Louise Lawler

Metro Pictures will open an exhibition by Louise Lawler on February 1, 1997. This will be the gallery's inaugural exhibition at it's new 9,000 square foot location at 519 West 24th Street in Chelsea. The new location features two main exhibition rooms on the street level as well as two smaller gallery spaces, one on the main level and another on the second floor. This provides Metro Pictures with the opportunity to present smaller, informal exhibitions in addition to its regular program.

The centerpiece of Louise Lawler's show will be a series of large-scale (roughly 48 x 60 inches) photographs taken at the gallery's new premises before and during renovation. The lushly abstract new images are reminiscent of Color Field paintings. These, as well as the other works exhibited, continue the artist's involvement with artworks, their presentation and treatment. Lawler's photographs of artworks in museums, galleries, private homes, auction houses and storage areas track the art object through various situations and comment on the relationship between the object and the worlds of commerce and consumption, as well as the museums and collectors who own and present it. As always, Lawler exhibits humor and an appreciative eye for the art depicted. The exhibition will also include Fixed Intervals, a collaboration with artist Allan McCollum which consist of series of brass plated steel "ding bats" which are placed (either on the wall or a pedestal) as a surrogate to mark the absence of a work of art. Lawler will also show a work from 1995 consisting of 80 drinking glasses placed on shelves on the wall. Each glass is etched with the word "Word."

Lawler has had one-person museum exhibitions at the Wadsworth Antheneum, Hartford (1984); The Museum of Modern Art, New York ("Projects," 1987); The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1990); Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany (1993); Centre d'Art Contemporain, Geneva (1994); Munich Kunstverein, Munich (1995). Lawler collaborated with Douglas Crimp on the book On the Museum's Ruins published by MIT Press in 1993. The artist is based in New York City and has exhibited at Metro Pictures since 1982.