Liz Magor, The Rise and The Fall
March 7 - June 9, 2023, Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-sea, United Kingdom
Liz Magor, I Have Wasted My Life
May 21 - July 2, 2021, Andrew Kreps Gallery, 22 Cortlandt Alley, New York
Photo: Dan Bradica
Liz Magor, I Have Wasted My Life
May 21 - July 2, 2021, Andrew Kreps Gallery, 22 Cortlandt Alley, New York
Photo: Dan Bradica
Liz Magor
Stall, 2021
Silicon rubber, polyester, workbench, shelves
Giraffe: 8 1/2 x 60 x 26 inches (21.6 x 152.4 x 66 cm); Workbench: 34 1/2 x 72 x 25 1/2 inches (87.6 x 182.9 x 64.8 cm); 42 x 90 x 31 inches (106.7 x 228.6 x 78.7 cm) overall
Liz Magor
Stall, 2021 (Detail)
Silicon rubber, polyester, workbench, shelves
Giraffe: 8 1/2 x 60 x 26 inches (21.6 x 152.4 x 66 cm); Workbench: 34 1/2 x 72 x 25 1/2 inches (87.6 x 182.9 x 64.8 cm); 42 x 90 x 31 inches (106.7 x 228.6 x 78.7 cm) overall
Liz Magor
Stall, 2021 (Detail)
Silicon rubber, polyester, workbench, shelves
Giraffe: 8 1/2 x 60 x 26 inches (21.6 x 152.4 x 66 cm); Workbench: 34 1/2 x 72 x 25 1/2 inches (87.6 x 182.9 x 64.8 cm); 42 x 90 x 31 inches (106.7 x 228.6 x 78.7 cm) overall
Liz Magor
Perennial, 2021
Duffle coat
45 x 28 x 12 inches (114.3 x 71.1 x 30.5 cm)
Liz Magor
Perennial, 2021 (Detail)
Duffle coat
45 x 28 x 12 inches (114.3 x 71.1 x 30.5 cm)
Liz Magor, I Have Wasted My Life
May 21 - July 2, 2021, Andrew Kreps Gallery, 22 Cortlandt Alley, New York
Photo: Dan Bradica
Liz Magor, I Have Wasted My Life
May 21 - July 2, 2021, Andrew Kreps Gallery, 22 Cortlandt Alley, New York
Photo: Dan Bradica
Liz Magor
Another Place, 2021
Polymerized gypsum (alpha gypsum, acrylic medium), fiberglass
96 x 53 x 12 inches (243.8 x 134.6 x 30.5 cm)
Liz Magor
Another Place, 2021 (Detail)
Polymerized gypsum (alpha gypsum, acrylic medium), fiberglass
96 x 53 x 12 inches (243.8 x 134.6 x 30.5 cm)
Liz Magor, Downer
December 5, 2020 – January 30, 2021, Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver, Canada
Liz Magor, Downer
December 5, 2020 – January 30, 2021, Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver, Canada
Liz Magor
Migros Shopper, 2020
Painted doll, wooden box, packaging materials
49 x 70 x 5 inches (125 x 178 x 12 cm)
Liz Magor, Downer
December 5, 2020 – January 30, 2021, Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver, Canada
Liz Magor
Coiffed, 2020
Painted plywood, fabric skirting, silicone rubber, artificial hair, acrylic throw, woollen
blankets, silver fabric, linen, jewellery boxes, costume jewellery, packaging materials
27 x 132 x 96 inches (69 x 335 x 244 cm)
Liz Magor
Coiffed, 2020 (Detail)
Painted plywood, fabric skirting, silicone rubber, artificial hair, acrylic throw, woollen
blankets, silver fabric, linen, jewellery boxes, costume jewellery, packaging materials
27 x 132 x 96 inches (69 x 335 x 244 cm)
Liz Magor
Coiffed, 2020 (Detail)
Painted plywood, fabric skirting, silicone rubber, artificial hair, acrylic throw, woollen
blankets, silver fabric, linen, jewellery boxes, costume jewellery, packaging materials
27 x 132 x 96 inches (69 x 335 x 244 cm)
Liz Magor, Downer
December 5, 2020 – January 30, 2021, Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver, Canada
Liz Magor
Delivery (brown), 2018 (Detail)
Silicone rubber, textiles, twine
191 x 42 x 42 inches (485 x 107 x 107 cm)
Liz Magor, TIMESHARE
June 22 - July 6, 2019, 500 Capp Street Foundation, San Fracisco, California
Liz Magor, TIMESHARE
June 22 - July 6, 2019, 500 Capp Street Foundation, San Fracisco, California
Liz Magor, TIMESHARE
June 22 - July 6, 2019, 500 Capp Street Foundation, San Fracisco, California
