Michelle Grabner & B. Wurtz

Laurel Gitlen is thrilled to present a two-person exhibition of new works by Michelle Grabner and B. Wurtz. The exhibition includes Grabner's iconic gingham paintings and four new sculptures by Wurtz that combine found objects and wood elements. In both artists' work, forms of repetition, the transformation of the common, and a subtle political ethos meet a generosity that has buoyed their polyvalent careers and their beloved status as supporters of young artists and small galleries.

Michelle Grabner (b. 1962, Oshkosh, WI; lives and works in Chicago and Milwaukee) is known as a curator, teacher, and writer in addition to her career as an artist. Her work in painting and sculpture draws equally from a rigorous formal investigation of patterns and domestic life, and a sometimes cheeky flirtation with high modernism's affection for seriality, grids and geometries. Her now-iconic gingham paintings are juicier than ever, with a thicker application of oil paint over burlap, high-intensity complementary colors, and an off-registration grid of brushstrokes applied all in a single direction.

B. Wurtz (b. 1948 Pasadena, CA; lives and works in New York) makes work using found objects and unassuming materials that refer back to the fundamental necessities of food, shelter and clothing. Often using commonplace or discarded objects and casual or reductive constructions, Wurtz's work simultaneously recalls the totemic and monumental qualities of architecture and highlights the streamlined elegance of industrial design. The sculptures in this show resemble post-consumer bouquets––unadulterated stuff from plastic fruit netting to cut-glass vases and lightbulbs are arranged in familiar repetition like cut flowers.

Michelle Grabner has exhibited extensively over the past three decades, spanning solo exhibitions at galleries including James Cohan, New York; Galerie Gisela Clement, Lotharstraße; Gallery16, San Francisco; Hedreen Gallery at Seattle University, Seattle; Green Gallery, Milwaukee; Rocket Gallery, London; Autumn Space and Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago. Solo museum exhibitions include Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland; Indianapolis Museum of Art; Ulrich Museum, Wichita. She has been included in group exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Akron Art Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Tate St. Ives, UK; and Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland.

B. Wurtz has been the subject of over 52 solo exhibitions at galleries including Garth Greenan, Metro Pictures and Feature Inc., New York; Office Baroque, Antwerp; Maisterrvalbuena, Madrid; Kate MacGarry, London; Cooper Cole, Toronto; Gregor Podnar, Berlin; and Lulu, Mexico City. Solo museum shows include Kunstverein and Freiburg, Germany; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom; and Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.