For Artgenève 2015, Luxembourg & Dayan is delighted to exhibit a comprehensive selection of works by American artist Rebecca Ward (b. 1984). In 2014 the artist featured in the much admired ‘Shaped Canvas, Revisted’ exhibition in New York, and through Ward’s fresh handling of the canvas surface, the presentation at Artgenève continues the gallery’s long- standing investigation of surface, texture and materiality.
The presentation features a new body of works, that renews the artist’s use of architectonic lines evident in her earlier work with a feminine materiality. Ward lacerates and deconstructs the canvas using geometric arrangements to create the delicate, tactile areas of transparent gauze, underneath which the grid-like structure of the stretcher bars is visible. These sculpture-influenced paintings relate to the artist’s feelings about time and memory.
Many of the works demonstrate the Ward’s interest in the canvas as a physical object; particularly in the way it can be deconstructed and reconstructed. Other works in the exhibition, that initially appear as regular canvases, in fact comprise of a patchwork of elements - be it stitched leather, cotton batting or canvas - that deliberately tap into the iconography of the feminine gesture. This process based art becomes enriched by the artist’s choice of media, found in household materials and cleaning processes that are associated with ‘traditional’ female societal roles.
Ward is part of a new wave of New York artists whose work recalls the iconic striated canvases of Frank Stella as well as the process- based art of post-war German masters such as Blinky Palermo and Sigmar Polke. At the same time, Ward’s art incorporates image manipulations made available by digital technologies, and the way in which these technologies have made us re-assess the legacies of Arte Povera and Minimalism.