Liz Magor
Leather Palm, 2015
Polymerized gypsum, cigarette, metal
11 x 6 x 4 inches (27.9 x 15.2 x 10.2 cm)
Liz Magor, TIMESHARE
June 22 - July 6, 2019, 500 Capp Street Foundation, San Fracisco, California
Liz Magor, TIMESHARE
June 22 - July 6, 2019, 500 Capp Street Foundation, San Fracisco, California
Liz Magor
Little Mouse Tray, 2019
Polymerized gypsum
1 x 14 x 14 inches (2.5 x 35.6 x 35.6 cm)
Liz Magor, BLOWOUT
April 27 - June 23, 2019, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, Illinois
Liz Magor, BLOWOUT
April 27 - June 23, 2019, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, Illinois
Liz Magor, BLOWOUT
April 27 - June 23, 2019, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, Illinois
Liz Magor, BLOWOUT
April 27 - June 23, 2019, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, Illinois
Liz Magor, BLOWOUT
April 27 - June 23, 2019, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, Illinois
Liz Magor, BLOWOUT
April 27 - June 23, 2019, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, Illinois
Liz Magor, BLOWOUT
April 27 - June 23, 2019, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, Illinois
Liz Magor, BLOWOUT
April 27 - June 23, 2019, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, Illinois
Liz Magor, BLOWOUT
April 27 - June 23, 2019, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, Illinois
Liz Magor, Previously...,
October 27 - January 6, 2018, Andrew Kreps Gallery, 537 W 22nd Street, New York
Liz Magor, Previously...,
October 27 - January 6, 2018, Andrew Kreps Gallery, 537 W 22nd Street, New York
Liz Magor, Previously...,
October 27 - January 6, 2018, Andrew Kreps Gallery, 537 W 22nd Street, New York
Liz Magor, Previously...,
October 27 - January 6, 2018, Andrew Kreps Gallery, 537 W 22nd Street, New York
Liz Magor
The Boots, 2017
Textile, polymerized gypsum
Left: 21 x 17 x 7 1/2 inches (53.3 x 43.2 x 19.1 cm);
Right: 23 x 16 x 7 inches (58.4 x 40.6 x 17.8 cm); 25 x 46 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches (63.5 x 118.1 x 19.1 cm) overall
Liz Magor
Our New Sweaters, 2017
Cashmere, cotton, 3m foil, acrylic sheet, polymerized gypsum
8 1/4 x 60 3/4 x 34 inches (21 x 154.3 x 86.4 cm)
Liz Magor
Our New Sweaters, 2017
Cashmere, cotton, 3m foil, acrylic sheet, polymerized gypsum
8 1/4 x 60 3/4 x 34 inches (21 x 154.3 x 86.4 cm)
Liz Magor
Valley, 2017
Ceramic, acrylic sheet, miscellaneous objects, polymerized gypsum
21 1/2 x 78 x 56 1/4 inches (54.6 x 198.1 x 142.9 cm)
Liz Magor
Pembina, 2017
Textile, wool, polymerized gypsum
41 1/4 x 37 1/4 x 22 1/2 inches (104.8 x 94.6 x 57.2 cm)
Liz Magor
Ladie’s Garment, 2017
Textile, polymerized gypsum
41 x 47 1/2 x 21 inches (104.1 x 120.7 x 53.3 cm)
Liz Magor
Toolshed (Wood Stain), 2017
Wool, oil-based wood stain, acrylic sheet
49 1/2 x 23 x 9 3/4 inches (125.7 x 58.4 x 24.8 cm)
Liz Magor, you you you
February 18 - May 7, 2017, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Switzerland
Liz Magor, you you you
February 18 - May 7, 2017, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Switzerland
Liz Magor, you you you
February 18 - May 7, 2017, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Switzerland
Liz Magor
Good Shepherd, 2016
Polymerized gypsum, wool, plastic bags, plastic sheet, cardboard
52 1/2 x 103 x 12 inches (133.3 x 261.6 x 30.5 cm)
Liz Magor, Six Ways to Sunday #06
September 23 - November 7, 2015, Peephole, Milan Italy
Liz Magor, Six Ways to Sunday #06
September 23 - November 7, 2015, Peephole, Milan, Italy
Liz Magor, Liz Magor: Surrender
