LOS ANGELES, CA.- Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers present10 Years LA!, an exhibition celebrating the first decade of Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles. Since opening its doors in February 2016 with an exhibition by John Baldessari, the gallery has featured solo and group exhibitions debuting new works from its iconic LA–based artists as well as major presentations by artists from around the world, often bringing their work to the city for the very first time.
Throughout its programming, from intimate solo shows to major group exhibitions and installations, the Los Angeles gallery has maintained its commitment to presenting work that pushes the envelope of contemporary art-making and engages artistic dialogues within the city’s art scene and beyond. Illustrating this expansive approach, 10 Years LA! fills not only the 10,000 square feet of the gallery at 5900 Wilshire Boulevard, but also extends down the street to the disused dining area of the former Sizzler restaurant at 6145 Wilshire, thus occupying both the “white cube” and one of LA’s common sights: a vacant building.
At Sprüth Magers’ location, artists of different generations intermingle but are loosely organized around time periods and movements that have shaped Sprüth Magers’ program. Artists who first began working in the 1960s—and who represent the wide range of artistic perspectives that developed in the postwar years in Los Angeles, New York, Europe and the UK—include, among others, Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Hanne Darboven, Gilbert & George, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, Joseph Kosuth, Robert Morris, and Bridget Riley. Period works are installed with others created more recently, demonstrating these artists’ continued significance in the field of contemporary art.
Artists who emerged in the 1980s, including the so-called Pictures Generation, are also present through the wall vinyl by Barbara Kruger that greets visitors at the gallery entrance, as well as works by other women artists who participated in the gallery's Eau de Cologne exhibitions and magazine (1980s–90s) that promoted powerful female artistic voices: Jenny Holzer, Kruger, Louise Lawler, Cindy Sherman, and Rosemarie Trockel among them. Painters who also got their start in the 1980s, at the time of the medium’s resurgence in many international art centers, are likewise included through new and recent works by George Condo, Gary Hume, David Salle, and Andreas Schulze.
The gallery’s very first location opened in 1983 in Cologne, and Sprüth Magers’ roots in Germany are illustrated through the work of German artists such as Reinhard Mucha, Otto
Piene, David Ostrowski, Michael Pirgelis, and others. The importance of German photography, and photography in general, to Sprüth Magers’ program cannot be overstated, both in terms of artists using straight photography and those using the medium for conceptual ends. Works on view by Bernd & Hilla Becher, along with one of their Becher School students, Andreas Gursky, and another Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumnus, Thomas Demand, illustrate this crucial lineage.
Artists who have called Los Angeles home are well represented in 10 Years LA!, reflecting a long-term commitment to artists working in Southern California. When originally deciding where to open their first US location, Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers passed over New York in favor of Los Angeles, not only for its architectural and spatial possibilities but also the proximity to their many LA–based artists, more of whom have joined the gallery since opening in 2016.
New works by Sterling Ruby and Analia Saban, the West Coast premiere of Arthur Jafa’s Townshend, sculptures and installation works by Gala Porras-Kim, Stephen Prina, and Kaari Upson, are just some examples.
Though Sprüth Magers has always exhibited work by men and women at equal measure, its reputation as a supportive testing ground for female artists continues with artists of younger generations. An outdoor sculpture by Kara Walker occupies the garden outside the gallery, while photography by Cao Fei and paintings by Anne Imhof and Nora Turato are on view inside, together with moody sculptures by Mire Lee and Pamela Rosenkranz.
Finally, the works on view at Sizzler celebrate the Sprüth Magers' longtime commitment to artists working in film and video. Throughout the restaurant’s dining area, including at its booths, around the salad bar, and on the dining room walls, monitors of various scales and configurations encourage visitors to sit down in an intimate setting to take in works from the 1960s to the present by Kenneth Anger, Nancy Holt, Jon Rafman, Ryan Trecartin, Martine Syms, Andrea Zittel, and many others.
With the opening of LACMA’s Peter Zumthor–designed David Geffen Galleries directly across Wilshire Boulevard, as well as the Academy Museum, Peterson Automotive Museum, Craft Contemporary, La Brea Tar Pits, and the brand new Wilshire/Fairfax Metro station, Sprüth Magers is uniquely positioned to participate in an exciting new chapter for the mid-Wilshire corridor, and LA more widely. Not only does 10 Years LA! celebrate the remarkable diversity of approaches and discourses engaged by the gallery’s artists, it offers space to consider the trajectory of the growing art community in Los Angeles, both in the past decade and into the future.
10 Years LA! features the work of Kenneth Anger, Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Gretchen Bender, Cao Fei, George Condo, Hanne Darboven, Thomas Demand, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Thea Djordjadze, Lucy Dodd, Peter Fischli David Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, Cyprien Gaillard, Gilbert & George, Andreas Gursky, Nancy Holt, Jenny Holzer, Gary Hume, Anne Imhof, Robert Irwin, Arthur Jafa, Craig Kauffman, Karen Kilimnik, Joseph Kosuth, Barbara Kruger, David Lamelas, Louise Lawler, Mire Lee, Anthony McCall, Robert Morris, Reinhard Mucha, Senga Nengudi, David Ostrowski, Otto Piene, Michail Pirgelis, Gala Porras-Kim, Stephen Prina, Jon Rafman, Bridget Riley, Pamela Rosenkranz, Sterling Ruby, Ed Ruscha, Analia Saban, David Salle, Thomas Scheibitz, Andreas Schulze, Cindy Sherman, Stephen Shore, Martine Syms, Ryan Trecartin, Rosemarie Trockel, Nora Turato, Kaari Upson, Kara Walker, John Waters, Andro Wekua, and Andrea Zittel.
