Images

Maria Nepomuceno

Untitled, 2014

clay, beads, and wood

114 1/8 x 94 1/2 x 78 3/4 inches

Hanne Friis

Column, 2019

hand-stitched cotton and satin

104 3/8 x 21 5/8 x 21 5/8 inches

Beverly Semmes

Red Robe, 2024

crushed rayon velvet, acrylic over photograph printed on canvas

81 x 27 x 6 inches

Beverly Semmes

Winter Wheat, 2021

ink and acrylic over photograph printed on canvas

64 x 40 inches

Beverly Semmes

Glitter Triptych, 2023

ink, acrylic, velvet, faux fur, polyester, printed canvas, tape, and glitter bricks

67 x 122 x 16 inches

Lynda Benglis

Lagniappe I, 1978

cast paper, acrylic, and glitter

edition 25/26

36 x 12 1/2 x 5 inches

Lynda Benglis

Swinburne Egg I, 2009

tinted polyurethane, edition 1/3

41 x 28 x 15 inches

Polly Apfelbaum

Green Space, 2007

dye on synthetic velvet

440 x 128 inches

Virgil Marti

On Some Faraway Beach, 2013

urethane, medium-density fibreboard, and silver plating

72 x 36 x 4 inches

Yeesookyung

Translated Vase 2019 TVCW2, 2019

ceramic shards, epoxy, and 24k gold leaf

42 1/8 x 30 3/8 x 25 5/8 inches

Ann Agee

Lamp Base Sculpture, Flower Style (Large) #1, 2012

glazed porcelain

20 x 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches

Ann Agee

Lamp Base Sculpture, Flower Style (Large) #2, 2012

glazed porcelain

20 x 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches

Ann Agee

Mantel Clock with Flowers, 2012

glazed porcelain

15 1/2 x 14 x 7 inches

Press Release

Locks Gallery is pleased to present TEA PARTY, a group exhibition with Ann Agee (b. 1959), Polly Apfelbaum (b. 1955), Lynda Benglis (b. 1941), Hanne Friis (b. 1972), Virgil Marti (b. 1962), Maria Nepomuceno (b. 1976), Beverly Semmes (b. 1958), and Yeesookyung (b. 1963). This exhibition features sculptures and mixed media works that transform traditionally decorative materials into subversive and sensuous art forms. Through playful material experimentation as well as cultural and art historical references, these eight artists go beyond a referential relationship to quintessentially “feminine” idioms. Objects intended to become decorative or functional become displays of embodied labor. Tradition is broken apart, and domesticity and excess is rendered wrought and profound, a twisted site of expansive power and joy.

Ceramics are a recurring trope used to intervene traditional associations of femininity and decorative art. In Beverly Semmes’s vibrant pots and collages, the vessel serves as a metaphor for the female body: an object meant to carry life, a projection of male desires. Clay pots in Brazilian-based Maria Neopomuceno’s Untitled (2014) hold amorphous growths of rope and beads, suggesting an outpouring flow of an infinite energy or spirit. Korean sculptor Yeesookyung affixes discarded porcelain shards to create Translated Vases, fabricating elaborate constructions of traditional Korean masterpieces. Ann Agee’s whimsical, rococo-like porcelain sculptures fragment and reassemble motifs of domestic life, labor, and child bearing into playful, exuberant, and even mischievous arrangements.

Several artists use weaving and textiles to imbue inanimate objects with breath of their own. Norwegian-based Hanne Friis’ hand-stitched Column (2019) transforms cotton and satin into a corporeal form, appearing on the verge of transformation. Beverly Semmes’s humorous, phallic-like Red Dress towers over the viewer, suggesting to paradoxically conceal and reveal a female body. Maria Nepomuceno’s beaded weavings also radiate out into space, like a natural growth, expanding and migrating without human intervention. Similarly, in Green Space, Polly Apfelbaum’s hand-dyed velvet flowers spread infectiously across the floor, juxtaposing the angularity of interior space.

Sculptures by Lynda Benglis, Hanne Friis, and Beverly Semmes merge process with form, transforming their materiality into shapes which appear to contradict their physical nature. Plastic becomes dense and heavy as in Benglis’ Swinburne Egg I (2009), and fabric becomes compact, as in Friis’ Tongue (2025). Both works also seem to reference both the earth and body, swelling, contracting, and breathing on their own. Similarly, ceramics by Beverly Semmes are clunky and asymmetrical, revealing traces of the artist’s physical labor; as put by curator Ingrid Schaffner, these pots are “gruntingly physical embodiments of the touch, the craft, the pleasure, and the work that goes into building even the most elemental of forms.”

This exhibition will be on view in the second floor gallery and open to the public Tuesday through Saturday through the month of June, and Monday through Friday through the month of July.

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