RONA PONDICK: Works 2013 - 2018
February 9 - March 30, 2019
ZEVITAS MARCUS, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA – Zevitas Marcus is pleased to present Works 2013 – 2018, an exhibition of new sculptures by New York-based artist, Rona Pondick. In 2013, Pondick began an intensive period of experimentation with materials that were new to her practice: resins and acrylics. Over a period of five years, she developed complex methods of working with these materials and came to understand their sculptural potential. This exhibition is the first time this body of work has been seen on the West Coast. Works 2013 – 2018 will run from February 9 – March 30, 2019 with a reception on Saturday, February 9 from 5:00 – 8:00 PM. Since her career began in 1984, Rona’s work has consistently referenced the body, in both a metaphorical and literal sense. Her sculptural practice has been no less defined by her ceaseless exploration of new materials and methods. Stainless-steel was Rona’s primary medium for the better part of a decade beginning in 1998. Her newest works are made from resins, acrylics and modeling compound. While thematically related to Rona’s earlier work, these new sculptures are notable for their extraordinary use of color and the way in which the artist’s hand is ever present, elements which heighten the sense of fragility and humanity that have always been achingly present in her work.
The emotional qualities elicited by the new objects are darker in tone than in Pondick’s earlier work...Humor, even by her unorthodox standards, is now harder to find. In Magenta Swimming in Yellow (2015–17), a largely translucent magenta head is up to its mouth in yellow liquid, and under the yellow water, just discernible, is a tiny amphibian body. This is not one of Pondick’s most beautiful sculptures—the juxtaposition of colors is jarring—but it is among her most intriguing. It’s another highly theatrical work, one in which the sense of place is especially striking. This is a science fiction world, a Technicolor depiction of life on another planet where beings are magenta and water is yellow. Disturbing questions arise: Is the magenta head bloody? Is the liquid urine? Is the creature imprisoned? Are all of those life- size heads with minuscule bodies in Pondick’s sculptures trapped in an alien world? The body can’t hold its head up. It can’t move. This is a shattering situation. — Lynn Zelevansky
RONA PONDICK (b. 1952, Brooklyn, NY) studied at Yale University School of Art and received her MFA in 1977. She lives and works in New York City. Since 1984 she has had over 45 solo exhibitions of her work in museums and galleries internationally, including Galleria d’Arte Moderna Bologna, Italy; Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands; Rupertinum Museum für moderne und zeitgenössische Kunst, Salbzburg, Austria; Cleveland Art Museum; Cincinnati Art Museum; Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts; DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park Lincoln, Massachusetts; Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, among others.
Her sculptures have been included in over 200 group exhibitions, including numerous biennials worldwide: the Whitney Biennial, Lyon Biennale, Johannesburg Biennale, Sonsbeek, and Venice Biennale. Her work is in the collections of many institutions worldwide including the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY); Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, CT); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY); The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, NY); Brooklyn Museum of Art (Brooklyn, NY), Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA), Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art (Los Angeles, CA); Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles); Nasher Sculpture Center (Dallas, TX); San Francisco Museum of Art (San Francisco, CA); New Orleans Museum of Art (Sculpture Garden) (New Orleans, LA); Toledo Museum of Art (Toledo, OH); The Nelson-Atkins Museum (Kansas City, MO); Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, PA); Fondation pour l’art contemporain Claudine et Jean-Marc Salomon (Annecy, France); Ursula Blickle Stiftung (Kraichtal, Germany); Centre Pompidou (Paris, France); and The Israel Museum (Jerusalem, Israel).
Rona Pondick has received numerous awards and grants, including Anonymous Was A Woman, the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, Cultural Department of the City of Salzburg, Kunstlerhaus, Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship, Mid-Atlantic Arts Grant, and others.
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