Today, Jack Shainman Gallery will officially inaugurate its expansive new Tribeca location with a massive exhibition by Chicago-based artist Nick Cave. Titled “Amalgams and Graphts,” the show will run from January 10th to March 15th and will feature two series: monumental bronze sculptures called “Amalgams” and a series of mixed-media self-portraits, “Graphts.”
Housed in the historic Clock Tower Building at 46 Lafayette Street, the new gallery occupies a 20,000-square-foot space. The restoration preserves the building’s original grandeur, including its Beaux-Arts bank hall with its ornate, coffered, 29-foot-high ceilings, grand staircases, and arched windows, providing a fitting stage for Cave’s large-scale works. Although Cave’s exhibition marks the official opening, the gallery has presented several large-scale works throughout 2024.
Central to the exhibition are Cave’s “Amalgams,” a trio of large bronze sculptures that propose an alternative to traditional public monuments. These works expand upon the artist’s celebrated “Soundsuits” series of mixed media and textile works, a response to the beating of Rodney King by police officers in L.A. in 1991. At the center of the gallery is Amalgam (Origin) (2024), a black, 25-foot-tall bronze statue where a tree appears to sprout from a standing body. The work is an edition of eight.
“The throughline is that the ‘Soundsuit’ has morphed in a number of ways,” Cave told Artsy. “I’m coming out of it and revealing my identity. The other is that the actual ‘Soundsuit’ itself has transformed and become a sort of large-scale, public art sculpture. So there is a transformation, a transitioning, a sort of evolution happening.”
Complementing these monumental pieces, the “Graphts” series introduces mixed-media assemblages that blend needlepoint portraits of the artist with vintage serving trays adorned with intricate floral designs. Cave uses needlepoint to signal upper-class leisure, contrasting sharply with the domestic labor referenced in the collaged vintage serving trays.
After the exhibition closes, the first edition of Amalgam (Origin) will join the collection of the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “I’ve been trying to get to this sort of large-scale bronze for many, many years,” Cave said, adding that he’s interested in “how the work can find its way out of institutions and galleries and into public spaces.”
On November 21st, Cave will unveil a new collection of work featuring a performance at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, a “Soundsuit” work will be incorporated into a large-scale mosaic of glass, wood, and metal as part of his Princeton University Art Museum commission later this year.
