MARK DI SUVERO

Exhibited for the first time, Avanti! (c. late 1990s) is a human-intervention sculpture that incorporates a twenty-three-foot-long horizontal beam suspended within a vertical steel circle. An intersecting beam connected to the base holds a small platform that, when activated, allows a viewer to use their shifting body weight to rock the work back and forth. Assembled in the late 1990s and incorporating elements di Suvero began working on much earlier, Avanti! was produced in the artist’s outdoor studio in Long Island City. Avanti! will be accompanied in the main gallery by the artist’s 1986 sculpture Nelly, comprised of intersecting steel I-beams connected by a curved, hand-cut steel plate. Nelly was previously on public display in the Jardins des Tuileries, Paris (2019) and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, England (2004–2019).

In the front room is Tables Turn’d (2004), a rare medium-scaled sculpture by di Suvero executed completely in stainless steel. A majestic arc supports a protruding beam and creates an environment for a hanging element suspended with a metal cable. Consisting of two enormous discs finished with radiating lines, the hanging element resembles an antique scale and evokes the harmonic ideal of balance, masterfully achieved with these materials at such scale. Like Avanti!, Tables Turn’d is a kinetic work that relates to both di Suvero’s small-scale “spinner” sculptures and his early play pieces that transgressed the border between viewer and object by inviting bodily engagement.

Though best known for his constructions of industrial materials installed in public spaces, di Suvero has also created, from the outset, a prolific number of works on paper. A group of works executed in ink, acrylic, marker, and pencil encompass drawings related to specific sculptures and independent works. The selection includes two of di Suvero’s “sliding drawings” that allow the viewer to adjust the image by sliding two interesting drawings over and through each other, extending play and human interaction into two-dimensions.

Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery.