SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.- Anthony Meier announced the representation of Berkeley-based artist Libby Black (b. 1976, Toledo, Ohio), who works across drawing, painting, and sculpture to recreate everyday objects as brightly colored sculptural approximations. Her sculptures render both aspirational luxury and commonplace artifacts of domestic life, combining to create a tactile language that charts a trajectory both of personal history and broader cultural contexts. Through inquiry, reinterpretation, and recontextualization, Black illuminates her surroundings, offering insight into the world we share.
“We are honored to have Libby Black join the gallery,” comments Anthony Meier. “Her inventive approach to artmaking adds depth to the analysis of tense issues of domesticity, economics, and queer history.”
Using a combination of paper, paint, graphite, and hot glue, Black creates sculptures that replicate an array of everyday objects––such as cleaning supplies, grocery bags, flowers, tennis rackets, and luggage––which subvert initial expectations to evoke greater questions surrounding the nature of representation. The items that Black selects for these sculptures offer a view into the artist's biography, reflecting her role as a wife, mother, teacher, and lesbian.
Through the portrayal of domestic objects, Black surfaces the interactions and narratives embedded within everyday life, encompassing cultural, historical, and personal realms. Early investigations into the systems of human desire and the elements that contribute to the creation of the self evolved along with Black's lived history. Her art not only reflects personal experience but also challenges broader societal constructs, inviting examination into the intersections of gender, identity, politics and equity.
Black’s ongoing transformation of books into sculptural objects extends her inquiry to challenge existing hierarchies. These often hollow paper sculptures are depicted with hand-drawn reproductions of original book jackets sourced from primary source periodicals about addiction recovery; under-recognized art historical figures, such as artist Ana Mendieta; and seminal works like Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. Often displayed together in a stack or on a shelf to create a collection or art history, Black’s works honor those who have laid the crucial groundwork for progress while further probing the legacies we both inherit and forge.
Black’s relationship with the gallery began with her inclusion in What’s that about, a group show curated by fellow Bay Area-artist Saif Azzuz in the summer of 2023. Her work is currently included in the exhibition Turning The Page at Pier 24 Photography; and will be in the forthcoming exhibition She’s a Knockout: Sport, Gender, and the Body in Contemporary Art, an exhibition curated by Caitlin Swindell at the University of Miami’s Lowe Museum of Art; as well as a group show curated by Lisa Solomon at the Koumi Museum in Nagano, Japan in 2025.
“I am thrilled to embark on this new journey with Anthony Meier alongside their amazing roster of artists, many who are personal friends and former collaborators, and others who have had a profound influence here in the Bay Area and on my practice,” Black comments. “I look forward to forging this new relationship, and collaborating with the gallery on my upcoming exhibitions and projects.”
Libby Black is a painter, drawer, and sculptural installation artist living in Berkeley, CA. Her artwork charts a path through personal history and a broader cultural context to explore the intersection of politics, feminism, LGBTQ+ identity, consumerism, addiction, notions of value, and desire. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, with such shows as “California Love” at Galerie Droste in Wupertal, Germany; “Bay Area Now 4” at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; “California Biennial” at the Orange County Museum of Art; and at numerous galleries in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Black has been an artist-in-residence at Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, CA; Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, CA; and Spaces in Cleveland, OH. Her work has been reviewed in Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, Flash Art, and The New York Times. She received a BFA from Cleveland Institute of Art in 1999 and an MFA at the California College of the Arts in 2001. Libby is an Associate Professor at San Francisco State University.
