UH-OH: Frances Stark 1991-2015
- – This is a past exhibition
UH-OH: Frances Stark 1991-2015 will be the most comprehensive midcareer survey of the work of the Los Angeles–based artist and writer to date, featuring 125 drawings, collages, paintings, and video installations. Frances Stark (b. 1967 Newport Beach, CA), a key figure in the Los Angeles art community, has shown her work widely throughout the United States and Europe and is in frequent dialogue with many of her peers in the U.K. and Germany. For more than two decades she has been making poetic and poignant compositions combining text and imagery, exploring a wide variety of subjects, including writing, procrastination, the banality of life, failure, success, pride, self-doubt, motherhood, pedagogy, institutional critique, class, music, literature, poetry, philosophy, art, sadness, and relationships. The exhibition will track her 25-year career from early carbon drawings to intricate collages and mixed-media paintings to the more recent work, which includes PowerPoint slide shows, video, performance, and Instagram photographs. Words and images are at the heart of her practice, and like a lyricist, Stark employs both to create provocative and self-reflexive works that pose universal questions.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue with newly commissioned essays by Ali Subotnick and Howard Singerman, as well as short contributions from artists, writers, and critics addressing an existing dialogue that Stark’s work has generated over the years, in print, online, in person or even in the form of fan-mail.
UH-OH: Frances Stark 1991-2015 is organized by the Hammer Museum and curated by Ali Subotnick, curator, with Emily Gonzalez-Jarrett, curatorial associate.
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Frances Stark, How does one sustain the belief in total babes..., 1991/2014
How does one sustain the belief in total babes (power/recognition) which has been recognized for its debilitating effects on that person who lacks the total babe (embodiment of power/recognition) and access to the total babe by means of one’s own total foxiness/power?, 1991/2014. Hooked rug. 38 3/16 x 73 ¼ x 1 9/16 in. (97 x 186 x 4 cm). Collection of Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip Aarons. Image courtesy of Galerie Buchholz, Cologne & Berlin. -
Frances Stark, Music is Different, 1996Carbon on paper, tape, tissue paper. 24 x 29 in. (61 x 73.7 cm). Courtesy of the artist and greengrassi, London. -
Frances Stark, Agonizing yet Blissful, 2001Ink and collage on paper. 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm). Image courtesy of Galerie Buchholz, Cologne & Berlin. -
Frances Stark, Portrait of the Artist as a Full-on Bird, 2004Collage on casein on canvas board. 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm). RSC Contemporary, London. Photo by Marcus Leith. -
Frances Stark, Push, 2006Collage, latex paint, tape, and graphite pencil on panel. 80 x 89 1/16 in. x ¼ in. (203.2 x 226.2 x 0.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art. Purchase, with funds from the Drawing Committee and partial gift of Tina Petra. © 2006 Frances Stark. Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art. -
Frances Stark, Structure that F(its my opening), 2006Gouache on paper with silk on panel. 39 x 55 x 1 in. (99.1 x 139.7 x 2.5 cm). The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Purchased with funds provided by the Acquisition and Collection Committee. Photo by Brian Forrest. -
Frances Stark, Back Side of the Performance, 2008Paper, paillettes, and escutcheon pins on foam core. 38 x 66 x 2 ½ in. (96.5 x 167.6 x 6.4 cm). Julia Stoschek Foundation e.v., Düsseldorf. Photo by Yun Lee. -
Frances Stark, Modestly Becoming, 2007Inlaid printed matter with linen tape on rice paper. 55 1/8 x 29 in. (140 x 73.6 cm). Courtesy of the artist and greengrassi, London. -
Frances Stark, Oh god, I’m so embarrassed, 2007Poster (Sean Landers, 1994) and collage on paper. 81 1/8 x 52 3/8 in. (206.1 x 133 cm). Courtesy of the artist and greengrassi, London. -
Frances Stark, Chorus girl folding self in half, 2008Paper collage, graphite on paper. 76 x 58 in. (193 x 147.3 cm) (framed). Collection Thea Westreich and Ethan Wagner, Promised gift to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Digital Image © Whitney Museum of American Art. -
Frances Stark, If conceited girls want to show they already have a seat (after Goya), 2008Mixed media on paper. 57 x 30 in. (144.8 x 76.2 cm). Collection of Jacques and Christiane Berghmans. Image courtesy of greengrassi, London. -
Frances Stark, I went through my bin, 2008Collage on paper. 38 x 29 in. (96.5 x 73.7 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne. -
