FIRST MAJOR MUSEUM SURVEY OF TARA DONOVAN COMES TO THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FIRST MAJOR MUSEUM SURVEY OF TARA DONOVAN COMES TO THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER
February 7—May 3, 2009
CINCINNATI—The first museum survey of American sculptor Tara Donovan opens February 7th at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art. Featuring sculptures and installations from the past decade, Tara Donovan traces the ambitious process of this young artist. With acute awareness of the aesthetic properties of her materials, Donovan takes mass quantities of everyday items—tape, plastic cups, toothpicks, buttons—and “assembles them in different ways, providing the viewer with a compelling, perceptually transformative experience,” according to The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which recently named the artist a recipient of one of this year’s “genius” grants. This groundbreaking exhibition of Tara Donovan’s work, which originated at The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, is on view at the CAC February 7 through May 3, 2009.
Donovan’s artistic process explores how a single action applied to a single material countless times can transcend our expectations. In Untitled (Plastic Cups), Donovan stacks over a million plastic cups within a rectangular perimeter to create what resembles an undulating sea. Although presented in a grid, a system that Minimalist artists of the 1960s used for its rational geometric order, Donovan’s cups defy containment. Instead, the artist’s simple system of stacking unleashes the possibility for limitless reproduction and expansion. In this way, Donovan’s work seems to evoke our own era of infinite digital and cellular networks whose exact proportions are boundless and unknowable.
Donovan’s sculptures are often deliberately integrated with their architectural setting, expanding or contracting according to the exhibition space in a manner the artist terms “site-responsive.” This malleability personalizes the installation. For the CAC, the expansive nature of the sculptures will be amplified as the show will inhabit three full levels of the Center. Raphaela Platow, the Alice & Harris Weston Director and Chief Curator remarks, “With its unique exhibition space, the CAC is a perfect fit for this show. The interplay between art and architecture in this venue is of utmost importance and the dialogue which takes place is intriguing. Viewed within the confines of the Zaha Hadid designed Rosenthal Center, Donovan’s work will take on new meaning as it adapts according to this environment. This is an exciting installation to see at the CAC.”
From toothpick cubes to Mylar constellations, Donovan’s work combines contradictory properties in commonplace materials—the manufactured and the natural, the familiar and the otherworldly—to dazzling effect. As artist Chuck Close was recently quoted as saying, “[Tara’s] material never stops being what it is, and yet it builds into an amazing apparition.”—Vogue.
Born in 1969 in New York, NY, Tara Donovan has had solo exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY (2007), the Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (2006), and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA (2004), among others. Her work was featured in the 2000 Whitney Biennial. She was the recipient of the Alexander Calder Foundation’s first annual Calder Prize (2005) and most recently the MacArthur Foundation’s “genius” grant (2008). She received her MFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA (1999). Donovan lives and works in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Organizing Institution
Tara Donovan is organized by The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, ICA Chief Curator Nicholas Baume and Associate Curator Jen Mergel. The exhibition was generously supported by Chuck and Kate Brizius and Barbara Lee.
CAC Exhibition Sponsors
Allan Berliant and Jennie Rosenthal Berliant
Sandy Gross and John Hutton
Murray and Robin Sinclaire
Programs
Opening Celebration:
Tara Donovan and Donald Sultan: The First Decade
Friday, February 6 at 8 pm
Cash bar and DJ
Free and Open to the Public
Gallery Talk:
Tara Donovan
Saturday, February 21 at 3 pm
Raphaela Platow leads a gallery tour and discussion of Tara Donovan.
CAC admission is free to the public during Arts Fund Sampler Weekend, February 21-22
Teacher Resources:
Karen Saunders: Tara Donovan
February 23
In this ongoing series, teachers learn about the connections that can be made between contemporary art and traditional curriculum, empowering them to use the visual arts to meet state standards and benchmarks.
Listen as Karen Saunders, an artist/educator, shares her ideas and examples of how to bring themes from this exciting CAC exhibition in to your classroom, and leave inspired to teach your student to think like a genius! Receive tons of inspiration, a list of classroom art projects, two lesson plans relating to Tara Donovan's show, images, and information on Tara Donovan for classroom use, CAC lesson plans and a small gift.
Reservations: Jaime Thompson, 513.345.8420, jthompson@ContemporaryArtsCenter.org
Milestone Lecture:
Divergent Voices, Convergent Visions: Lawrence Weschler on His Decades-Long Conversations with Three Artists
Monday, March 2 at 6:30 pm
National Book Critic Circle award winning author, Lawrence Weschler, will explore three independent artists’ conversations—Robert Irwin, David Hockney and Tara Donovan—how they interweave, respond to each other and become part of a larger dialogue about the creative process.
CAC Members: Free. NonMembers: CAC Admission.
A cocktail reception with the author for CAC Insiders and CAC Director’s Circle Members immediately follows the lecture.
Tour Venues
Following the CAC, Tara Donovan travels to the Des Moines Arts Center (June 19 - Sept. 13, 2009) and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (Oct. 10, 2009 - Jan. 16, 2010).
Publication
The exhibition is accompanied by the publication, Tara Donovan, a comprehensive 160-page monograph co-published by The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and The Monacelli Press/Random House, New York. Copies are available for purchase at the CAC Store.
Contact: Molly O’Toole
Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art
513.345.8415
pr@ContemporaryArtsCenter.org
About the Contemporary Arts Center
Founded in November 1939 as the Modern Art Society by three visionary women in Cincinnati, Contemporary Arts Center was one of the first institutions in the U.S. dedicated to exhibiting the art of our time. In May 2003, the Center relocated to its first free-standing home, the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, designed by Zaha Hadid. Throughout its distinguished history, the Center has earned a reputation for stimulating thought and introducing new ideas by presenting the work of diverse artists from around the world, including hundreds of now-famous artists such as Laurie Anderson, Jasper Johns, Louise Nevelson, Nam June Paik, I.M. Pei, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Kara Walker and Andy Warhol. CAC focuses on new developments in painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, performance art and new media, presenting eight to 12 exhibitions and 20 to 40 performances annually.
The CAC receives ongoing support from: Fine Arts Fund; Ohio Arts Council; City of Cincinnati; The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation, City of Cincinnati Arts Grant Recipient; The Kettering Fund; and the generous contributions and grants of individuals and corporations and foundations, CAC memberships, facility rentals, special events and sales from the CAC Store.