Menu

Extended through May 17, 2008

Prefab

February 26–May 17, 2008
980 Madison Avenue, New York

Prefab Installation view

Prefab

Installation view

Prefab Installation view

Prefab

Installation view

Prefab Installation view

Prefab

Installation view

Prefab Installation view

Prefab

Installation view

Prefab Installation view

Prefab

Installation view

Prefab Installation view

Prefab

Installation view

Prefab Installation view

Prefab

Installation view

Prefab Installation view

Prefab

Installation view

Prefab Installation view

Prefab

Installation view

Prefab Installation view

Prefab

Installation view

Prefab Installation view

Prefab

Installation view

 Play Button

Works Exhibited

Richard Artschwager, Untitled (For the Black Beauty), 1983 Formica on wood, 47 × 26 ¼ inches (119.4 × 66.7 cm)

Richard Artschwager, Untitled (For the Black Beauty), 1983

Formica on wood, 47 × 26 ¼ inches (119.4 × 66.7 cm)

Alighiero E Boetti, Tutto, 1987 Embroidery on canvas, 51 × 50 ¾ inches (129.5 × 128.9 cm)

Alighiero E Boetti, Tutto, 1987

Embroidery on canvas, 51 × 50 ¾ inches (129.5 × 128.9 cm)

Mike Kelley, Untitled, 1996–97 Hand-woven silk, 45 ¼ × 75 inches (114.9 × 190.5 cm)

Mike Kelley, Untitled, 1996–97

Hand-woven silk, 45 ¼ × 75 inches (114.9 × 190.5 cm)

Mike Kelley, Memory Ware Flat #26, 2001 Mixed media on wood panel, 70 ¼ × 46 ½ inches (178.4 × 118.1 × 10.2 cm)

Mike Kelley, Memory Ware Flat #26, 2001

Mixed media on wood panel, 70 ¼ × 46 ½ inches (178.4 × 118.1 × 10.2 cm)

Mike Kelley, Memory Ware Flat #27, 2001 Mixed media on wood panel, 70 ¼ × 46 ½ × 4 inches (178.4 × 118.1 × 10.2 cm)

Mike Kelley, Memory Ware Flat #27, 2001

Mixed media on wood panel, 70 ¼ × 46 ½ × 4 inches (178.4 × 118.1 × 10.2 cm)

Mike Kelley, Memory Ware Flat #34, 2003 Mixed media on wood panel, 77 × 53 inches (195.6 × 134.6 cm)

Mike Kelley, Memory Ware Flat #34, 2003

Mixed media on wood panel, 77 × 53 inches (195.6 × 134.6 cm)

Mike Kelley, Carpet #5, 2003 Acrylic on carpet mounted on wood panel, 76 × 52 ½ × 4 inches (193 × 133.4 × 10.2 cm)

Mike Kelley, Carpet #5, 2003

Acrylic on carpet mounted on wood panel, 76 × 52 ½ × 4 inches (193 × 133.4 × 10.2 cm)

Mike Kelley, Carpet #9, 2003 Acrylic on carpet mounted on wood panel, 52 ½ × 76 ¼ inches (133.4 × 193.7 cm)

Mike Kelley, Carpet #9, 2003

Acrylic on carpet mounted on wood panel, 52 ½ × 76 ¼ inches (133.4 × 193.7 cm)

Martin Kippenberger, Untitled (Rubber Painting II), 1991 Latex and acrylic on canvas, 35 ⅞ × 29 ⅞ inches (91.1 × 75.9 cm)

Martin Kippenberger, Untitled (Rubber Painting II), 1991

Latex and acrylic on canvas, 35 ⅞ × 29 ⅞ inches (91.1 × 75.9 cm)

Jeff Koons, Stay in Tonight, 1986 Oil inks on canvas, 69 × 48 inches (175.3 × 121.9 cm)

Jeff Koons, Stay in Tonight, 1986

Oil inks on canvas, 69 × 48 inches (175.3 × 121.9 cm)

Sherrie Levine, Chair Seat: 13, 1986 Paint and wood, 18 ¼ × 18 × 2 ½ inches (46.4 × 45.7 × 6.4 cm)

Sherrie Levine, Chair Seat: 13, 1986

Paint and wood, 18 ¼ × 18 × 2 ½ inches (46.4 × 45.7 × 6.4 cm)

Sherrie Levine, Untitled (12 checked paintings), 1998 Pencil on cherrywood, 12 panels: 23 ⅝ × 6 ¼ × ⅜ inches each (60 × 15.9 × 1 cm)

Sherrie Levine, Untitled (12 checked paintings), 1998

Pencil on cherrywood, 12 panels: 23 ⅝ × 6 ¼ × ⅜ inches each (60 × 15.9 × 1 cm)

Richard Prince, Dennis Wilson (hood), 2007 Car hood and fiberglass, 65 ½ × 75 ½ inches (166.4 × 191.8 cm)

Richard Prince, Dennis Wilson (hood), 2007

Car hood and fiberglass, 65 ½ × 75 ½ inches (166.4 × 191.8 cm)

Richard Prince, Queendom, 2008 Fiberglass, wood, steel and bondo, 67 × 74 × 9 inches (179.2 × 188 × 22.9 cm)

