LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is presenting Liz Glynn: The Myth of Singularity, a group of eight bronze sculptures created by the Los Angeles-based artist and on view for the first time. The series was produced from plaster props generated during Glynn’s performance The Myth of Singularity (after Rodin), which took place at LACMA in January 2013. Assisted by a group of ten sculptors, Glynn explored the process of replication, recombination, and shifts in material and scale which was often used by French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917). The Myth of Singularity (after Rodin) inaugurated a cycle of five performances by Glynn entitled [de]-lusions of Grandeur, which unfolded in chapters at LACMA over the course of 2013. Glynn conducted extensive research on works in LACMA’s collection by Rodin, Alexander Calder, Richard Serra, David Smith, and Donald Judd, and responded to the process of creating, moving, and erecting large-scale sculptures and the Herculean human efforts necessary to do so.

Liz Glynn: The Myth of Singularity presents eight sculptures—installed both as groups and as single monuments—in four locations throughout LACMA’s campus: the south entrance of the Resnick Pavilion, Untitled (after Balzac, with Burgher); the B. Gerald Cantor Sculpture Garden, Untitled (Torso Fragment); the Ahmanson Building, level 3 gallery, Untitled (after Thinker); and the west lawn of the Resnick Pavilion, Untitled (Burgher in Frock Coat), Untitled (after Shade), Untitled (Burgher with Extended Arm), Untitled (Crouching), and Untitled (after Walking Man).

“It is exciting to see how a performance—usually defined by its ephemeral nature— generates a massive, solid bronze suite of sculptures,” remarks José Luis Blondet, LACMA’s Associate Curator of Special Initiatives. “We are pleased to see an artist engage so rigorously and imaginatively with our permanent collection. Installed throughout the museum grounds, we wanted to provide different contexts in which to see the sculptures, from public spaces to more intimate settings like the Impressionist galleries.”

Liz Glynn: The Myth of Singularity is a group of eight sculptures made by recombining recasts of Rodin sculptures. Some Rodin works, such as The Thinker or Monument to Honore de Balzac, are familiar forms, while others carry the sculptor’s imprint in a more subtle way. Glynn employed a methodology Rodin himself used in his studio: casting, recombining, and cannibalizing previous sculptures. After recasting Rodin’s figures during her 2013 [de]-lusions of Grandeur performance, Glynn selected and recombined parts of the sculptures to assemble the works presented in Liz Glynn: The Myth of Singularity. Untitled (after Balzac, with Burgher) for example, combines details of Rodin’s Monument to Honore de Balzac (1891–1897), The Shade (1881–1886), and The Burghers of Calais (Jean de Fiennes, draped) (1889). Behind Glynn’s work there is a deep research on modern sculpture in general, and Rodin’s sculpture in particular, to question modern notions such as singularity and monumentality.

Liz Glynn uses epic historical narratives to explore cycles of growth, decay, and regeneration through participatory performances, large-scale installations, sculptural objects, and intimate interactions. Her solo exhibitions and performances include PATHOS (The Blind Exercises) at Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (2015); Liz Glynn: Ranson Room at Sculture Center, New York ( 2014); Liz Glynn, On the Possibility of Salvage at Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (2014); VAULT at Frieze Projects, Frieze Art Fair, Randall’s Island New York (2013); Black Box, as part of the Pacific Standard Time Public Art and Performance Festival in Los Angeles (2012); HOARD, at Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles (2012); No Second Troy at Pitzer College Art Galleries, Claremont (2012); loving you is like fucking the dead, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2011); III, produced by Redling Fine Arts (2010); and The 24 Hour Roman Reconstruction Project, at Arthouse at the Jones Center, Austin (2009) and Machine Project, Los Angeles (2008). Her work was included in the 2012 Made in LA biennial at the Hammer Museum, where Glynn was one of the four finalists for the Mohn Award. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Artforum, frieze, New York Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Art Lies, Mousse, and Archaeology Magazine. She was awarded the California Community Foundation Emerging Artist Fellowship in 2010. Glynn received her MFA from CalArts Art and Integrated Media programs and her BA from Harvard College.