Sam Anderson: The Great Assumption

October 30, 2017

by: JOAN

Sam Anderson: The Great Assumption
February 18 – April 8, 2018
Reception: Saturday, February 17, 7-9pm
Exhibition Walkthrough: Sunday, February 18, 1pm

In her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, the New York-based, LA-born artist Sam Anderson presents The Great Assumption–a selection of sculptural and video works which comprise the inaugural exhibition of JOAN’s relocated gallery space in the Bendix Building, Downtown Los Angeles.

The Great Assumption takes architecture as a point of departure in its consideration of spaces of transit. The movement of people or objects through airport baggage claims, factory conveyor belts, and the gates of heaven inform the layout of the exhibition. For Anderson, these are all passageways—zones where we prepare for uncertain futures, where raw materials are transformed into their final forms, and promising doors open before us as others and close behind.

In her videos, clay sculptures, and found material constructions, Anderson presents a series of figures and vehicles that are meant to move people from one place to another, or help in that process. On display are poeticized versions of characters such as a waitress taking the form of an angel or a ferryboat on the River Styx envisioned as a private plane.

Whether passing between buildings, cities or phases of life, the acts of departure and arrival carry the aspirations of improvement and the promises of transcendence. For Anderson, each work in The Great Assumption represents a distinct perspective on change and self-reinvention—investigating how the trappings of role play and language shape our desires.

Sam Anderson (B. 1982, Los Angeles, CA: lives in New York City) is a graduate of Yale University (MFA). Her work has been shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions in the United States and Europe, including Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund,Germany; Bortolami, New York; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Overduin & Co, Los Angeles; Maccarone, New York; Anthology Film Archives, New York; Greater New York at MoMA PS1, New York; and White Columns, New York. She has had recent solo exhibitions at the Koelnischer Kunstverein, Cologne; SculptureCenter, New York; Tanya Leighton, Berlin; Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin; Chapter, New York; Rowhouse Project, Baltimore; and JOAN, Los Angeles. Her first monograph Sam Anderson was released by Mousse Publishing in December 2017, featuring texts by Ruba Katrib, Moritz Wesseler, and an interview with Lia Gangitano.

Installation view. Photo by David Matorin.

Categories: 2018, Past