CURRENT

THE CONTEMPORARY AUSTIN – LAGUNA GLORIA

MAY 4 — AUGUST 24, 2014

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PRESS RELEASE:

Blending large-scale sculpture techniques with an expanded notion of craft and textile, New York City–based artist and designer Orly Genger creates organic forms and site-specific installations from painted swaths of woven rope. With the help of assistants, Genger looms, crochets, weaves, and knots heavy twine over the course of many months to create a single work. In recent projects, she has used recycled lobster rope purchased by the artist from fishermen in local communities, a gesture that has both positive economical and social purposes, bringing briny or sea-frozen coils of twine into her studio, cleaning it first, then knotting and painting it. The completed works are painterly, evoking three-dimensional manifestations of 1950s abstract Color Field canvases, and direct, recalling the simple forms and techniques of 1960s Minimalists. For The Contemporary Austin, in May 2014, Genger will manifest a massive outdoor piece of painted woven rope that will cover the entire outdoor amphitheater at Laguna Gloria, cascade down the hill, and taper off onto a platform in the lagoon—all the while inviting visitors to walk in, on, and around the work, activating the site as a nexus for community interaction, play, and public programming.

—Heather Pesanti, Senior Curator

Support for Orly Genger provided by The Moody Foundation.