Locks Gallery is pleased to present Synecdoche II, an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Nancy Graves (1939–1995) on view from March 4 through April 16, 2022. This will be the artist’s sixth one-person exhibition with the gallery since 1991 and will feature abstract paintings on canvas and pastels on paper from the mid to late 1970s, some of which have never before been exhibited. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with a new essay by Carter Ratcliff.
Graves was a highly accomplished artist, who worked prolifically in sculpture, painting, printmaking, and film, experimenting with diverse techniques and modes of representation. In 1969, at 29 years old, Graves was the youngest person, and only the fifth woman, to receive a one-person exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Paintings from this period in the mid-1970s were featured at Documenta 6 in 1977. Despite early art world success, her work has been overlooked in recent years, since her untimely death in 1995 at the age of 55. As Carter Ratcliff notes in his essay, “Nancy Graves: A World of Metaphors,” the works on view offer an opportunity “to immerse ourselves in a place whose climate and geography coalesce as the imagination grapples with the metaphoric possibilities of her imagery.”
Nancy Graves (1939-1995) earned her MFA from Yale University in 1964. One-person exhibitions of her work have been organized at the Albright-Knox Gallery of Art, NY; Whitney Museum of Art, NY; The Fort Worth Art Museum, TX; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, DC; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, MO; Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY and ICA Philadelphia, PA. Graves is represented in the collections of major public institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; National Gallery of Art, DC; National Gallery of Canada, ON; Museum of Modern Art, NY; Whitney Museum of Art, NY; Walker Art Center, MN; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, DC; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL. Catalogue raisonnes have been published on her printed work (1996) and sculpture (1987). This exhibition has been organized in collaboration with the Nancy Graves Foundation in New York.
Synecdoche II will be on view at Locks Gallery from March 4 through April 16, 2022. The gallery is open 10 am to 6 pm from Tuesday through Saturday, and by appointment. For more information, please contact info@locksgallery.com or 215-629-1000.
