Exhibitions

THE SPIRIT OF THINGS

February 24, 2018 – May 26, 2018

In Collaboration With The Baltimore Museum of Art

Opening: February 24, 2018, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM

3401 W. 43rd Place, Los Angeles, 90008

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For over four decades, Maren Hassinger has explored relationships between the industrial and natural worlds in a practice that is both meditative and critical. From the 1970s on, her sculpture has incorporated common materials associated with manufacturing, mass media, and commerce. In abstract compositions such as those that will be on view at Art + Practice, she transforms wire rope, newspapers, plastic bags, and more into evocations of the beauty found in conditions often dismissed as blighted or marginal.

Hassinger is also a formative practitioner of performance art and site-specific interventions, collaborating with Senga Nengudi and other LA-based artists during the 1970s. Her performances involve dance, as well as movements observed from everyday life, and investigate communal activity and commonalities amongst groups of people. This important body of work will be documented in photographs within the show. Additionally, Hassinger has produced moving videos that address race, gender, and other aspects of identity. Examples included at Art + Practice explore these themes through Hassinger’s interactions with her family members. In one work, she learns for the first time about aspects of her family’s history by interviewing her uncle. In another, filmed in a beautiful East Hampton seaside setting, she engages in improvisational choreography with her daughter, artist Ava Hassinger.

With its focus on relationships between people, materials, and environments, Hassinger’s art is frequently described as “ecological.” The artist clarifies this observation, stating: “I don’t think my work has so much to do with ecology, but focuses on elements, or even problems – social and environmental – that we all share, and in which we all have a stake. I don’t think that’s an ecological statement. I want it to be a humane and humanistic statement about our future together.”

Maren Hassinger: The Spirit of Things is co-presented by The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) and Art + Practice and is organized by the BMA’s Senior Curator of Contemporary Art Kristen Hileman.

Maren Hassinger, Twelve Trees, 1979. Four black and white photographs. Three framed horizontal images: 12 ¼ x 15 ¼ x 1 ¼ inches and one framed vertical image: 15 ¼ x 12 ¼ x 1 ¼ inches. Courtesy of the Artist.
Maren Hassinger, High Noon, 1976. Four black and white photographs. Three framed vertical images: 15 ¼ x 12 ¼ x 1 ¼ inches and one framed horizontal image: 12 ¼ x 15 ¼ x 1 ¼ inches. Courtesy of the artist.
Maren Hassinger, Diaries, 1978. Six black and white photographs. Six framed horizontal images: 12 ¼ x 15 ¼ x 1 ¼ inches. Courtesy of the artist.
Maren Hassinger, Rivers, 2007. Ink on paper. Framed: 14 ¼ x 13 ¼ x 1 ¼ inches. Courtesy of the Artist.
Maren Hassinger, Ocean Savannah Rivers Dreaming Floating, 2007. Ink on paper. Framed: 14 ¼ x 13 ¼ x 1 ¼ inches.

Educational Resouces

Schedule a guided tour

A+P’s education program welcomes teachers, students and art enthusiasts to explore and engage with A+P’s museum-curated exhibitions. Interested in bringing your group to A+P? Free guided tours are available to schedule Tuesday–Friday, 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Grades K-12 Teacher and Student Handouts

A+P invites local schools, students, teachers, and organizations to experience, analyze, and engage with its exhibitions on view via teacher resource guides and student handouts (for grades K-12). These handouts incorporate the California State Contents Standards (VAPA and ELA) are available for teachers to adapt to their existing curriculums.

Installation View

 
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