Lara Schnitger

After receiving much attention for her solo shows in Stockholm and The Hague, and for her participation in the Hammer Museum exhibition entitled THING, Lara Schnitger returns to New York with two solo shows next month. Schnitger’s new body of highly eroticized sculptures premieres at Anton Kern Gallery on September 8, while a large-scale installation called “Blacks on Blondes” opens September 11 at Triple Candie, a contemporary art space in Harlem.

In her fourth solo show at Anton Kern Gallery, Schnitger presents a group of erotically charged sculptures carefully crafted out of fabric and wood and stenciled with block lettering. As in all her work the artist applies one basic system, stretching fabric over joined sticks of wood. The tensile force of the textile keeps the wooden armature firmly in place, creating large, free-standing volumetric forms. The push-and pull of the materials creates an organic tension between structure and skin, endowing the forms with human characteristics. In her new work, however, Schnitger’s self-actualized costumes have been altered and qualified through the application of text fragments, often pornographic in nature or expressing other supposed female desires but always over-the-top and humorous.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog book entitled “It Ain’t Gonna Lick Itself” featuring illustrations of Schnitger’s new works as well as an essay by Lisa Mark, Director of Publications at L.A. MoCA.