HAARLEM.- De Hallen Haarlem presents an exhibition of the work of the American artist Cady Noland. Particularly in the 1980s she attracted considerable interest with her social-critical work. The focus exhibition in De Hallen shows 13 works from the period 1989–1995, acquainting visitors with a number of important points of reference in Noland’s oeuvre. The exhibition can be seen from 18 December, 2010, through 13 March, 2011, in De Hallen Haarlem.

Cady Noland (Washington D.C., 1956) has a totally independent position in American art. In her short career she left an indisputable mark on contemporary art and developed an incomparable oeuvre in which she turned her sharp eye to the task of scrutinizing and critiquing a runaway consumer society and hypocritical political conduct. Out of dissatisfaction with the opportunistic and speculative behaviour in the art world, she withdrew from art in the late 1990s. Nevertheless, to this day she remains an important source of inspiration for many young artists.

Her work has lost nothing of its power, and in form and content is still particularly relevant - the way Noland incorporated raw, symbolic materials such as scaffolding poles is very much alive amongst contemporary sculptors. Her recontextualization of roughly reproduced mass-mediated images, often with an explicit political connotation, is a common artistic method since.

The Dark Side of the American Dream
The other side of the American Dream and the power of the media are important foci in her work. Her assemblages and installations summon up a disturbing picture of unbridled consumption, aggression, anxiety and destruction. The manner in which heroes and anti-heroes get tangled up in the American media, so that a murderer like Charles Manson can become a mega-star, is a thread that runs throughout Cady Noland's work.