LOS ANGELES, CA.- Karma is presenting a solo exhibition of work by Robert Grosvenor. Located at 7351 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, the show runs from November 12 to December 23, 2022.
A painted steel exterior exposes patches of movement, signs perhaps of a human hand. The color, a greenish yellow, coats a form which is at once recognizable and enigmatic. Placed atop rubber tires, a form of a classic American car is evoked, yet further modified by Grosvenor to become a sculpture which resists representation.
In another work, a curving form in blue is made of fiberglass, wood cardboard. The structure also features curving edges, but in place of a sanded, smooth surface, its swoops are studded with rows of soft semi-spheres. Reminiscent of modern furniture, the work radiates from Grosvenor’s practice which finds in mid-century technologies and cultural lores the means to expand the definitions of sculpture.
Owing to a wide-ranging body of work which includes drawing, photography and monumental sculpture, and coupled with an aversion to rationalizations of his work through language, Grosvenor’s output is elusive. And while his work has been included in seminal exhibitions of Minimalism, Grosvenor has always maintained his own program, in which playfulness, nostalgia, and retrofuturism takes the place of the cool austerity emblematic of the genre. The result is an expansiveness, sourced from Grosvenor’s ability to find in the bevy of collective culture and technological innovation surprising constructions which rewires expectations and demands close inspection.
Robert Grosvenor (b. 1937, New York, NY) is an American sculptor and photographer known for his surreal captures of vernacular architecture and modernist retrofuturisms. Grosvenor’s monumental sculptures transform a bevy of mid-century technologies, structures, and cultural lores into simple, streamlined forms. These idiosyncratic forms challenge the sculptural conventions of weight, line, movement, and inertia. Grosvenor was included in the historic 1966 Primary Structures survey exhibition at the Jewish Museum, which famously introduced Minimalist art to a broader public. Although his work builds on the aesthetic program of Minimalism, Grosvenor playfully resists the cool austerity emblematic of the genre. Rather he explores the sensuousness of his materials and the nostalgic qualities of their color and design. Recent solo exhibitions include Karma, Los Angeles (2022); Karma, New York (2020); Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris (2020); Consortium Museum, Dijon (2020); Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2019); Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (2018); and the Renaissance Society, Chicago (2017), among others.
Grosvenor’s work is represented in various public collections including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California; Lannan Foundation, Los Angeles, California; Edward R. Broida Trust, Los Angeles, California; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Seagrams and Sons, Inc., New York, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; Direction Regionale des Affaires, Rennes, France; Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Frac Bretagne, Rennes, France; Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, California; and the Fundacao de Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal.
