New York Diary: Zoe Leonard: Survey at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Zoe Leonard (b. 1961), detail of You see I am here after all, 2008. 3,851 vintage postcards, 11 × 10 1/2 × 147 ft. (3.35 × 3.2 × 44.8 m) overall. Installation view, Dia: Beacon, Beacon, New York, 2008. Collection of the artist; courtesy Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne. Photograph by Bill Jacobson, New York
Zoe Leonard: Survey at the Whitney Museum was an opportunity for me to see Leonard's work up close after only seeing her work online. It ranges from photography, found objects and sculptures, each asking the viewer to "reengage with how we see". The exhibition was on from 2nd March - 10th June 2018.
New York–based artist Zoe Leonard (b. 1961) is among the most critically acclaimed artists of her generation. Over the past three decades, she has produced work in photography and sculpture that has been celebrated for its lyrical observations of daily life coupled with a rigorous, questioning attention to the politics and conditions of image making and display.
Zoe Leonard: Survey is the first large-scale overview of the artist’s work in an American museum. The exhibition looks across Leonard’s career to highlight her engagement with a range of themes, including the history of photography, gender and sexuality, loss and mourning, migration, displacement, and the urban landscape.
More than it focuses on any particular subject, however, Leonard’s work slowly and reflectively calibrates vision and form. Using repetition, subtle changes of perspective, and shifts of scale, Leonard draws viewers into an awareness of the meanings behind otherwise familiar images or objects. A counter-example to the speed and disposability of image culture today, Leonard’s photographs, sculptures and installations ask the viewer to reengage with how we see.
Here are some of the works from the exhibition:
Zoe Leonard (b. 1961), Untitled, 1989. Gelatin silver print, 9 3/4 x 7 in. (24.77 x 17.78 cm). Collection of the artist; courtesy Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne, and Hauser & Wirth, New York
Zoe Leonard (b. 1961), detail of The Fae Richards Photo Archive, 1993-96. Gelatin silver prints and chromogenic prints, dimensions variable. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Committee and the Photography Committee
nstallation view of Zoe Leonard (b. 1961), You see I am here after all, 2008. 3,851 vintage postcards, 11 × 10 1/2 × 147 ft. (3.35 × 3.2 × 44.8 m) overall. Dia: Beacon, Beacon, New York, 2008. Collection of the artist; courtesy Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne. Photograph by Bill Jacobson, New York
Zoe Leonard (b. 1961), TV Wheelbarrow, 2001. Dye transfer print, 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm). Collection of the artist; courtesy Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne, and Hauser & Wirth, New York
Installation view of Zoe Leonard (b. 1961), Strange Fruit, 1992-97. Orange, banana, grapefruit, lemon, and avocado peels with thread, zippers, buttons, sinew, needles, plastic, wire, stickers, fabric, and trim wax, dimensions variable. Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; purchased with funds contributed by the Dietrich Foundation and with the partial gift of the artist and the Paula Cooper Gallery, 1998. Image courtesy the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photograph by Graydon Wood
Zoe Leonard (b. 1961), detail of New York Harbor I, 2016. Two gelatin silver prints, 21 × 17 1/8 in. (53.3 × 43.5 cm) each. Collection of the artist; courtesy Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne, and Hauser & Wirth, New York
Zoe Leonard (b. 1961), detail of How to Make Good Pictures, 2016. 429 books, 25 1/4 × 6 1/8 × 248 3/4 in. (64.1 × 15.6 × 631.8 cm) overall. Collection of the artist; courtesy Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne. Photograph by Simon Vogel
More Zoe Leonard from these recent talks at the museum:
On the occasion of Zoe Leonard: Survey, the artist speaks with writer Rebecca Solnit about their shared interests and commitments ranging from the history of photography and landscapes of the natural and built environment, to feminism and the current political climate.
This conversation between Zoe Leonard and critic Elisabeth Lebovici explores their intersecting practices and mutual histories, reflecting on the exhibition Zoe Leonard: Survey and Lebovici’s recent book, Ce que le sida m’a fait (What AIDS has done to me).
Over five years, Zoe Leonard sewed together skins of fruit. Leonard chose not to preserve the resulting work, Strange Fruit (1992–1997), intending for its decay to be on view. It has not been seen publicly since 2001. On the occasion of the work's appearance at the Whitney, a range of voices will reflect on Strange Fruit and its multiple historical inflections, its relevance and resonance today, and its very specific material existence. Speakers include Gregg Bordowitz, Jonah Groeneboer, Katie Hubbard, Fred Moten, Christian Scheidemann and Cameron Rowland.