This Is Not a Prop

David Zwirner is pleased to present This Is Not a Prop at the gallery’s 525 and 533 West 19th Street locations in New York. The exhibition includes work by Alex Da Corte, Jonathas de Andrade, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jonah Groeneboer, Gordon Hall, Hannah Levy, Donald Moffett, Paulo Nazareth, Elle Pérez, Oren Pinhassi, Christina Quarles, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Franz West.

This Is Not a Prop brings together a multigenerational group of artists whose work explores the liminal space between body and object. The exhibition takes as its point of departure Franz West’s (1947–2012) furniture and Passstücke (Adaptives), which are represented in the show by three works: Paravent (Passstück) (Screen [Adaptive]) (c. 1982); 2625 (1991/1999); and Passstücke (mit Video mit Verwendungstipps) (Adaptives [with Video with Usage Tips]) (1996). Intended to be interacted with, these works redefine art as a social experience and ask how objects can function both as physical extensions of the body and as representations of the human experience.

This Is Not a Prop is organized by Alec Smyth and Cristina Vere Nicoll.

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Image: Viewers interacting with Franz West, Passstücke (mit Video mit Verwendungstips) (Adaptives [with Video with Usage Tips]), 1996, during the exhibition Franz West at David Zwirner, New York, 2014. © 2018 Archiv Franz West

Location
525 & 533 West 19th Street New York
Dates
June 27—August 3, 2018
Opening reception
Wednesday, June 27 6–8 PM
Artist
Alex Da Corte, Jonathas de Andrade, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jonah Groeneboer, Gordon Hall, Hannah Levy, Donald Moffett, Paulo Nazareth, Elle Perez, Oren Pinhassi, Christina Quarles, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Wolfgang Tillmans, Franz West
Press Release
This Is Not a Prop
A still from a video by Alex Da Corte, titled Slow Graffiti, dated 2017.

Alex Da Corte

Slow Graffiti (still), 2017
Single channel video projection, 13:00 min, color, stereo
Dimensions variable with installation

Alex Da Corte’s (b.1980) quiet and sensual film, Slow Graffiti (2017), created for the artist’s recent solo exhibition at Secession in Vienna, is on view for the first time in New York. A shot-for-shot remake of Jørgen Leth’s The Perfect Human (1967), the work imagines the ideal man and woman replaced by the actor Boris Karloff and his infamous character, Frankenstein, both played by the artist himself in makeup and prosthetics. Characteristic of his practice as a whole, the work explores the formal potential of everyday artifacts of consumer culture (such as lipstick, cigarettes, deli meats, and brooms, among others) and questions how these commodities can possess meaning beyond their original function.

Like West’s furniture works, Hannah Levy’s (b. 1991) anthropomorphic sculptures explore the intersection of sculpture and design. Made from silicone and stainless steel, Levy’s two works on view mine the familiar ergonomic shapes of contemporary design to reveal a sense of fleshiness and corporeality beneath their slick surfaces.

 

Donald Moffett (b. 1955) treats the canvas as a surrogate for the body, creating orifices by drilling holes into the surface of his paintings. Suggestive of both sexuality and erosion, his work is steeped in social, political, and sexual critique. Lot 061110/12 (the cadmium hole) (2010-2012), displayed at waist height with four metal pipes securing it to the wall, explores the visceral dichotomy between rough and soft textures.

 

A detail from an untitled sculpture by Hannah Levy, dated 2018.

Hannah Levy

Untitled (detail), 2018
Nickel plated steel, silicone, and polyurethane
29 1/2 x 83 1/2 x 21 inches (74.9 x 212.1 x 53.3 cm)
mw.pnz_.f.048.01.05_-1_copy

Paulo Nazareth

Sem título (detail), 2011
Inkjet print on paper
8 5/8 x 11 3/8 inches (22 x 29 cm)

In Paulo Nazareth’s (b. 1977) photographs, the way in which individuals relate to objects engenders questions of identity, race, and heritage. Sem título (2011) depicts the artist with an animal carcass wrapped around his head, while NA - Surrealismo en Mexico (2011) shows Nazareth holding the string of a silver balloon in his mouth. Both works on view suggest a sly and playful subversion of stereotypes, and an interest in banal or overdetermined objects as appendages of the human body.

Part of a large-scale installation entitled Eu, mestiço, Jonathas de Andrade’s (b. 1982) series of black-and-white photographs, Menosprezo/Belittle, por Oristes (2017), uses the body as a site to examine national identity and institutionalized racism in Brazil. Installed above text extracted from a 1952 anthropological study on Brazil by Columbia University and UNESCO, the images depict a model acting out inscribed racial identifiers.

 

One of the most significant artists to emerge in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957–1996) explored the myriad ways objects can resonate with meaning, creating works that were at once specific and mutable; rigorous and generous; poetic and political. Despite the resolute abstraction of much of his oeuvre, many of the artist's works can be understood to directly implicate the body itself, including a number of images of imprints or traces of an absent subject. On view, "Untitled" (Cold Blue Snow) (1988), depicts footprints left in the snow.

An installation by Jonathas de Andrade, titled Menosprezo / Belittle, por Oristes, dated 2017.

Jonathas de Andrade

Menosprezo / Belittle, por Oristes (installation view), 2017
An installation by Gordon Hall, titled Brothers and Sisters, dated 2018.

Gordon Hall

Brothers and Sisters, 2018
Cast pigmented concrete, hand-dyed cotton, wood, hand-glazed tile mosaic, colored pencil, brick, and mortar
Dimensions vary with installation

Taking up the language of minimalist abstraction, Jonah Groeneboer (b.1978) questions the relationship between seeing and knowing with thread sculptures that are nearly invisible from certain angles. While abstract, these lissome forms explore body politics in their insistent refusal of the viewer’s gaze.

 

Gordon Hall’s (b. 1983) multi-part installation and performance Brothers and Sisters (2018) engages sculptural abstraction as a way of indexing bodies. The work is composed of a set of precisely designed objects with ambiguous purpose, which Hall uses in a performance accompanied by four singers. Here, Hall creates site-responsive sculptures that explore issues surrounding transformation, self-care, and the rejection of visual taxonomies of personhood. Brothers and Sisters was originally commissioned by the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago as part of their Intermissions series.

Oren Pinhassi’s (b. 1985) large plaster and glass sculptures reference the architecture of gay cruising sites where the private and public intersect. The sculptures, corporeal and rough, invite viewers into a sensual landscape where bodies are simultaneously hidden and exposed. Pinhassi’s work imagines the erotic potential of architecture and constructed spaces.

Few artists have shaped the scope of contemporary art and influenced a younger generation more than Wolfgang Tillmans (b. 1968). The portrait occupies a prominent position within Tillmans’s oeuvre; he has mentioned that he approaches the genre with the same level of experimentation that he uses for his abstract pictures, and his subjects are sometimes presented in contexts that seem to approximate still lifes.

Oren Pinhassi

Untitled (urinal #1); Untitled (urinal #2), 2018
Cement, burlap, glass, and metal mesh
Each: 58 x 20 x 45 inches (147.3 x 50.8 x 114.3 cm)
A photograph by Elle Pérez, titled Binder, dated 2015.

Elle Perez

Binder, 2015
Archival pigment print
44 3/8 x 31 inches (112.7 x 78.7 cm)

New York based artist Elle Pérez (b. 1989) explores the complicated project of queer visibility through photographs embedded with subtle narrative codes. Seemingly ordinary objects such as an eyelash, a bandana, or a swimsuit, are revealed to be a language of visual signifiers. Binder (2018), presented in the exhibition, depicts a gray chest binder hanging on a shower curtain rod.

Examining self-portraiture as a means of representation, Paul Mpagi Sepuya’s (b. 1982) photographs feature staged objects, mirrors, and collages that visually fragment, or abstract, the artist’s own form in an attempt to complicate presentations of the queer, black body. For Sepuya, self-portraiture is as much about disclosure as it is about concealment; the five photographs on view display his range of representation, including three works from 2018 created in collaboration with Grace Wales Bonner and Eric Mack for i-D magazine.

 

Christina Quarles (b. 1985) creates semi-figurative paintings that distort the human form as a means of capturing intersectional desire, and the experience of living as a queer-identifying African-American woman who is often mistaken as white. Fell To Earth (Felt to Pieces) (2018) depicts a hunched over figure with limbs extending in all directions; the work exemplifies Quarles interest in the body as a locus of ambiguity.  

