Liz Magor At Le Triangle France In Marseilles

Liz Magor, Double Cabinet (blue), 2001, Polymerised gypsum, cans of beers 23,5 x 68,58 x 43,18 cm, Private collection, Vancouver, Installation view No Fear, No Shame, No Confusion, by Triangle France © Photo : Aurélien Mole 

The following post is a verbatim reprint of the press release for Liz Magor's current exhibition in Marseilles. I haven't seen the exhibition at all but I can only applaud when an institution and a French one to boot shows a woman artist whose work isn't well-known in Europe. The show also features three other artists whom I'm skipping here in order to keep the post short, but if you go to the website you will have a more complete idea (and a longer press release).  
As a side note, I was somewhat mentally prepared for a very male, very white art world when I moved back to Europe, but between being prepared and experiencing it… the lack of diversity here is staggering. Kudos to Triangle France for having a program that strives to be more inclusive.

So here's the press release, and if you find yourself near Marseilles, go visit the show.

Triangle France is pleased to announce the first European solo exhibition by Canadian artist Liz Magor. Gathering a rigorous selection of her works from the past 20 years as well as new works, No Fear, No Shame, No Confusion is an unprecedented presentation of Liz Magor’s work in Europe since her participation in documenta 8 in Kassel (1987). This solo exhibition opens towards a specific reading of her work through a dialogue with artists sharing a similar sensibility, interests, or processes. Three artists were commissioned new works and invited to present their practice in dialogue with hers: Jean-Marie Appriou, Laure Prouvost and Andrea Büttner, whose woodcut from 2006: No Fear, No Shame, No Confusion gives the exhibition its title.
Since the mid-1970s, Liz Magor has contributed a vast body of work across sculpture and photography exploring with measure and subtlety the layers of information shaping what is apparent in objects and people, how they reveal themselves, claim to be, or pretend. From her early ‘machines’that automatically processed mundane materials and produced sculptural forms, to her photographic series documenting historical reenactment groups in the early 1990s, she has sought to reveal how meaning can be concealed and generated, released and reproduced. Often referencing domestic environments, as well as exploiting

the belief that nature is the ideal or authentic refuge, Liz Magor questions the desire and sometimes compulsion for emotional and physical comfort, and the fragility of the human body and identity. The works gathered in this exhibition, some of which have been created especially for the occasion, are shown together for the first time and constitute a precise selection of sculptures from the past twenty years. Amongst them, her famous One Bedroom Apartment (1996), her ambiguous cast objects from the past decade, and her latest works on textile using found blankets, which through alterations, she has bestowed with attributes releasing parts of their history and temperament. Re-using, duplicating and transforming objects coming from a daily life that is already done consuming them, Liz Magor addresses their status and inconsistency, and reveals their anxiety.

Liz Magor, Camping, 2013, Wool, polymerized gypsum, silver specks, wood, metal 172,72 x 73,66 x 17,78 cm, Artist's collection and Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver, Installation view No Fear, No Shame, No Confusion, by Triangle France, © Photo : Aurélien Mole 

Liz Magor

Born in 1948 in Canada, lives and works in Vancouver, Canada.

Liz Magor (b. 1948, Canada) lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. Practicing for over 40 years, Magor has had numerous solo exhibitions including The Mouth and other storage facilities, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; Simon Fraser University Gallery, Vancouver (2008); The Power Plant (2003); Deep Woods, Art Gallery of York University, Toronto (2000); stores, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2000); Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon; Winnipeg Art Gallery; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (1987); Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (1986); Production/ Reproduction, Vancouver Art Gallery (1980); The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, BC (1977). A selection of group exhibitions include Zoo, Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal (2012); Baja to Vancouver, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle; Wattis Institute, San Francisco; Vancouver Art Gallery; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2003); Elusive Paradise, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2001); Notion of Conflict: A Selection of Contemporary Canadian Art, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1995); More than one Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York (1992); Places with a Past: Site Specific Art in Charleston, Spoleto Festival, Charleston, South Carolina (1991); Meeting Place: Robert Gober, Liz Magor, Juan Muñoz, Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary; Vancouver Art Gallery (1990); Camera Lucida, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff (1989). Magor exhibited at documenta 8 , Kassel, Germany (1987); and represented Canada at the Venice Biennale (1984). Numerous monographs have been published on her work from the late 1970s to the present.
She recently had a solo exhibition “I is being This”, at Catriona Jeffries Gallery in Vancouver (2012) and her work was included in the 2013 California-Pacific Triennial curated by Dan Cameron. 

Liz Magor, Tweed (neck), 2008, Polymerized gypsum, bottle, alcohol, 35,56 x 40,64 x 10,79 cm, Artist's collection and Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver, Installation view No Fear, No Shame, No Confusion, by Triangle France © Photo : Aurélien Mole