Isa Genzken was in her late 20s when she met conceptual artist Michael Asher in California... At the Hauser Wirth & Schimmel her first Los Angeles solo exhibition.
Hauser Wirth & Schimmel is presenting “Isa Genzken. I Love Michael Asher” the first Californian solo exhibition of the celebrated German artist, with new works in a range of media: wall-mounted collage, sculptural assemblages set upon pedestals and tables, and groups of mannequins from her Schauspieler (Actors) series.
Isa Genzken was in her late 20s when she visited conceptual artist Michael Asher in California on a travel grant from Dusseldorf Academy, where she had begun teaching in 1977. At this time, Genzken was producing sleek lacquered wood sculptures known as Ellipsoids and Hyperbolos. This minimalist body of work, which lasted through the early 1980s, engaged with spatial and social aspects of line, mass, scale, color and movement through and around the works.
Since their meeting, Genzken’s diverse practice has encompassed sculpture, photography, drawing and painting. Her work borrows from the aesthetics of Minimalism, punk culture and assemblage art to confront the conditions of human experience in contemporary society and the uneasy social climate of capitalism.
In addition to her interior installation of all new works, this exhibition features in the Courtyard of the gallery, Rose III, an eight-meter tall sculpture, modeled after an actual flower Genzken chose and sent to the foundry. The flower simultaneously defies and underscores the fragility and beauty commonly associated with the image of the rose.