Paul Mpagi Sepuya

Mirror Study (_Q5A2063), 2016
Archival pigment print
13 3/8 x 10 inches (34 x 25.4 cm)
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
Installation view of the exhibition This is Not a Prop, at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2018.
A sculpture by Jonah Groeneboer, titled bent hip, dated 2014.

Jonah Groeneboer

bent hip, 2014
Thread and three (3) brass bars
71 3/4 x 14 1/2 x 3 inches (182.2 x 36.8 x 7.6 cm)
A sculpture by Jonah Groeneboer, titled The Step, dated 2012.

The Step, 2012
Thread and four (4) brass bars
77 1/2 x 32 x 18 1/2 inches (196.9 x 81.3 x 47 cm)
A sculpture by Jonah Groeneboer, titled Sun Column, dated 2013.

Sun Column, 2013
Thread and four (4) brass bars
86 1/2 x 12 3/4 x 12 inches (219.7 x 32.4 x 30.5 cm)
A sculpture by Jonah Groeneboer, titled Curve, dated 2013.

Curve, 2013
Thread and three (3) brass bars
86 x 32 x 16 inches (218.4 x 81.3 x 40.6 cm)
A sculpture by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, titled "Untitled" (Cold Blue Snow), dated 1988.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Untitled"" (Cold Blue Snow), 1988
C-print jigsaw puzzle in plastic bag
7 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches (19.05 x 24.13 cm)
An installation by Gordon Hall, titled Brothers and Sisters, dated 2018.

Gordon Hall

Brothers and Sisters, 2018
Cast pigmented concrete, hand-dyed cotton, wood, hand-glazed tile mosaic, colored pencil, brick, and mortar
Dimensions vary with installation
A sculpture by Gordon Hall, titled Three Part Object (Can), dated 2018.

Three Part Object (Can), 2018
Cast pigmented concrete in three (3) parts
Part 1: 19 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches (49.5 x 11.4 x 11.4 cm) Part 2: 5 3/4 x 7 1/2 x 7 inches (14.6 x 19.1 x 17.8 cm) Part 3: 4 5/8 x 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches (11.7 x 6.4 x 6.4 cm)
A sculpture by Gordon Hall, titled Leaning Object (Blue), dated 2018.

Leaning Object (Blue), 2018
Cast pigmented concrete
87 1/4 x 2 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches (221.6 x 7 x 29.8 cm)
A sculpture by Gordon Hall, titled Brothers and Sisters (II), dated 2018.

Brothers and Sisters (II), 2018
Cast pigmented concrete
16 3/4 x 7 x 17 1/2 inches (42.5 x 17.8 x 44.5 cm)
A sculpture by Gordon Hall, titled Fold (II), dated 2018.

Fold (II), 2018
Hand-dyed cotton
2 1/8 x 104 x 28 3/4 inches (5.4 x 264.2 x 73 cm)
A sculpture by Gordon Hall, titled Panels (Winter Dawn and Dusk), dated 2018.

Panels (Winter Dawn and Dusk), 2018
Cast pigmented concrete in two (2) parts
Part 1: 28 3/4 x 20 x 2 1/2 inches (73 x 50.8 x 6.4 cm) Part 2: 28 3/4 x 20 x 2 1/8 inches (73 x 50.8 x 5.4 cm) Overall: 28 3/4 x 44 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches (73 x 113 x 6.4 cm)
A sculpture by Gordon Hall, titled Brothers and Sisters (I), dated 2018.

Gordon Hall

Brothers and Sisters (I), 2018
Cast pigmented concrete and wood
11 1/8 x 14 x 11 1/2 inches (28.3 x 35.6 x 29.2 cm)
A sculpture by Gordon Hall, titled Seat (Greens), dated 2018.

Gordon Hall

Seat (Greens), 2018
Hand-glazed tile mosaic and wood
19 3/8 x 15 1/2 x 14 inches (49.2 x 39.4 x 35.6 cm)
A sculpture by Gordon Hall, titled Digits, dated 2018.

