Luhring Augustine is pleased to participate for the first time in Art Basel Hong Kong with a presentation of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by Simone Leigh and Christopher Wool. 

Simone Leigh’s practice incorporates sculpture, video, and installation; all of which are informed by her ongoing exploration of black female subjectivity and ethnography.  Her objects often employ materials and forms traditionally associated with African art, and her performance-influenced installations create spaces where historical precedent and self-determination comingle.  Through her investigations of visual overlaps between cultures, time periods, and geographies, she confronts and examines ideas of the female body, race, beauty, and community. 

“The figures don’t have eyes per se.  They remain self-possessed, looking inward, contemplating and thinking things that I cannot fathom.  Her figures are not giving up their secrets.  They are not there for the taking.  They cannot be occupied, colonized, co-opted, or subjugated.  Their existence indicates a set of possibilities and limitations – of empathy, knowledge, of rationality.”    - Helen Molesworth, Curator

Christopher Wool’s work has always been closely tied to his urban surroundings, and as early as 1986, he began to create monochrome paintings that employed commercial tools and imagery appropriated from a variety of cultural sources.  Since the early 1990s, Wool has incorporated the silkscreen process in his work.  While Wool is primarily known as a painter, his photographs, sculptural work, artist books, and prints are also integral to his practice.

“A critical conceptual shift occurred in Wool’s practice in the late 1990s when he began to use his previous creative output as the material for new, autonomous works.  Wool would take a photograph of a finished picture, transpose it to a silkscreen, and then reassign it wholesale to a fresh canvas.  At times these acts of self-appropriation leave the original image untouched, although uncannily transformed by the process of mechanical reproduction.  In other examples, Wool manually reworked his screenprinted doubles, adding rollered paint or sprayed enamel to create disorienting hybrids that entwine recycled and original gestures.  Over the past decade, Wool’s simultaneous embrace and repression of painting’s expressive potential have culminated in an open-ended vein of works that he refers to as his “gray paintings.”  In these large-scale abstractions, Wool alternates between the act of erasing and the act of drawing, repeatedly wiping away sprayed black enamel paint to create layers of tangled lines and hazy washes.  The artist describes the cycle of composition and loss inherent to this process as an attempt to harness the condition of doubt into a generative creative force.”  -Katherine Brinson, Curator, Guggenheim Museum

For more information about Simone Leigh, please contact Lauren Wittles lauren@luhringaugustine.com or 212-206-9100.

For more information about Christopher Wool, please contact Donald Johnson-Montenegro donald@luhringaugustine.com or 212-206-9100.

For more information about the gallery's participation in Art Basel Hong Kong, please contact Sean Delaney at sean@luhringaugustine.com or 212-206-9100.

盧赫靈奥古斯汀畫廊很高興能夠第一次參加巴塞爾藝術展香港展會，並展示西蒙·李和克裡斯托弗·伍爾的繪畫、雕塑，和紙上作品。

西蒙·李的藝術實踐包括雕塑，視頻，和裝置，都源自於藝術家對於黑人女性的主體性和民族誌的持續研究。她創造的物件經常採用與非洲藝術有傳統關聯的材料和形體；她具有表演性質的裝置營造出歷史先例與自我決定相互混合的空間。通過對於不同文化、時間段，和地理在視覺上相互交疊的研究，她正視並拷問有關女性身體、種族、審美，和社區的種種概念。

“這些人物本身並沒有眼睛。他們抱持著鎮靜、自省的狀態，深思著一些我所捉摸不到的事物。她的人物拒絕揭露他們的秘密。他們不是隨意任人玩弄的。他們不能被佔據，被殖民化，被強行拉攏，或者被征服。他們的存在表明了關於同感、知識，和理性的一系列可能性和局限性。”- 海倫·莫斯沃斯，策展人

克裡斯托弗·伍爾的作品一直都和他所熟悉的城市環境有緊密關聯。早在1986年，他就已經開始使用商業工具來創造單色繪畫，並融入了摘取自多種文化語境的圖像。90年代初期，伍爾開始大量利用絲網印刷技術。儘管伍爾主要以他的畫家身份出名，他的攝影作品、雕塑作品、藝術家書，以及印刷品都是他藝術實踐不可分割的一部分。

“90年代末期，伍爾的實踐產生了關鍵性的觀念轉變：他開始將之前的創意產出作為材料並納入新的獨立作品。伍爾會拍攝一張完成的作品，將其轉移到絲網上，然後把結果完整地重現移至新的畫布上。有些時候，此類自我挪用的舉動並沒有改變原本的圖像，儘管機械複製過程的本身已詭異地篡改了作品的性質。其它時候，伍爾會手工修改網版印刷的雙重圖像，加入滚刷的漆或者噴射的瓷漆來製造一種讓人暈眩的混合體，交錯著原本的圖像和改造過的型態。在過去十年中，伍爾對於繪畫表現力的雙重採納和壓制達到了一個高點，以一組被他稱為“灰色繪畫”的開放式作品呈現。在這些大尺寸的抽象作品中，伍爾交替在書寫和抹去的兩種狀態間，重複地將噴射的黑色瓷漆拭去，從而生產出糾結在一起的線條和朦朧的塗層。這種過程本身含代的由構成和喪失組成的循環，藝術家獎其形容為一種把質疑的狀態轉化為積極創造力的嘗試。”- 凱瑟琳·布林森，古根海姆美術館策展人

若需要獲得關於西蒙·李的更多信息，請聯系勞倫·維特爾斯，或撥打212.206.9100，或發送郵件給 lauren@luhringaugustine.com。

若需要獲得關於克裡斯托弗·伍爾的更多信息，請聯系唐納德·約翰遜·蒙特內哥羅，或撥打212.206.9100，或發送郵件給 donald@luhringaugustine.com。