Frances Stark, The New Vision, 2008Paint pen and paillettes on paper. 23 3⁄16 x 20 3⁄16 in. (58.9 x 51.3 cm). Image courtesy of Galerie Buchholz, Cologne & Berlin. -
Frances Stark, Why should you not be able to assemble yourself and write?, 2008Rice paper, paper, and ink on gessoed canvas panel. 55 x 34 in. (139.7 x 86.4 cm). Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Purchase. Photo by Elon Schoenholz. -
Frances Stark, Pull After “Push”, 2010Mixed media on canvas on panel. 69 x 89 in. (175.3 x 226.1 cm). Collection Nancy and Joachim Bechtle. Image courtesy of the artist and Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles. Photo by Robert Wedemeyer. -
Frances Stark, My Best Thing, 2011Digital video, color, sound. 100:00 min. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Purchase. Image courtesy of Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York. -
Frances Stark, Behold Man!, 2013Inkjet prints, paint. 75 ½ x 96 1/8 in. (191.8 x 244.2 cm). Courtesy of the artist and greengrassi, London. Photo by Andy Keate. -
Frances Stark, Bobby Jesus’s Alma Mater b/w Reading the Book of David and/or Paying Attention Is Free, 2013Multichannel projection with sound, inkjet mural, and takeaway offset posters. 7:20 min. Purchased jointly by Museum Contemporary Art Chicago with funds provided by Marshall Field’s by exchange and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Installation view, Carnegie International, 2013. Image courtesy Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles, photo by Brian Conley. -
Frances Stark, Backed With / B/W, 2014Sumi ink on Arches paper with collage, vacuum sealed on aluminum and wood. 58 x 38 in. (147.3 x 96.5 cm). Cypres Collection. Image courtesy of the artist. -
UH-OH: Frances Stark 1991-2015Installation view, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, October 11, 2015-January 24, 2016. Photo by Brian Forrest. -
UH-OH: Frances Stark 1991-2015Installation view, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, October 11, 2015-January 24, 2016. Photo by Brian Forrest. -
UH-OH: Frances Stark 1991-2015Installation view, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, October 11, 2015-January 24, 2016. Photo by Brian Forrest. -
UH-OH: Frances Stark 1991-2015Installation view, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, October 11, 2015-January 24, 2016. Photo by Brian Forrest. -
UH-OH: Frances Stark 1991-2015Installation view, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, October 11, 2015-January 24, 2016. Photo by Brian Forrest. -
UH-OH: Frances Stark 1991-2015Installation view, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, October 11, 2015-January 24, 2016. Photo by Brian Forrest. -
UH-OH: Frances Stark 1991-2015Installation view, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, October 11, 2015-January 24, 2016. Photo by Brian Forrest. -
UH-OH: Frances Stark 1991-2015Installation view, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, October 11, 2015-January 24, 2016. Photo by Brian Forrest.
Biography
Frances Stark holds an MFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and a BA in Humanities from San Francisco State University. Her videos, drawings, performances, and other works have been the subject of solo exhibitions at The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (2015); Hayward Gallery, London (2014); the Julia Stoschek Collection, Dusseldorf, Germany (2013); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2012); MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York (2011); Performa 11, New York (2011); Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA (2011); the MIT List Center for Visual Arts, Cambridge, MA (2010); Center for Contemporary Art, Glasgow (2010); Nottingham Contemporary (2009); Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany (2008); Secession, Vienna (2008); Culturgest, Lisbon (2008); and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2006). Her work has been featured in important international group exhibitions including the 2013 Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; the Venice Biennale 54th International Art Exhibition (2011); All of this and nothing, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2011); the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; and the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2008). Until recently, Stark was associate professor of painting and drawing at the University of Southern California.
UH-OH: Frances Stark 1991-2015 is made possible with support from Brenda Potter. Generous support is provided by Karyn Kohl and Maurice Marciano. Additional funding is provided by Beth Rudin DeWoody and The May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation.
Media sponsorship is provided by KCRW 89.9FM.
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