Digits, 2018
Colored pencil on wood in five (5) parts
Each: 2 1/8 x 66 x 2 1/8 inches (5.4 x 167.6 x 5.4 cm) Overall: 2 1/8 x 66 x 38 1/2 inches (5.4 x 167.6 x 97.8 cm)
A sculpture by Gordon Hall, titled Kneeling (Brick Object) (II), dated 2018.

Gordon Hall, Octavius Neveaux

Kneeling (Brick Object)(II), 2018
Brick and mortar
10 1/4 x 11 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches (26 x 29.2 x 41.9 cm)
A sculpture by Gordon Hall, titled Ramp, dated 2016.

Ramp, 2016
Wood
4 5/8 x 48 x 14 3/4 inches (11.7 x 121.9 x 37.5 cm)
A sculpture by Gordon Hall, titled Seat (Yellow and Beige), dated 2016.

Gordon Hall

Seat (Yellow and Beige), 2016
Hand-glazed tile mosaic and wood
18 1/2 x 20 x 12 3/8 inches (47 x 50.8 x 31.4 cm)
A sculpture by Gordon Hall, titled Handle (III), dated 2018.

Gordon Hall

Handle (III), 2018
Cast pigmented concrete
8 1/2 x 6 1/8 x 6 inches (21.6 x 15.6 x 15.2 cm)
A still from a video by Alex Da Corte, titled Slow Graffiti, dated 2017.

Alex Da Corte

Slow Graffiti, 2017
Single channel video projection, 13:00 min, color, stereo
Dimensions variable with installation
Two photographs by Paulo Nazareth, titled Sem título, dated 2011.

Paulo Nazareth

Sem título, 2011
Giclée print on paper
Diptych Framed, each: 12 1/4 x 9 3/8 inches (31.1 x 23.8 cm)
mw.pnz_.f.449.01.05

Paulo Nazareth

NA - Surrealismo en Mexico, 2011
Giclée print on paper
27 1/4 x 36 1/8 inches (69.2 x 91.8 cm)
A photograph by Paul Mpagi Sepuya, titled Mirror Study for Grace (0X5A2066), dated 2017.

Paul Mpagi Sepuya

Mirror Study for Grace (0X5A2066), 2017
Archival pigment print
24 3/4 x 16 7/8 inches (62.9 x 42.9 cm)
A photograph by Paul Mpagi Sepuya, titled Figure (_2020637), dated 2017.

Paul Mpagi Sepuya

Figure (_2020637), 2017
Archival pigment print
32 7/8 x 24 7/8 inches (83.5 x 63.2 cm)
A photograph by Paul Mpagi Sepuya, titled Studio (0x5A0173), dated 2017.

Paul Mpagi Sepuya

Studio (0x5A0173), 2017
Archival pigment print
76 1/8 x 51 1/4 inches (193.4 x 130.2 cm)
A photograph by Paul Mpagi Sepuya, titled Mirror Study for Grace (0X5A2020), dated 2017.

Paul Mpagi Sepuya

Mirror Study for Grace (0X5A2020), 2017
Archival pigment print
24 7/8 x 16 7/8 inches (63.2 x 42.9 cm)
A photograph by Paul Mpagi Sepuya, titled Mirror Study (_Q5A2063), dated 2016.

Paul Mpagi Sepuya

Mirror Study (_Q5A2063), 2016
Archival pigment print
23 7/8 x 20 5/8 inches (60.6 x 52.4 cm)
A sculpture by Franz West, titled Paravent (Passstück) (Screen [Adaptive]), dated circa 1982.

Franz West

Paravent (Passstück) (Screen [Adaptive]), c. 1982
Papier-mâché, plaster, gauze, dispersion, wood, and iron
67 3/8 x 55 1/8 x 14 5/8 inches (171 x 140 x 37 cm)
A detail from an untitled sculpture by Hannah Levy, dated 2018.

Hannah Levy

Untitled (detail), 2018
Nickel plated steel, silicone, and polyurethane
29 1/2 x 83 1/2 x 21 inches (74.9 x 212.1 x 53.3 cm)
An untitled sculpture by Hannah Levy, dated 2018.