August 29 – November 29, 2015, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canda
Liz Magor, Liz Magor: Surrender
August 29 – November 29, 2015, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canda
Liz Magor
All the Names I, 2014
Silicone rubber, mixed fabric
10 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 13 inches (26.67 x 41.91 x 33.02 cm)
Liz Magor
Being This (La Vida), 2012
Paper, textiles, found materials
19 x 12 x 3 inches (48.26 x 30.48 x 7.62 cm)
Liz Magor, I is being This
November 16 - December 22, 2012, Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver, Canada
Liz Magor, I is being This
November 16 - December 22, 2012, Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver, Canada
Liz Magor
Being This (M+M's), 2012
Paper, textiles, found materials
17 x 11 x 2 1/2 inches (43.2 x 27.9 x 6.4 cm)
Liz Magor
Casual, 2012
Platinum-Cure silicone rubber, chair
31 1/2 x 24 x 25 inches (80.01 x 60.96 x 63.5 cm)
Liz Magor
Hudson's Bay Double, 2011
Wool, fabric, metal, polymerized gypsum
64 x 157 x 1 inches (162.6 x 398.8 x 2.5 cm)
Liz Magor
Moth-proofed, 2011
Wool, hair, metal, plastic, polmerized gypsum, thread
66 x 22 x 5 1/2 inches (167.6 x 55.9 x 14 cm)
Liz Magor
Moth-proofed, 2011 (Detail)
Wool, hair, metal, plastic, polmerized gypsum, thread
66 x 22 x 5 1/2 inches (167.6 x 55.9 x 14 cm)
Liz Magor
Want to Be I, 2010
Polymerized gypsum
13 x 15 x 17 inches (33 x 38.1 x 43.2 cm)
Liz Magor
Tweed (toblerone), 2008
Polymerized gypsum, single yellow Toblerone box
16 x 16 x 5 1/4 inches (40.6 x 40.6 x 13.3 cm)
Liz Magor
Doe (cigarette girl), 2008
Polymerized gypsum, cigarettes
8 x 22 x 11 inches (20.3 x 55.9 x 27.9 cm)
Liz Magor
Humidor, 2004
Polymerized gypsum, cigarettes
11 x 5 7/8 x 3 7/8 inches (28 x 15 x 10 cm)
Liz Magor
LightShed, 2004
Aluminum
Liz Magor
Chee-to, 2000
Polymerized gypsum, cheesies
16 1/2 x 65 7/8 x 78 5/8 inches (42 x 167.5 x 200 cm)
Liz Magor
KD - The Original, 2000
Silicone rubber, cheese
66 1/8 x 14 1/8 x 7 3/4 inches (168 x 36 x 20 cm)
Liz Magor
KD - The Original, 2000
Silicone rubber, cheese
66 1/8 x 14 1/8 x 7 3/4 inches (168 x 36 x 20 cm)
Liz Magor
Tent, 1999
Silicone rubber, fabric
76 x 18 x 8 inches (193 x 45.7 x 20.3 cm)
Liz Magor
Tent, 1999 (Detail)
Silicone rubber, fabric
76 x 18 x 8 inches (193 x 45.7 x 20.3 cm)
Liz Magor
Deep Woods Portfolio, 1999
8 Selenium tinted silver gelatin prints
7 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches (19.7 x 24.8 cm)
Liz Magor, No Fear, No Shame, No Confusion
October 12, 2013 - February 12, 2014, Triangle, Marseille, France
Liz Magor
Hollow, 1998-1999
Polymerized alpha gypsum, fabric, foam
72 x 42 x 48 inches (182.8 x 106.7 x 121.9 cm)
Liz Magor
Messenger, 1996-2002
Wood, plaster, textile, found objects
120 x 120 x 168 inches (305 x 305 x 427 cm)
Liz Magor
Regal Decor, 1986
Plywood, masonite, metallic paint, papier maché, fireplace, black and white photograph, cardboard tubes, linoleum
114 x 299 1/4 x 72 inches (290 x 760 x 183 cm)
Liz Magor
Birds Nest Kits: Hammonds Flycatcher, 1975
Paper, natural materials
14 x 9 x 8 1/2 inches (35.6 x 22.9 x 21.6 cm)
Liz Magor’s work finds its center in the peripheral, often replicating the overlooked trappings of daily life and re-presenting them in new contexts. Activated by an interest in the covert, these constructions blur the lines between reality, imagination, and simulation. Creating new and expanded associations, Magor simultaneously draws attention to the objects’ original intentions to satisfy our need for protection, comfort, and affirmation. Liz Magor lives and works in Vancouver.
