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9g – Wagner: Variation II
September 9 – October 8, 2005
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For its inaugural exhibition in Chelsea, Danese is pleased
to announce an exhibition of new work by Barry Le Va. Central to the exhibition
is a large-scale sculpture entitled 9g – Wagner: Variation II,
the initial version of which was first installed for the artist’s recent
one man exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.
It consists of both floor and wall elements.
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The sculptures of Barry Le Va gather self-protectively on
the floor like stored munitions or small, featureless buildings, or in the
case of the expansive 9g – Wagner, 2005, in front of a wall
element that gives the impression of some uninterpretable artifact of alien
signage. These works are relentlessly abstract while conveying all sorts
of attitudes about their own physical and conceptual density. 1
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Included in the exhibition are two major drawings with collage,
each 38 x 50 inches, and five smaller drawings that demonstrate additional
variations of Wagner. “The presence of related drawings nearby makes
clear that a great deal of thought has gone into the elements’ placement
and location, but the approach remains ultimately intuitive.” 2
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In his work, Le Va has extended the idea that sculpture must
be in dialogue with the physical space it occupies. “He has conducted
an examination of Minimalism’s most beloved material – space itself
– as a mental, physical and visual realm, realigning thinking with
seeing, and Pollock with Judd.” 3
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Although Le Va’s artwork has always been partially inspired
by his love of music, this is his first direct reference to music in a title.
Ingrid Schaffner, curator of the ICA exhibition, writes, “By combining
a musical association along with a numbering system suggestive, of a sequence,
Le Va says he wanted to underscore the way he sees all of his work –
in terms of major themes with minor variations.” 4
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Born in Long Beach, California in 1941, Barry Le Va graduated
from the Otis Art Institute of Los Angeles in 1967, and subsequently moved
to New York where he has lived and worked since 1970. His work is included
in the collections of many major museums, among them, the Albright-Knox
Art Gallery, Buffalo; The Chase Manhattan Bank, New York; Museu Serralves:
Museum of Contemporary Art, Portugal; The Museum of Modern Art, New York;
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton; The Ohio State University, Wexner Center
for the Visual Arts, Columbus; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New
York.
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1 Dunham, Carroll. “On the Art of Barry Le Va,”
Artforum, March 2005, pp. 211.
2 ibid.
3 Smith, Roberta. “Minimal and Mad in Equilibrium,”
The New York Times, Friday, February 25, 2005, p. E33.
4 Schaffner, Ingrid. “Essay,” Accumulated Vision
and Violence, Barry Le Va. ICA, January 15–April 3, 2005, p. 83.
Black on Blue: Diagrams for Double-Tiered
Sculpture, February 15 – March
16, 2002 
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