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FOG Design + Art

2020

Past
Jan 16 – Jan 19, 2020
San Francisco

For the 2020 edition of FOG Design + Art, Pace Gallery is pleased to present works by a quartet of artists from the gallery’s contemporary program in Booth 205.

The exhibition will feature works by French-Moroccan artist Yto Barrada, three new paintings by Loie Hollowell, a curated selection of paintings by Thomas Nozkowski, and an installation of works from Leo Villareal’s ongoing Instance series. Additionally, to coincide with the gallery’s seminal exhibition Seeing Picasso: Maker of the Modern at Pace Gallery in Palo Alto, the booth will feature two drawings by Pablo Picasso from 1962. On view through February 16, 2020, Seeing Picasso is the first monographic exhibition on the artist to be presented in the Bay Area in nearly a decade.

Art Fair Details

FOG Design + Art
Jan 16 – 19, 2020
Booth 205

Location

Fort Mason Center
San Francisco

Image: Installation view, Pace Gallery at FOG Design + Art, Booth D205, Jan 16 – 19, 2020, photography by Wendi Norris © Pace Gallery, Thomas Nozkowski
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Thomas Nozkowski, Untitled (9-40), 2014, oil on linen on panel, 22" x 28" (55.9 cm x 71.1 cm) © Thomas Nozkowski

Thomas Nozkowski’s richly colored and abstract paintings push the limits of visual language. As a response to the dramatic scales of Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism, he elected instead to work on small, intimately scaled canvases. Beginning with a reflection on a specific place or experience—spanning the deeply symbolic to the notational—Nozkowski translated sensations and memories into abstract geometric and biomorphic compositions. He often returned to certain ideas across several discrete works, devoting weeks, months, or, in some cases, years to exploring the full range of possibilities for a given form, color, application, or gesture. The harmonies and dissonances of color, structure, and gesture compounded in his modest scale become significant manifestations of the artist himself.

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Installation view, Yto Barrada, Paste Papers, 2019 © Yto Barrada

Yto Barrada’s Paste Paper paintings were inspired by designs that the artist discovered inside the books held in the late architect Luis Barragán’s library at his home in Mexico City. To make these works, she employed the centuries old practice of paste paper—a technique used by bookbinders to embellish book covers and endpapers with decorative patterns and abstract designs. Made with everyday objects such as a comb, keys, a twig, fingers, and cardboard, the artist’s paste papers let go of the traditional precision of the technique in favor of moments of play and spontaneity.

Pace's booth at FOG will also feature pieces from the artist's series of textile works, which continue her exploration into dyeing processes using natural pigments, as well as a selection of wicker furniture pieces. Made with traditional Moroccan weaving techniques, these chairs include cushions covered with naturally dyed fabric in pastel tones and invite participation from viewers.

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Loie Hollowell, Postpartum Bladder, 2019, oil paint, acrylic medium, and high density foam on linen over panel, 28" × 21" × 2" (71.1 cm × 53.3 cm × 5.1 cm) © Loie Hollowell

Meditative in both process and form, Loie Hollowell’s work blurs the lines between the illusory and the real through the abstraction of the human figure. Created in late 2019, the works presented at FOG explore the artist’s relationship to different stages of her pregnancy—from conception, to birth, to motherhood. She expands the physical presence of her work by interrupting the two-dimensional flatness of the painted surface with high-density, geometric forms adhered to the canvas so that each painting protrudes from the wall as sculpture. She further builds upon this surface in a relief of fine brushstrokes and sponged paint, producing a topography of intricate textures that commingle with the radiant color and bold shapes in each painting.

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Leo Villareal, Instance 24, 2018, LEDs, custom software, electrical hardware, steel, 38-3/8" × 38-3/8" × 2-7/8" (97.5 cm × 97.5 cm × 7.3 cm) © Leo Villareal

Expanding upon the artist’s fascination with the presentation and disruption of systems, Leo Villareal’s Instance series is made up of a total of thirty-three panels that function as discrete artworks that can be networked together into a larger, orchestrated whole. The singular works— each comprised of 36,864 LEDs—become malleable and adaptable synchronies wherein the possibility of order, however fleeting and subtle, appears visually across the units before gradually dissipating into a chaotic state. Working with code to reduce the work’s visual complexity, Villareal places more attention on the actual binary units, rooting them in the art historical context of printmaking as well as within the history of practice engaged with material, mass imagery, mechanical reproduction, and the conceptual motivations that underpin them.

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Pablo Picasso, Familie Balzacienne (Family, After Balzac), 1962, pencil on paper, 14-1/8" × 16-5/8" (35.9 cm × 42.2 cm), framed, 24" × 26-9/16" × 1-1/4" (61 cm × 67.5 cm × 3.2 cm) © 2019 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Additionally, to coincide with the gallery’s seminal exhibition Seeing Picasso: Maker of the Modern in Palo Alto, Pace’s presentation at FOG will feature two drawings by Pablo Picasso from 1962.

Organized in close collaboration with the Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte, Seeing Picasso is the first monographic exhibition on the artist to be presented in the Bay Area in nearly a decade. Showcasing over thirty-five masterpieces spanning from the late 1890s to the early 1970s, the exhibition is on view at 229 Hamilton Avenue through February 16, 2020.