Anat Ebgi is pleased to present a solo installation works by Faith Wilding at the 2023 edition of The Art Show, organised by the Art Dealers Association of America. The fair is open to the public from Thursday, November 2–Sunday, November 5, with a gala pre- view on the evening of Wednesday, November 1.
Focusing on the artist's biomorphic abstraction of plants and corporeal iconography, this presentation places both historic and recent works alongside one another to examine throughlines across Wilding's career. Brilliant gold leaf illuminated works of the 70s, including major pieces from her Leaf Goddess series, are buttressed by intimate compositions. The recent watercolour and gold leaf works on paper tie back to this early body of work, with unfurling leaves and undulating organic abstractions. The presentation includes a major silk wrapped work on paper, Bird of Paradise: Virgin Goddess (1978), a suite of pieces from the late 70s, and a selection of works on paper from the last two years. Following the global pandemic, Wilding's return to the studio over the past few years have been one of the most prolific periods of her career, creating a significant body of work that culminates and ties together her nearly six-decades of work.
Avowed eco-feminist Faith Wilding has nurtured an art and activist practice to address the deterioration of the natural world, spiritual exuberance, and biopolitics. Renowned for her contributions to feminism and environmentalism, Wilding emerged at the forefront of Feminist Art in Los Angeles during the late 1960s and 1970s. Wilding was a co-initiator of the Feminist Art Program at CalArts alongside Miriam Shapiro and Judy Chicago. The Feminist Art Program produced Womanhouse in 1972, an art installation and performance space focusing on collaborative and feminist ideas. Wilding's work continues to interrogate societal narratives, challenging the status quo in art-making, life, and politics.
Wilding's experience of growing up in a pacifist commune in Paraguay (as part of the Bruderhof Anabaptists) with little contact with the outside world had a tremendous impact on her. Ecstatic childhood experiences of wild nature, studying the South American jungle forests and waterways planted early seeds that would inform her work upon arriving to the U.S. at age 18. She quickly combined these experiences with her research into connections between women and nature, examining the ecological, in-spirited philosophies of ecofeminism.
Her works from the 1970s were inspired by research into early medieval herbals, bestiaries, alchemical manuscripts, and Books of Hours of the Virgin. 'All life is emerging, penetrating the heart,' Wilding wrote in her journal while working on her 'Imago Femina' series from this period. Included in this presentation is Imago Femina "My Heart-Shell Breaks Open..." for H.D. (1978), which depicts a shell and a luscious whorl of tendrils emerging from within. Leaf Goddess (1976), an abstract botanical piece depicts a border of leaves surrounding a light and dark pink form, seemingly opening and expanding across the paper—animated by a totemic life force, metaphoric for becoming, transformation, and turning outward. Definitively by this period, Wilding had developed an expansive iconography of botanical and female forms that still drive her practice today in even more complex ways such as Tropical Lace (2020) or The Secret Flower (2022).
Date
2–5 November 2023
Location
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Ave, New York, 10065