Richard Prince, Queendom, 2008

Fiberglass, wood, steel and bondo, 67 × 74 × 9 inches (179.2 × 188 × 22.9 cm)

Rudolf Stingel, Untitled, 2001–02 Celotex insulation panel laminated to particle board, aluminum frame, 2 panels: 95 × 93 inches overall (241.3 × 236.2 cm)

Rudolf Stingel, Untitled, 2001–02

Celotex insulation panel laminated to particle board, aluminum frame, 2 panels: 95 × 93 inches overall (241.3 × 236.2 cm)

Rudolf Stingel, Untitled (sei), 2003 Styrofoam & silicon on canvas, 78 × 53 inches (198.1 × 134.6 cm)

Rudolf Stingel, Untitled (sei), 2003

Styrofoam & silicon on canvas, 78 × 53 inches (198.1 × 134.6 cm)

Rosemarie Trockel, O.T. (Hammer + Sickle), 1986 Knitted wool, 45 ¼ × 9 ⅞ inches (114.9 × 25.1 cm)

Rosemarie Trockel, O.T. (Hammer + Sickle), 1986

Knitted wool, 45 ¼ × 9 ⅞ inches (114.9 × 25.1 cm)

Christopher Wool, Untitled, 1987 ROSEMARIE TROCKEL, 86 ⅝ × 55 ⅞ inches (220 × 142 cm)

Christopher Wool, Untitled, 1987

ROSEMARIE TROCKEL, 86 ⅝ × 55 ⅞ inches (220 × 142 cm)

About

Gagosian is pleased to present Prefab, an exhibition of works by Richard Artschwager, Alighiero Boetti, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince, Rudolf Stingel, and Rosemarie Trockel. These conceptually rooted artists have all used industrial, prefabricated, or found materials to achieve a range of new strategies within, and alluding to, painting—demonstrating an attitude toward the abstract sublime that is wholly ambivalent.

While all of these wall-based works “behave” as paintings, paradoxically this is achieved through an embrace of assemblagist strategies that abandon illusory representation for a more immediate and readymade reality.

Artschwager’s prescient use of Formica and Celotex transformed the classical idea of how a painting could function, renewing emphasis on the intrinsic structure of the work while taking into account the sculptural and structural aspects of a painting’s composition. Beginning with one of his seminal Formica paintings, the exhibition charts a trajectory through a myriad of provocative approaches including Boetti’s embroideries, Trockel’s machine-knitted wool paintings, Kelley’s Carpet paintings and Memory Ware Flats, Stingel’s Styrofoam and Celotex paintings, Prince’s Hoods, and Koons’s alluring advertisement from the Luxury and Degradation series. Whether using “soft” household carpet, embroidery, and wool, or “hard” industrial substances such as Styrofoam and automotive components, these artists embrace the eternal dialogue on the nature of abstraction and representation by challenging the traditional use and meaning of painting with a range of substances and textures that invoke associations with daily experience.

Richard Prince, Untitled (Original Cowboy), 2013, chromogenic print, in frame, 70 ⅛ × 100 ⅛ × 2 inches (178.1 × 254.3 × 5.1 cm) © Richard Prince, courtesy Richard Prince Studio

Picture Books: Percival Everett and Brandon Taylor

The second installment of Picture Books, an imprint organized by Emma Cline and Gagosian, presents author Percival Everett’s novella Grand Canyon, Inc. alongside Untitled (Original Cowboy), a photograph by Richard Prince. In celebration of the publication, Everett met with author Brandon Taylor to discuss the novella, the role of history in the writing process, and the similarity in methodologies for science and literature.

Richard Artschwager, New York, 1991. Photo: Chris Felver/Getty Images

Richard Artschwager

A conversation between Adam McEwen and Bob Monk.

The cover of Richard Prince: Cowboy, edited by Robert M. Rubin and published by Fulton Ryder and DelMonico Books | Prestel, New York, in 2020.

Richard Prince: Cowboy

On the occasion of the publication of Richard Prince: Cowboy, a major monograph on the artist’s preoccupation with the mythic American West, Lucy Sante tracks the archetype through mass media, advertising, and the art of Richard Prince to illuminate the cowboy’s enduring appeal.

Andy Warhol cover design for the magazine Aspen 1, no. 3.

Artists’ Magazines

Gwen Allen recounts her discovery of cutting-edge artists’ magazines from the 1960s and 1970s and explores the roots and implications of these singular publications.

Josh Kline, Skittles, 2014, commercial fridge, lightbox, and blended liquids in bottles, 86 ½ × 127 ½ × 41 inches (219.7 × 323.9 × 104.1 cm) © Josh Kline. Photo:  © Timothy Schenck

Laws of Motion

Catalyzed by Laws of Motion—a group exhibition pairing artworks from the 1980s on by Jeff Koons, Cady Noland, Rosemarie Trockel, and Jeff Wall with contemporary sculptures by Josh Kline and Anicka Yi—Wyatt Allgeier discusses the convergences and divergences in these artists’ practices with an eye to the economic worlds from which they spring.

Richard Artschwager, Arizona, 2002, acrylic on fiber panel, in metal artist’s frame

Richard Artschwager

On the occasion of the exhibition Richard Artschwager: Primary Sources, recently on view at Gagosian, New York, Bob Monk and Maggie Dougherty explore the artist’s use of reference materials as the impetus for his paintings.