The Armory Show

Stephen Friedman Gallery is pleased to participate in The Armory Show’s inaugural edition at Javits Center, New York. The presentation focuses on sculpture, bringing together three-dimensional works in a diverse range of media by Leilah Babirye, Jonathan Baldock, Melvin Edwards, Tom Friedman, Channing Hansen, Holly Hendry, Jim Hodges, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA and Jiro Takamatsu. Also on display are works by Jeffrey Gibson and Tau Lewis, who recently joined the gallery.

Jeffrey Gibson’s multi-faceted practice incorporates painting, sculpture, textiles and prints characterised by vibrant colour and pattern. Drawing on his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage, Gibson’s work combines intricate indigenous artisanal handcraft with narratives of contemporary resistance in protest slogans and song lyrics. A new hand-beaded bird by Gibson pays homage to ‘whimsies’ originally produced by the Iroquois and Tuscarora people to sell to Victorian tourists at the turn of the twentieth century.

Tau Lewis constructs sculptural portraits and quilts using found, gathered, gifted and recycled materials drawn from personal environments in Toronto, New York and her family home in Negril, Jamaica. ‘Star’ is a new work created from repurposed leather and suede. Referring to her practice as “an upcycling of a circumstance”, Lewis continues a long history of Black cultural production, using found objects and reconfiguring these in a manner similar to a hip-hop or jazz musician. Lewis currently has a solo exhibition at National Gallery of Canada, Ottowa.

Holly Hendry’s sculptural relief ‘Concentrating on the Image of Pressing Very Hard’ is exhibited ahead of her solo show at the gallery in January 2022. Inspired by Bruce Nauman’s ‘Body Pressure’ performance piece, the work explores corporeal awareness and the relationship between internal and external spaces. Employing a variety of industrial media including jesmonite, plaster and oak, Hendry relates mechanical function and raw materials to anatomical processes.

An installation by Melvin Edwards titled ‘ARK-LA-TEX OK’ comprises four of the artist’s renowned ‘Lynch Fragments’. Constructed from welded steel, chain and machine parts, these sculptures are born out of the civil rights movement in the United States. Linked with barbed wire, the installation references lynching as an emblem of brutal racial and social control. Public Art Fund currently presents the first major survey of Edwards’ outdoor works at City Hall Park, New York through November 2021.

‘Poseidon’ is part of an ongoing series of reimagined classical sculptures by Yinka Shonibare CBE RA. Hand-painted with the artist’s signature batik patterns, the Hellenistic statue is transformed into a symbol of multiculturalism. In place of the Olympian’s white marble head is a globe – an emblem of universal identity. Shonibare’s largest European survey exhibition ‘End of Empire’, opened at Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria in May 2021. 

‘Oneness of Rust No.1265' is an important sculpture from Jiro Takamatsu's 'Oneness' series. A playful adaptation of minimalist forms, this work features a mass of common material, broken up into smaller components. The ‘Oneness’ series originated with Takamatsu’s presentation for the Tokyo Biennale in 1970. Examples feature in major institutions including the Tate, London and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. A solo exhibition by the artist opens at Stephen Friedman Gallery in September 2021.

Other highlights include ‘Sun’, a new sculpture by Tom Friedman in the form of an orb exploding with yellow feelers. A mesmerising new cut glass work by Jim Hodges is presented that continues the artist’s sensitive exploration of mirrors. Invested with a theatrical quality, Jonathan Baldock's ‘Love the skin you’re in’ is a new embroidered wall-hanging comprising a life-size figure based on the artist’s own body. New large-scale ceramic works by Leilah Babirye are displayed, following the artist’s recent first London solo exhibition at the gallery.