Arlene Shechet: Girl Group
May 4 – November 10, 2024
Photo by David Schulze
For the 2024 season, Storm King Art Center is pleased to present Arlene Shechet: Girl Group. The exhibition will debut six new large-scale commissions—spanning heights of ten to twenty feet and lengths of up to thirty feet—along with complementary indoor works in wood, steel, and ceramic. Girl Group asserts a feminine sensibility across Storm King’s hills, fields, and galleries. This series of sculptures adapts the monumental vocabulary of the Art Center to Shechet’s unique voice. Recognized as a leading sculptor who has radicalized ceramics, Shechet now takes on industrial materials and inaugurates a new phase of her work. She brings an array of vibrant colors—pinks, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, and purples—to Storm King's terrain for the first time.
Developing the new outdoor sculptures over the course of three years, Shechet prioritized process and improvisation over pre-conception by alternating between digital means and intuitive handmade methods—always finalizing with the handmade. While large in scale, the works retain the sense of gesture, touch, and bold color found in the artist’s earlier artworks. The new sculptures are comprised of welded and constructed steel and aluminum, each incorporating two colors shifting from glossy to matte, as well as planes of unpainted metal. Arlene Shechet: Girl Group has grown from the artist’s work in ceramics—specifically her recent Together series—which will be displayed in the Museum Building galleries.
Arlene Shechet: Girl Group will be accompanied by a robust calendar of public programs, including an outdoor performance produced in collaboration with Shechet.
The exhibition is co-curated by Storm King’s Artistic Director and Chief Curator Nora Lawrence and Associate Curator Eric Booker, with Adela Goldsmith, Curatorial Assistant.
Lead support for Arlene Shechet: Girl Group by anonymous, with additional support provided by Jody and John Arnhold, Allison and Larry Berg, Roberta and Steven Denning, Girlfriend Fund, Agnes Gund, and Wagner Foundation, and supported in part by Candace Carmel Barasch, the Helis Foundation, Lora Reynolds, Adam Sheffer, and SHS Foundation. Publication support provided by Pace Gallery.
Developing the new outdoor sculptures over the course of three years, Shechet prioritized process and improvisation over pre-conception by alternating between digital means and intuitive handmade methods—always finalizing with the handmade. While large in scale, the works retain the sense of gesture, touch, and bold color found in the artist’s earlier artworks. The new sculptures are comprised of welded and constructed steel and aluminum, each incorporating two colors shifting from glossy to matte, as well as planes of unpainted metal. Arlene Shechet: Girl Group has grown from the artist’s work in ceramics—specifically her recent Together series—which will be displayed in the Museum Building galleries.
Arlene Shechet: Girl Group will be accompanied by a robust calendar of public programs, including an outdoor performance produced in collaboration with Shechet.
The exhibition is co-curated by Storm King’s Artistic Director and Chief Curator Nora Lawrence and Associate Curator Eric Booker, with Adela Goldsmith, Curatorial Assistant.
Lead support for Arlene Shechet: Girl Group by anonymous, with additional support provided by Jody and John Arnhold, Allison and Larry Berg, Roberta and Steven Denning, Girlfriend Fund, Agnes Gund, and Wagner Foundation, and supported in part by Candace Carmel Barasch, the Helis Foundation, Lora Reynolds, Adam Sheffer, and SHS Foundation. Publication support provided by Pace Gallery.