Perrotin will now represent the foundation of American artist Nancy Graves. The gallery will present a solo show of Graves’s painting at Perrotin New York, which will run from April 23rd to May 31st.
Having risen to prominence in New York in the late 1960s, Graves is best known for her multidisciplinary work inspired by archaeology, natural phenomena, and anthropological studies. The exhibition at Perrotin New York will feature a selection of Graves’s rarely exhibited work from the 1970s and ’80s. The show will be organized chronologically, presenting a selection of paintings, sculptures, and archival materials.
“Graves’s abstract paintings, created with both pointillist marks and fluid brushstrokes, reflect her multidisciplinary approach to art-making, while her sculptural paintings highlighted the interplay of materiality and form,” said Peggy Leboeuf, partner at Perrotin New York. “She was deeply influenced by scientific data and anthropological research, themes that have consistently informed her practice. Notably, her work foreshadowed the research-based and technology-driven art practices we see today.”
Born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1939, Graves studied at Vassar College before earning her MFA at Yale University in 1964. Graves received breakout recognition for her giant “Camels” series from 1968–69, using an ancient technique called cire-perdue with materials such as wax, polyurethane, and fur. In 1969, she became the youngest artist to be featured in an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, at 29 years old.
Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, Graves created sculptural works in the shape of fruits, plants, and skeletal fragments. These were arranged in precarious compositions that questioned balance and perception. She also began producing large-scale paintings rooted in her research into ancient artifacts, such as burial site maps and prehistoric cave drawings, and technological advances, such as satellite imaging and NASA photography.
During her life, Graves presented her work at prestigious institutions such as The Brooklyn Museum, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C, among others. Her work was the subject of solo exhibitions mounted by Chicago’s Richard Gray Gallery and Locks Gallery in Philadelphia.
Graves died after a short battle with ovarian cancer in 1995 at 54 years old. In recent years, her work has been regularly shown by Mitchell-Innes & Nash, the now-defunct New York–based gallery. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
