Joel Shapiro

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Wojtek Naczas

"Untitled," 1991, sculpture by Joel Shapiro.

press release: Main Galleries • September 23, 2018–January 13, 2019 (closing date tentative). Museum closed 12/24-25, 31, 1/1.

MMoCA Opening Saturday, September 22 • 6–9 PM. Artist talk 7 pm.

Join us at MMoCA on Saturday, September 22 for the opening celebration of Joel Shapiro: The Bronzes. Organized by MMoCA, this exhibition will survey Shapiro's bronze sculptures from 1983 to 2015. One of the most influential sculptors working today, this evening presents a special opportunity to hear the artist discuss his work at 7 pm (seating capacity is limited).

The opening presents a special opportunity to hear the artist discuss his work at 7 pm in the museum's lecture hall (seating capacity is limited). The evening will also offer jazz standards performed live by 2 Broads 1 Band, passed hors d'oeuvres, and a cash bar in the MMoCA Lobby. Free for MMoCA members / $10 for non-members. 

Joel Shapiro has enjoyed a long and distinguished career. Shapiro's work can be found in numerous public collections in the United States and abroad, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; The Art Institute of Chicago; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Tate Gallery, London; IVAM Centre Julio González, Valencia; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

This exhibition provides an opportunity to introduce Shapiro’s work to a new generation of artists, students, and museumgoers. Joel Shapiro: The Bronzes will be on view at MMoCA from September 23, 2018-January 13, 2019 (date tentative). The exhibition features bronze sculptures that vary in size, including several large-scale works that are rarely seen indoors. Through bold geometric form, Shapiro's works explore the permeable boundary between abstraction and figuration. Shapiro's gravity-defying geometric constructions are suggestive of bodies in motion or holding dynamic poses.

To fully document Joel Shapiro: The Bronzes, MMoCA will publish a substantial and richly illustrated hardbound catalogue of the same title. It will contain a foreword by the exhibition’s curator and MMoCA director, Stephen Fleischman. The publication will also contain a major essay by the art historian and scholar, Peter Boswell.

More events:

FRIDAY, OCT 5, 6:30-7 PM: AGAINST HOMEOSTASIS: MAKING SCULPTURE MODERN: The complex sculpture of Joel Shapiro offers an extraordinary answer to a complex problem: how can sculpture, often bound to tradition, position itself as a contemporary medium? This talk considers how Shapiro suggested movement and even volatility in sculptures that were, nevertheless, magisterial, phys­ical, and still. Michael Jay McClure is associate professor of art his­tory at UW-Madison where he teaches the history and theory of modern and contemporary art. Admission to this Gallery Night talk is free.

FRIDAY, OCT 26, 6:30-7 PM: JOEL SHAPIRO: FORM AND SUBSTANCE: Will Pergl will consider Joel Shapiro’s sensibilities as a sculptor, including his recurring motifs, use of scale, and playful juxtapositions of materiality in abstracted forms. Pergl is a multi-disciplinary artist and profes­sor at Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. He is also currently an artist-in-residence at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s Arts/Industry Program.