Alice Aycock. New Works On Paper

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The Drawing Room is pleased to presentALICEAYCOCKnew works on paper, opening July 12, 2013 andfeaturing selected drawings and prints by the renowned sculptor whose works have long captivatedaudiences worldwide. Known for her large-scale installations, public art projects and outdoor sculptures,thedrawings in this exhibitrevealthe spirit of exploration that is the driving force in her creative process.AliceAycockcame of age in the 1970s, emerging from Douglass College and Hunter College as an artist whowas equal parts conceptualist, engineer and phenomenologist at a time when the New York art world was atajunctionbetween the Modernist and Post-Modernist eras.She embraced the concept of art as experience asopposed to art as object, and to this end her artistic practicehasyieldedworks that encompass a palpable,physical synergy as well as a narrative that is transformative not only in storyline but in its linguistics. In thisway,Aycock’s oeuvre has been a synthesis of visual art and language in which myriad investigations unfoldin complex scientific, philosophical and intuited systems created to exist equally in two and in threedimensions. The drawingspossess an intellectual rigor that is both separate from and conjoined to thesculptures, making them remarkable in theirgenesis from thought to realization and underscoring theirsignificance as one of the cornerstones in a career spanning some four decades.In a recent drawing titled,From the Series Entitled “Sum Over Histories,” Study for a Timescape V,2013, theartist’s use of spinning helices, swirling ribbons and serrated discs creates a sublime tumult.Aycockemploysthe assistance of computer programs in this and other drawings, working in collaboration with digital mediamuch the way an architect or engineer manifests a blueprint or plan with the aid of technical renderingdevices such as CAD. With the compositional infrastructure and structural conundrums anchored on thepageshe then addresses each work with her own hand, applying rich swaths of watercolor and lineararticulations. The resulting imagery is a mélange of fantastical precision, dreamy, intuited architectures androbust fictions.From the Series Entitled “Sum Over Histories,”Study for a Timescape V,2013,inkjet print and hand-painted watercolor on paper, 36 x 53 inInSuper Twister (1),2013, a cyclonic cone swirls in place, its curls of energy twisting within the vortices ofits orbit.Aycock’s explorationsofthe thrust and movement of wind are rendered in the form of radial turbinesthat seem capable of spinning off the page. Here, her assiduous research meets head on with the physicalsciences, as she converts the twister’s calamitous potential intopure visual force.Drawing from memory, fiction, cognition, and lavishly extravagant systems of invented logic,Aycockhascreated a parallel universe of magnificent, cosmic contraptions. A synthesis of reason and alchemy, nostalgiaand causality--and the domino effect in the extreme--her drawings serve as a laboratory forexperimentation.Aycock's exquisite sense ofinvention and her deft use of technology allow the artist'scomplex narratives to crystallize into form. As such,Aycock's drawings stand as the nucleus of thought andthe foundation of her creative output.AliceAycockwas born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1946. In New York City, where she has lived since the1970s, she was among the artists that redefined the prevailing artistic tradition during that decade.This year,in collaboration with New York University’s Grey Art Gallery,the Parrish Art Museummounted aretrospective titled,Alice Aycock Drawings: Some Stories Are Worth Repeating. The exhibit, which tookplace in two venues,featured major drawings, sculptural maquettes and photographic documentation ofrealized and imagined architectural projects dating from 1971 to the present.Alice Aycock’swork is represented in numerous major collections including the Museum of Modern Art, theWhitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, theNational Gallery ofAmericanArt, and the Parrish Art Museum, among others.Among her permanent installations, two can currently be seen in the New York metropolitan area:East RiverRoundabout, which was installed at the Andrew Haswell Green Park in Manhattan in 1995, andStar Sifter,on view since 1998 at Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 1.In 2014, Aycock’sPark Avenue PaperChase Projectwill be presented on Park Avenue between 52ndand 57thStreets, and this summer,Maelstrom,2013, a large component of thePark Avenue installation, will be previewed at LongHouse Reserve in EastHampton.

Alice Aycock. New Works On Paper

artists:
Alice Aycock