Lorna Simpson and Fabio Mario in Zurich
Press Release
Lorna Simpson, Night Fall, 2023, Ink and acrylic on gessoed fiberglass, 365.8 x 259.1 x 3.5 cm / 144 x 102 x 1 3/8 in © Lorna Simpson. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: James Wang
Lorna Simpson, As far as possible, 2023, Ink and screenprint on gessoed fiberglass, 170.2 x 127 x 3.5 cm / 67 x 50 x 1 3/8 in © Lorna Simpson. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: James WangLorna Simpson
Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse
30 September – 22 December 2023
This autumn, the renowned US artist Lorna Simpson debuts new work from her ongoing Special Character series at Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse, marking the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery in Switzerland. First unveiled in 2019, the Special Character series superimposes women’s faces from fashion and wig ads found in the pages of Ebony magazine, revealing through repetition the reinforcement of stereotypes in the everyday imagery we consume. In these works, silkscreened images of isolated figures emerge from layered washes of paint, highlighting Simpson’s continual investigation of the relationship between parts and wholes, and the nature of representation, identity, gender and race. The exhibition in Zurich will coincide with ‘Lorna Simpson x Gaelle Choisne’ at Reiffers Art Initiative, Paris, part of their 2023 mentorship exhibition programme.
Born in Brooklyn, Lorna Simpson came to prominence in the 1980s with her pioneering approach to conceptual photography. Simpson’s early work—particularly her striking juxtapositions of text and staged images—raise questions about the nature of representation, identity, gender, race and history that continue to drive the artist’s expanding and multi-disciplinary practice today. She deftly explores the medium’s umbilical relation to memory and history, both central themes within her work.
Press Release
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Fabio Mauri. Amore Mio
Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse
30 September – 22 December 2023
Organized with Olivier Renaud-Clément in collaboration with Studio Fabio Mauri, ‘Fabio Mauri. Amore Mio’ is the first solo presentation in Switzerland on the seminal Italian artist (1926 – 2009) and sheds light on a period in his work during which he explored artistic strategies pertinent to pop art. The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures and works on paper spanning the late 1950s to the mid 1970s, as well as the installation ‘Amore Mio’ (1970), on view for the first time in over 50 years.
‘Fabio Mauri. Amore Mio’ is a testament to the artist’s early engagement with themes that would come to define pop art, before the movement became widespread in Europe after US artist Robert Rauschenberg won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1964. The 1964 Biennale marked a pivotal shift: artistic circles in Europe, particularly Italy, saw the arrival of American pop art as a sign of US expansionism, at a time where artists like Tano Festa, Fabio Mauri, Mimmo Rotella and Mario Schifano were already experimenting with similar ideas.
Fabio Mauri was born in Rome in 1926. His early youth was marked by the events of war and Fascism—traumas and horrors that would profoundly impact and influence the artist’s life and work. Raised among writers and painters, it was natural that Mauri would befriend intellectuals in both artistic and cultural circles of Italy’s new avant-garde, among them: philosopher and semiotician Umberto Eco, film director and aficionado Pier Paolo Pasolini (the artist’s close childhood friend), visual artist Jannis Kounellis, art historian Maurizio Calvesi, the writer Edoardo Sanguineti and art critic and curator Achille Bonito Oliva.
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For additional information, please contact:
Maddy Martin, Hauser & Wirth, maddymartin@hauserwirth