Shows
Lane Twitchell
Leap With Me
29 February – 5 April 2008
Opening Reception: 29 February 6-8 PM
In the Project Room, Roebling Hall is pleased to present Leap With Me, an exhibition of new work by the Brooklyn-based artist Lane Twitchell. The exhibition marks the return of this artist to the gallery, having first exhibited with us in 1998.
The basis of Mr. Twitchell’s work is folded and cut paper and occasionally spun Olifin, also known as Tyvek. Originally selected to reproduce the repetitive nature of the modern suburb, the artist has developed this form to meet his ends with some unexpected results. The disarmingly decorative nature of the work can seem simple-minded at first, however, the seductive nature of decorative strategies becomes part the content the artist is exploring.
Mr. Twitchell is interested in the mythologies of the United States as “Promised Land,” with its tropes of strong masculine explorers paving the way for (and protecting) delicate feminine domesticity and innocent childhood. Mr. Twitchell is also investigating the paralyzing awe romanticized by 19th century Americans looking west to “their” virgin continent. Twitchell’s work is often inspired by these elements of American culture whose roots run to the deeply religious, and deeply conflicted, foundations of the nation.
This exhibition marks Mr. Twitchell’s first extended engagement with an outside fabricator. The artist spent the summer working in a garage in Palo Alto California. The drawings he produced there have been translated into cut paper and polyester film via an industrial laser cutter.
Lane Twitchell was born in 1967 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is a two time recipient of grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts. His work is included in the collections of The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.