Hannah Levy

Untitled, 2018
Silicone, nickel plated steel, rubber, and zipper
108 x 75 1/2 x 107 inches (274.3 x 191.8 x 271.8 cm)
A painting by Christina Quarles, titled Fell To Earth (Felt To Pieces), dated 2018.

Christina Quarles

Fell To Earth (Felt To Pieces), 2018
Acrylic on canvas
50 1/4 x 52 inches (127.6 x 132.1 cm)
An installation by Jonathas de Andrade, titled Menosprezo / Belittle, por Oristes, dated 2017.

Jonathas de Andrade

Menosprezo / Belittle, por Oristes, 2017
UV print and text on Falconboard in seventy-three (73) parts
Overall: 32 3/4 x 448 7/8 x 2 inches (83.2 x 1140.3 x 5.1 cm)
A sculpture by Oren Pinhassi, titled Drip Dry, dated 2018.

Oren Pinhassi

Drip Dry, 2018
Plaster, sand, pigment, burlap, and steel towel bar
35 x 23 1/4 x 3 1/2 inches (88.9 x 59.1 x 8.9 cm)
A sculpture by Oren Pinhassi, titled Urinal (NYC I), dated 2018.

Oren Pinhassi

Urinal (NYC I), 2018
Steel, plaster, sand, burlap, pigment, glass, and steel mesh
57 1/2 x 20 x 20 inches (146.1 x 50.8 x 50.8 cm)
A sculpture by Oren Pinhassi, titled Urinal (NYC II), dated 2018.

Oren Pinhassi

Urinal (NYC II), 2018
Steel, plaster, sand, burlap, pigment, glass, and steel mesh
57 1/2 x 20 1/4 x 20 inches (146.1 x 51.4 x 50.8 cm)
A sculpture by Oren Pinhassi, titled Springs, dated 2018.

Oren Pinhassi

Springs, 2018
Steel, plaster, sand, burlap, pigment, glass, Vaseline, and umbrella
97 x 105 x 105 inches (246.4 x 266.7 x 266.7 cm)
A sculpture by Oren Pinhassi, titled Towel Snake (Turquoise), dated 2018.

Oren Pinhassi

Towel Snake (turquoise), 2018
Towel and plaster
7 1/4 x 12 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches (18.4 x 31.8 x 21 cm)
A photograph by Elle Pérez, titled Binder, dated 2015.

Elle Perez

Binder, 2015
Archival pigment print
44 3/8 x 31 inches (112.7 x 78.7 cm)
A sculpture by Donald Moffat, titled Lot 061110/12 (the cadmium hole), dated 2011 to 2012.

Donald Moffett

Lot 061110/12 (the cadmium hole), 2010-2012
Oil on linen on panel, pipe, cast iron flanges, and hardware
16 x 16 x 15 1/2 inches (40.6 x 40.6 x 39.4 cm)
A photograph by Wolfgang Tillmans, titled Karl, Utoquai 9, dated 2012.

Wolfgang Tillmans

Karl, Utoquai 9, 2012
Inkjet print on paper, clips
54 3/8 x 81 1/8 inches (138 x 206 cm)
An installation by Franz West, titled 2625, dated from 1991 to 1999.

Franz West

2625, 1991/1999
Installation in three (3) parts with two (2) chairs (wood, paint, and metal) and one (1) sculpture (papier-mâché, paint, cardboard, gauze, and polyester)
Chair, each: 33 x 17 x 17 inches (83.8 x 43.2 x 43.2 cm) Sculpture: 18 x 18 1/2 x 20 inches (45.7 x 47 x 50.8 cm)
A sculpture by Franz West, titled Passstücke (mit Video mit Verwendungstips) (Adaptives [with video with usage tips]), dated 1996.

Franz West

Passstücke (mit Video mit Verwendungstips) (Adaptives [with video with usage tips]), 1996
Papier-mâché, plaster, metal, and paint in two (2) parts with accompanying video and monitor on wooden board
Dimensions vary with each installation Left Passstück: 27 x 21 x 17 inches (68.6 x 53.3 x 43.2 cm) Right Passstück: 29 x 16 1/2 x 10 inches (73.7 x 41.9 x 25.4 cm) Board: 1 x 87 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches (2.5 x 222.3 x 59.7 cm)

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