August 1, 2008, Philadelphia, PA–Locks Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of fabric installations by Polly Apfelbaum, on view September 2-30, 2008. There will be a reception for the artist on Friday, September 5, 5:30-7:30 pm.
Polly Apfelbaum's highly intricate fabric installations – works she describes as "fallen paintings", range from mandalic sunbursts to riotous spills and Pop-inspired gardens. Comprised of hundreds of individual dyed fabric pieces, Apfelbaum\'s installations reference modern art history – the 1950s poured works of Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler, and Lynda Benglis\'s latex floor pieces. With their vibrant, saturated colors, Apfelbaum\'s works explore the nature of craft, Pop design aesthetic, and sewn, hand-crafted applications.
The Locks Gallery exhibit will bring together 4 large-scale floor works from 2003–07 that have not been previously exhibited together. Each of the four works presents a variation on flower imagery. Limited to a single color with the flowers outlined in black, these flower power works line the gallery wall’s perimeter and envelope the viewer like a cartoon garden brought to life.
A series of the artist’s 20 x 24 inch Polaroid images of her flowers will also be shown in the Locks installation.
New York-based Apfelbaum has had one-person museum exhibitions throughout the US and Europe. Her recent solo exhibitions were held at the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis and the Paine Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston. The ICA Philadelphia organized a 2003 retrospective that traveled to the Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati and the Kemper Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO. The artist's work is in numerous museum collections including MoMA, the Whitney Museum of Art, L.A. County Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art and Musee d\'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