In 2023, MOCA, Toronto presented The Separation, a solo exhibition including newly commissioned works. Additionally, the travelling survey exhibition The Rise and The Fall was presented at the Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art, Dublin, and travelled to Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea, Essex (2023). Past solo exhibitions include: I Have Wasted My Life at Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York (2021), Liz Magor: BLOWOUT at The Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL, and the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Cambridge, MA (2019), and Previously… at Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York (2017), you you you, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg, traveled to Migros Museum, Zurich, and MAMAC, Nice, Centre d’art contemporain d'Ivry - le Crédac, Paris (2017), Musée d'art Contemporain de Montréal, Montreal (2016), the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2015), Peep-hole, Milan (2015), Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver (2014), and Triangle France, Marseilles (2013). Liz Magor has additionally participated in significant group exhibitions, including in Documenta 8, Kassel (1987), and the 41st Venice Biennale, Venice (1984).
Magor’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; Lafayette Collection, Paris; Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, Zürich; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Ontario; Pinault Collection, Venice, and Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver.
Fondazione Giuliani is very pleased to present the first solo exhibition in Rome of renowned Canadian artist, Liz Magor. For over four decades Magor’s practice has primarily concentrated on sculpture, exploring our persistent and complicated relationship with things. Working with common, everyday objects that often go unnoticed, she uses various sculptural techniques to transform them into new forms, somewhere between still life and the uncanny. Things such as blankets, weathered clothing and discarded toys are found in relationships that generate a sense of meaning and care beyond their original use or need.
Liz Magor is one of Canada’s most influential artists. Her practice focuses on the possibilities of sculpture as a narrative form. Attentive to the physicality of an object, she casts and organizes found material so that intense narratives of dependency and desire can emerge. At once sarcastic and sympathetic, Magor’s sculptures spark questions about our belief and emotional investment in the material world.
The Douglas Hyde is delighted to present the first solo exhibition in Ireland by renowned Canadian artist Liz Magor. For over four decades Magor’s practice has primarily centred on sculpture, exploring our persistent and complicated relationship with things. Using various sculptural techniques Magor transforms ordinary objects into new forms which are located somewhere between still life and the uncanny. Things such as blankets, food containers, clothing and toys are found in unexpected relationships that generate a sense of care and meaning beyond their original use or function.
Organised in collaboration with the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, the exhibition will subsequently tour to The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art, Dublin (14 July-24 September 2023) and Fondazione Giuliani, Rome (26 October 2023 – January 2024).
‘The Rise and The Fall,’ by Liz Magor presents a focused selection of works from the last five years that explore our relationship with the material world. Working with ubiquitous, manufactured objects that often go unnoticed, she transforms them using inventive sculptural techniques that locate them on a spectrum between still life and the uncanny. Things such as blankets, containers, clothing and toys are found in relationships that generate a sense of care and meaning beyond their original use or function.
Best known for sculptures made from both found and cast objects, Liz Magor is interested in the cyclical culture of production and consumption, how we assign value to things, the utilitarian and non-utilitarian functions of objects, and our emotional and psychological attachments to them. Her work addresses the latent qualities of ordinary things that influence our acquisition, use, and disposal of them and how, sometimes, the power that these objects hold can even supersede our human relationships.
For more than four decades, Liz Magor’s practice has quietly dramatized the relationships that develop among objects. Drawing on materials familiar from daily life, she carefully pairs elements of tenderness and exposure, often playing soft against hard, weak against strong, hand-made against mass-produced. Each artwork conjures broad social histories and is driven by intimate, contingent dynamics of power, desire, and vulnerability. Manipulating found objects much in the way an author gathers fragments of stories, the Canadian artist brings them together into a newly commissioned body of work that she describes as “a collection of tiny intense narratives.” Here, she uses Mylar to create clear plastic support forms recalling commercial packaging for a number of sculptural “agents”—stuffed toys that she alters in various ways. In another installation, thirty pairs of secondhand shoes line a low structure, each displayed within its own box amidst elaborate embellishments. Magor uses sculptural techniques like casting, containing, cutting, and reattaching to create these hybrids, which she arranges into sprawling vignettes.
Liz Magor’s sculpture quietly dramatizes the relationships that develop between objects. Often playing soft against hard, she pairs care with exposure. Adhering to exacting processes of casting, fabrication, and hand-made techniques, Magor raises questions around gender roles, memory, addiction, and the changing value of the objects that come in and out of our lives. Featuring a newly commissioned body of work, this exhibition will be the Canadian artist’s first East Coast institutional solo exhibition. A publication—the artist’s first US catalog in 15 years—will record this new work alongside newly commissioned texts by the exhibition’s curators and writers Sheila Heiti and Mitch Speed.
