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Polly Apfelbaum: These Boots Are Made for Walkin’

Current exhibition
24 Mar - 5 May 2023 Golden Square
  • Featuring large-scale installations of textiles and ceramics, the work of Polly Apfelbaum is framed by wider political contexts and the legacy of post-war American art. The artist combines a variety of media with eye-catching colours and patterns to blur the lines between painting, sculpture and installation while also exploring the boundaries between art and craft, challenging hierarchies in cultural practice. Taking its title from the 1966 Nancy Sinatra song, this exhibition features new ceramics and a woven floor-based installation.

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    Central to the exhibition are a series of fifteen wall-mounted ceramics that are part of a body of work Apfelbaum developed for her 2022 exhibition For the Love of Una Hale at Arcadia University, Pennsylvania (the state where the artist grew up). These often highly personal works are the result of a residency, which was extended by the Covid pandemic, at the University's ceramics studio. Apfelbaum has been working with ceramics for over a decade and the Arcadia residency provided both the freedom to experiment as well as an opportunity to develop her skills. Citing her history of working with materials associated with craft and everyday life, the artist explains:

  • ‘The goal is to interpret the personal as political, I'm starting to look back at my own history, where the inspiration came from’.

    • PA Abstract 100 Colours Line Dance, 2023
      PA Abstract 100 Colours Line Dance, 2023
    • PA Abstract Quilt of 100 Colors, 2022
      PA Abstract Quilt of 100 Colors, 2022
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  • Working with highly trained ceramicists, Apfelbaum developed a range of bespoke handmade glazes, exemplified by the first two works in the show which the artist describes as a ‘colour palette’. Each work is made from terracotta; a robust and tactile clay which is red when fired. The clay slab is covered in white slip which the artists then draws or inscribes with a pattern. The particular colour palette of these pieces, which read like abstract paintings, often derives from memories of early exposure to Pennsylvania German art; the surface patterns evoking the composite fabric patches of quilts.

    • PA Abstract Ringo, 2022
      PA Abstract Ringo, 2022
    • PA Abstract Florets, 2021
      PA Abstract Florets, 2021
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  • There are other references too, PA Abstract Ringo (2022) alludes to the Beatles’ drummer in the film ‘Get Back’ which documents the band recording songs for 1970 album ‘Let it be’. The film captures the Beatles’ particular fashion sense and Ringo Starr’s loud shirt was the primary inspiration for this piece. Circles are a recurring motif in other works in the exhibition, inspired by dartboards, Chinese Chequers and the coins which were often used as a template for quilt patches.

    • PA Abstract Purple Fire, 2021
      PA Abstract Purple Fire, 2021
    • PA Abstract Checker Board Diamond, 2021
      PA Abstract Checker Board Diamond, 2021
    • PA Abstract Shooting Star, 2022
      PA Abstract Shooting Star, 2022
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  • Apfelbaum’s application of glaze is intuitive and spontaneous she uses the medium in a painterly way, colouring-in each small section of ceramic and rejoicing in the beautiful mistakes which are only apparent after final firing. The ceramics have become a means for the artist to reflect on the inception of her artistic sensibility and its investigation into the materiality of colour. The handmade metal supports which hold each work to the wall were specially made and suggest early American metalwork.

  • ‘I usually work fast, but ceramics has slowed me down, the drawing comes first, then the painting after. Glazing is like painting and I really love doing it.’

    • PA Abstract Square Patch Star, 2021
      PA Abstract Square Patch Star, 2021
    • PA Abstract Log Cabin, 2022
      PA Abstract Log Cabin, 2022
    • PA Abstract Target Star, 2022
      PA Abstract Target Star, 2022
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  • The floor and horizontality have always been extremely important in Polly Apfelbaum’s practice from early work until today and here it is dominated by a large woven floor installation consisting of four woollen pieces in a grayscale palette. Made in Oaxaca, Mexico by Zapotec artisans these are handwoven using traditional dyes, their scale often stretches the machines capability.

    The images used in this piece are taken from the artist’s earlier The Potential of Women series (2017), with each rug depicting a flattened, semi-abstract female face with a black bob hairstyle and reference an illustration which the artist came across for a 1963 book and symposium. Apfelbaum was fascinated by the book’s provocative and ultimately patronising message which imagined a future in which women might be useful contributors to society but completely neglected the current issues and demands of 1960s feminism. Over fifty years later, she borrowed both its graphic subject and its title, which served as the starting point to shine a light on the historical and contemporary dimensions of equality.

  • 'The floor was a space that I felt I could use. I also really love that it's part of the dialogue of the everyday, the domestic, that people can come in and sit on a painting, if they think of it as a painting.'

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Contact

Email: 

info@frithstreetgallery.com

Phone: 

+44 (0)20 7494 1550

Golden Square 

17–18 Golden Square

London

W1F 9JJ

Soho Square

60 Frith Street

London

W1D 3JJ

 

Gallery Hours

Tuesday–Friday: 11–6

Saturday: 11–5 (during exhibitions)

Sunday: Closed

(The gallery is currently closed for installation until 23 March 2023)

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