through an artist book dating back to 1971, of a first stone circle entitled Stone Dance. Ever since, the circle has always been at the core of Richard Long’s work, whether within nature or closed spaces. The exhibition gravitates around Flint Wheel (2018), a flint stone circle installed directly on the floor, and documents the evolution of his work through photographs and sculptures.
“I can make a circle of words, I can make a circle of stones, I can make a circle of mud with my hands on a wall, I can walk in a circle for one hundred miles.” – Richard Long, 1988.