Hepworth Wakefield art gallery – Lynda Benglis

‘Her retrospective at the Hepworth Wakefield is a revelation.’ **** – Adrian Searle, The Guardian

‘Nothing is ever really as it seems: fanned metal seems weightless and fragile: enormous billowing piles of lead seem kinetic; and the artist herself seems to be constantly challenging us to create our own meanings regarding abstract forms.’ –It’s Nice That

EXHIBITION

The Hepworth Wakefield presents the UK’s first museum survey of work by Greek-American artist and feminist icon Lynda Benglis. This highly anticipated exhibition will be the largest presentation of Benglis’ work in the UK, featuring approximately 50 works that will span the entirety of her prolific career to date.

Aged 73, Benglis is one of America’s most significant living artists. Born in 1941 in Louisiana, USA, she was heralded as the ‘heir to Pollock’ by Life magazine in 1970, and emerged as part of a generation of artists forging new approaches to sculpture and painting in the wake of Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism and Pop Art.

Counting Andy Warhol, Sol LeWitt and Barnett Newman among her friends and peers, Benglis established her career within a male-dominated art world and became famous not only for her radical re-envisioning of sculpture and painting through her early works using wax and poured latex, but also for her works dealing with feminist politics and self-image.

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana in 1941, Lynda Benglis moved to New York City in the late 1960s.  She now resides in New York and Santa Fe, Mexico and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and two National Endowment for the Arts grants, among other commendations.  Her work is held in important public collections and has been exhibited at Tate Modern, The Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum.  Benglis was the subject of a 2010-11 international retrospective that travelled to The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; The Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Le Consortium, Dijon; New Museum, New York; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.  Most recently, in early 2014, Benglis showcased a series of new ceramic works in a solo exhibition at Cheim & Read, New York and Thomas Dane Gallery, London.

JOIN IN THE CONVERSATION

Join in the conversation on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using #LyndaBenglis.

Images: Lynda Benglis, Raptor, 1995 – 96 Stainless steel, wire mesh, silicone and bronze, Courtesy the artist and Cheim & Read; In the studio with Lynda Benglis & Pi, 2012. Photo Bryan Derballa; Lynda Benglis in Bowery studio. ca. 1981 Photo Credit: Hans Namuth; Lynda Benglis Untitled (Mean Green), 1992-94 ceramic.

Exhibition supported by Cheim & Read, The Henry Moore Foundation, Thomas Dane Gallery and the Lynda Benglis Exhibition Circle.