Frances Stark at Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Artist: Frances Stark
Venue: Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Exhibition Title: UH-OH: Frances Stark 1991–2015
Date: September 17, 2016 – January 29, 2017
Full gallery of images, press release, video and link available after the jump.
Video:
Frances Stark, My Best Thing, 2011, Digital video with sound, 1 hr 39 mins 16 secs
Frances Stark, Bobby Jesus’s Alma mater b/w Reading the Book of David and/or paying Attention is Free, 2013, Multichannel projection with sound, inkjet mural, and takeaway posters, 7 mins 20 secs
Images:
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- Bobby Jesus’s Alma mater b/w Reading the Book of David and/or paying Attention is Free Frances Stark (American, born in 1967) 2013 Multichannel projection with sound, inkjet mural, and takeaway offset posters. 7:20 min. * Purchased jointly by Museum Contemporary Art Chicago with funds provided by Marshall Field’s by exchange and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. *Installation view, Carnegie International, 2013. Image courtesy Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles, photo by Brian Conley. *Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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- Another Chorus Individual (in the cul‑de‑sac) Frances Stark (American, born in 1967) 2007 Poster, graphite, and paper collage on paper. 75 1/2 × 57 1/2 in. (191.8 × 146.1 cm) (framed). *Adam and Mariana Clayton Collection. *Image courtesy of greengrassi, London, photo by Marcus Leith. *Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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- Chorus girl folding self in half Frances Stark (American, born in 1967) 2008 Paper collage, graphite on paper. 76 x 58 in. (193 x 147.3 cm) (framed). *Collection Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner. Promised gift to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. *Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art. *Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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- Another Chorus Individual (On Aspiration) Frances Stark (American, born in 1967) 2007 *Poster, graphite, and paper collage on paper. 75 1/2 × 57 1/2 in. (191.8 × 146.1 cm) (framed). *Private collection. *Image courtesy of greengrassi, London, photo by Marcus Leith. *Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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- Member of chorus (a particle) Frances Stark (American, born in 1967) 2008 Paper collage, graphite on paper. 76 × 57 15∕16 in. (193 × 147.2 cm) (framed). *Koenig Books, Cologne and London. *Image courtesy of greengrassi, London. *Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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- Chorus Line Frances Stark (American, born in 1967) 2008 Cut-and-pasted printed paper and cut-and-pasted colored paper on paper *The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, U.S.A. Purchased with funds provided by the Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, and Committee on Drawings Funds. *Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY. *Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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- Chorus Girl (a part) Frances Stark (American, born in 1967) 2008 Paper collage, graphite on paper. 76 × 58 in. (193 × 147.3 cm) (framed). *Private collection. *Image courtesy of greengrassi, London. *Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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- Push Frances Stark (American, born in 1967) 2006. Collage, latex paint, tape, and graphite pencil on panel. 80 x 89 1/16 in. x ¼ in. (203.2 x 226.2 x 0.6 cm). *Whitney Museum of American Art. Purchase, with funds from the Drawing Committee and partial gift of Tina Petra. *Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art. *Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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- Pull After “Push” Frances Stark (American, born in 1967) 2010 Mixed media on canvas on panel. 69 x 89 in. (175.3 x 226.1 cm). *Collection Nancy and Joachim Bechtle. *Image courtesy of greengrassi, London, photo by Robert Wedemeyer. *Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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- How does one sustain the belief in total babes (power/recognition) which has been recognized for its debilitating effects on that person who lacks the total babe (embodiment of power/recognition) and access to the total babe by means of one’s own total foxiness/power? Frances Stark (American, born in 1967) 1991/2014. Hooked rug. 38 3/16 x 73 ¼ x 1 9/16 in. (97 x 186 x 4 cm). *Collection of Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip Aarons. Image courtesy of Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne. *Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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- If conceited girls want to show they already have a seat (after Goya) Frances Stark (American, born in 1967) 2008 Mixed media on paper. 57 x 30 in. (144.8 x 76.2 cm). *Collection of Jacques and Christiane Berghmans. *Image courtesy of greengrassi, London, photo by Ellen Wilson. *Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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- Agonizing yet Blissful Frances Stark (American, born in 1967) 2001. Ink and collage on paper. 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm). *Image courtesy of Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne. *Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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- My Best Thing Frances Stark (American, born in 1967) 2011 Digital video, color, sound. 100:00 min. *Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Purchase. *Image courtesy of Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York. *Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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- Back Side of the Performance Frances Stark (American, born in 1967) 2008 Paper, paillettes, and escutcheon pins on foam core. 38 x 66 x 2 ½ in. (96.5 x 167.6 x 6.4 cm) *Julia Stoschek Foundation e.v., Düsseldorf. *Photo by Yun Lee. *Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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- Poster for Put a Song in Your Thing Frances Stark (American, born in 1967) 2011 Digital print. 24 × 36 in. (61 × 91.4 cm) *UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, Hammer Museum. Gift of Stacy and John Rubeli. *Photo by Nadya Wasylko. *Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Images courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Videos courtesy of the artist.
Press Release:
The most comprehensive survey to date of Los Angeles-based artist and writer Frances Stark (born 1967), “UH-OH” tracks her 25-year career from early carbon copy drawings and text-based works to more recent video installations, digital slide shows, and projects that shape fleeting engagements with social media into art. Featuring more than 100 works, “UH-OH” provides an in-depth exploration of Stark’s singular artistic practice and voice, as she shares her knowledge of cultural topics high and low, including dissections of art history, the Internet, and her creative contemporaries.
Autobiography is Stark’s primary mode of expression. From self-examination—sustained meditation on what she’s reading, making, consuming, doing—come her reflections on literature, music, architecture, art, sex, domesticity, labor, pleasure, pedagogy, and class. Her works are layered with meanings and references that viewers can appreciate on many levels, from persistent visual motifs, to repetitive phrases and titles, to obscure citations, allusions, and puns. Rather than being a traditional chronological survey, “UH-OH” is designed to aid viewers in their own close reading of Stark’s work by highlighting recurrent jokes, rhymes, metaphors, and cultural references. With words and images at the heart of her practice, and moving between analog and digital modes of assemblage, Stark has been heralded by the Los Angeles Times as “the visual poet laureate of the Internet age.”
Highlights of the exhibition include Stark’s pre-YouTube Cat Videos (1999–2002); the playful, provocative and psychedelic “chorus girl” collages from the series A Torment of Follies (2008); My Best Thing (2011), a video that debuted at the 2011 Venice Biennale edited from Stark’s cyber exchanges with two online paramours; the celebrated video installation Bobby Jesus’s Alma Mater b/w Reading the Book of David and/or Paying Attention Is Free (2013), set to a West Coast gangsta rap soundtrack and featuring images that range from Renaissance paintings, to family snapshots, to portraits of hip hop legends. The exhibition’s title, “UH-OH,” contrasts the usual lengthy or pithy titles of Stark’s works with a simple response to a complicated problem. This familiar and percussive utterance demonstrates our instinctive awareness of a difficulty, and inspires us to look deeper, think harder, and listen more carefully.