Ursula von Rydingsvard. Sculpture

MIAMI, FL (April 4, 2012)— The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University (FIU) is pleased to present Ursula von Rydingsvard: Sculpture. This traveling exhibition includes a selection of the artist's most significant sculptures, including wall reliefs and monumental cedar works created from 1991 to 2009. The exhibition was recently honored with the U.S. section of the International Association of Art Critics' annual award for Best Show in a Non-Profit Gallery or Space for its premiere at the SculptureCenter, NY. The exhibition will open to the public on Saturday, April 21, 2012 at 4:00 pm with a Green Critics’ Lecture featuring von Rydingsvard at FIU’s Green Library, Room 100. This lecture will be followed by an exhibition preview and reception at the Frost Art Museum immediately afterward. The exhibition will be on view from April 21, 2012 through August 5, 2012.

Von Rydingsvard is renowned for creating large-scale, often monumental sculpture from cedar beams which she painstakingly cuts, assembles, glues, clamps and laminates, finally rubbing powered graphite into the work’s textured surfaces. Her signature shapes are abstract, with references to things from the real world. Drawing on a range of sources, from the humble to the majestic, von Rydingsvard’s work is recognized for its great psychological force and powerful physical presence. Von Rydingsvard's most enduring form is the bowl, which may appear as a shallow or towering form, and may alternately evoke nourishment, domesticity, the body, a simple enclosure, or a mountain, among other references. The exhibition includes the five undulating bowls that make up Krasawica II (1998-2001), Ukrainian for beautiful young woman, whose overall shape conveys a fluid sense of movement and vitality despite its substantial, weighty volume, as well as the large, low basin, ringed with bulbous, stuffed-intestinal forms, whose primal, physical gravity recalls the Ocean Floor (1996).

Ursula von Rydingsvard: Sculpture is organized by SculptureCenter and guest-curated by Helaine Posner. The exhibition and its tour are made possible with the support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and Agnes Gund.

About the Artist Ursula von Rydingsvard's first solo exhibition was presented in New York in 1975 and she has been exhibiting her work in museums and galleries internationally ever since. Her sculpture is included in the permanent collections of over thirty museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, and Detroit Institute of Arts. Major permanent commissions of her work are view at the Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington; the Bloomberg Building, New York; and the Queens Family Courthouse, New York. Mad. Sq. Art: Ursula von Rydingsvard was presented at Madison Square Park in 2006.

About Florida International University Florida International University is one of the 25 largest universities in the nation, with more than 46,000 students. Nearly 130,000 FIU alumni live and work in South Florida. Its colleges and schools offer more than 200 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations and law. As one of South Florida’s anchor institutions, FIU is worlds ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. The opening of the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in August 2009 has enhanced the university’s ability to create lasting positive change in our community.

About The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University Approaching its 35th anniversary in 2012, The Frost Art Museum opened its current 46,000-square-foot state of the art building in November, 2008. Daily admission is always free. An AAM accredited museum and Smithsonian affiliate, the museum is located at 10975 SW 17th St across from the Blue garage and adjacent to the Wertheim Performing Arts Center on the Modesto A. Maidique Campus. Hours of operation are Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sunday noon-5 p.m. Closed on Mondays and most legal holidays.

Ursula von Rydingsvard
Sculpture
Kuratorin: Helaine Posner