Charles Gaines: Gridwork 1974-1989, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

On 7 February the Hammer Museum presents the first museum survey of LA-based conceptual artist Charles Gaines’ early work. The exhibition, entitled Gridwork 1974-1989, will feature 11 different series of over 80 works and relevant ephemera from the early years of Gaines’ four decade career. A leading practitioner of conceptual art and an influential educator at the California State University, Fresno, Gaines is recognised for his outstanding work in photography and drawing, as well as his use of paper to investigate themes of systems, cognition, and language.

Offering an examination of the artist’s career from his ground-breaking work in the 1970s to his investigations of subjectivity in the late 1980s, Gridwork identifies Gaines’ early practice as a crucial bridge between the first wave of conceptual artists of the 1960s and later practitioners who reflected on identity politics, subjectivity, and inequality. In each series of Gaines’ work the artist explores themes of logic, pattern, linguistic systems and chance, inspired by influential composer and artist John Cage, alongside issues concerning the Black Arts Movement of the 1970s and the rise of multiculturalism in the 1980s.

Organised by The Studio Museum in Harlem and curated by Naima J. Keith, associate curator, the exhibition will showcase Gaines’ iconic and lesser-known series including Regression (1973-74), one of the artist’s first explorations of mathematical and numeric systems; Walnut Tree Orchard (1975-2014) and Faces (1978-79), which use photography as a foundation for graphic-deconstructions; Motion: Trisha Brown Dance (1980-81), a collaboration with choreographer and dancer Trisha Brown; and Landscape: Assorted Trees with Regression (1981), which illustrates a critical connection between Gaines’s work from the 1970s and his work from the 1980s.

The organisation of Charles Gaines: Gridwork 1974–1989 is made possible by a grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and is presented in conjunction with Charles Gaines: Librettos: Manuel de Falla/Stokely Carmichael at Art + Practice.

Charles Gaines: Gridwork 1974-1989, 7 February – 24 May, Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90024.

Further information can be found at www.hammer.ucla.edu.

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Credits
1. Charles Gaines, Falling Leaves #10 (1978). Collection of Daisy Addicott. Photo: Randy Vaughn-Dotta.