Richard Serra

Also on view in the project space: "Videy Afangar" a series of ten 1-color etchings by Richard Serra

Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl is pleased to present a new series of limited edition prints by Richard Serra combining etching and screenprinting. Composites consists of twenty-two editions which the artist began to develop in 2017 and continues the compositional and textural explorations of two series of drawings, titled Rambles (2015) and Composites (2016).

Composites are created by embracing the physical relationship between what happens when a deeply etched copper plate is printed onto handmade Japanese paper followed by the opaque viscosity of Paintstik being pushed through a coarse silkscreen. A marked departure from the appearance of previous Serra editions, Composites are dynamic in their mottled surfaces and exploration of texture and saturation. With a rhythmic play of densities and depths, the surfaces are activated through the masterful application of varying printing techniques and materials.

As is standard in Serra’s works on paper, Composites maintain his dedication to monochrome. Although faithful to the artist’s use of all-black pigment, these new works offer subtle, unexpected tonal variations upon closer inspection. These distinctions are achieved through the use of differently colored etching inks, including black and graphite, resulting in an array of patterns. To further enliven the surface, an admixture of Paintstik and etching ink is squeegeed and then rolled through a coarse silkscreen in one or more applications, thereby giving the texture more depth. The handmade paper is either left with the undulating deckle untouched, or torn to create a comparatively clean edge.

The surfaces are extremely physical, and the ideas behind such a body of work can be found in a philosophy that is fundamental to Serra’s studio practice: a preoccupation with “the invention of form.” The resulting series is comprised of twenty-two remarkably nuanced editions, each offering their own distinct balance between color, texture, and depth of form.

Richard Serra was born in 1938 in San Francisco and lives and works in New York and the North Fork of Long Island. Since the early 1970s, Serra has had countless solo exhibitions in galleries and major museums in the United States and abroad, including two retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1986 and 2007), and a traveling retrospective dedicated to the artist’s drawings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and The Menil Collection, Houston (which was the organizing venue) (2011-2012). Serra’s work has been featured in numerous international exhibitions, including Documenta (1972, 1977, 1982, and 1987), in Kassel, Germany; the Venice Biennales of 1980, 1984, 2001, and 2013; and the Whitney Museum of American Art’s annual and biennial exhibitions of 1968, 1970, 1973, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1995, and 2006. Serra has created major site-specific sculptures for public and private venues worldwide; the most notable public installations include The Matter of Time (2005), a series of eight large-scale works by dating from 1994 to 2005, installed permanently at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; Promenade, shown at the Grand Palais, Paris, for Monumenta 2008; the 2011 site-specific sculpture 7, permanently installed opposite the Museum of Islamic Art, in Doha, Qatar; and East-West/West-East, 2014, installed in the Brouq Nature Reserve in the Zekreet desert, Qatar. Serra has been the recipient of many notable prizes and awards, including a Leone d’Oro for lifetime achievement, Venice Biennale, Italy (2001); Chevalier de l’Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur, Republic of France (2015); and, most recently, a J. Paul Getty Medal (2018) awarded in honor of extraordinary contributions to the practice, understanding, and support of the arts.