Small Sculpture

Press Release

Opening reception: Friday, September 8th, 6-8 pm

In praise of small things with depth.

Corbett vs. Dempsey is pleased to present Small Sculpture, an exhibition of tabletop three-dimensional works by more than 50 artists.

Across the surfaces of two enormous tables, spread out like pieces from an eclectic chessboard, artworks emanating from many different points of origin come head to head in this show, a rare group exhibition for CvsD which draws its inspiration from the gallery’s longstanding fascination with intimate-scale sculptural objects.  The recent renaissance in ceramics is bountifully represented with exemplary historical sculptures by Bay Area “funk” figures Robert Arneson, Robert Hudson, and Gary Molitor, and contemporary works by Margot Bergman, Kathy Butterly, Alex Bradley Cohen, Elizabeth Ferry, Stanya Kahn, Ellen Lanyon, Andrew Lord, William J. O’Brien, Joakim Ojanen, Thomas Schütte, Arlene Shechet, Cauleen Smith, and Jimmy Wright.  Confounding category, Richard Artschwager created the classic Formica piece “Table with Pink Tablecloth” in 1964, now part of the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection; decades later he made a scaled-down version in a tiny edition, a prototype of which is part of Small Sculpture.  Like Artschwager’s piece, the eerie presence that emanates from these objects is a conceptual thread weaving throughout the show, linking uncanny works from David Adamo, Carol Bove, Peter Brötzmann, Alex Chitty, Thomas Grünfeld, Robert Guillot, Rachel Harrison, Carol Jackson, Mike Kelley, Josiah McElheny, Joshua Mosley, B. Ingrid Olson, Joyce Pensato, Pope.L, Betsy Odom, Matthew Ronay, Dieter Roth, Alan Shields, Richard Wentworth, William Weege, and Christopher Wool. Joe Brainard, Matias Faldbakken, and John Sparagana manipulate found material. Jeremy Anderson, Ted Halkin, David Hartt, Katsuhito Nishikawa, Diane Simpson, and Steven Urry all deal with architectural and/or minimal construction. The many dimensions of Chicago’s own sometimes surreal milieu are explosively represented in sculptures by Don Baum, Dominick Di Meo, Robert Donley, Ed Flood, Philip Hanson, Thomas H. Kapsalis, Rodney Quiriconi, H.C. Westermann, and Karl Wirsum.

David Adamo
Jeremy Anderson
Robert Arneson
Richard Artschwager
Don Baum
Margot Bergman
Carol Bove
Joe Brainard
Peter Brötzmann
Kathy Butterly
Alex Chitty
Alex Bradley Cohen
Dominick Di Meo
Bob Donley
Matias Faldbakken
Elizabeth Ferry
Ed Flood
Thomas Grünfeld
Robert Guillot
Philip Hanson
Rachel Harrison
David Hartt
Robert Hudson
Carol Jackson
Stanya Kahn
Thomas H. Kapsalis
Mike Kelley
Ellen Lanyon
Andrew Lord
Josiah McElheny
Gary Molitor
Joshua Mosley
Katsuhito Nishikawa
William J. O’Brien
Betsy Odom
Joakim Ojanen
B. Ingrid Olson
Joyce Pensato
Pope.L
Rodney Quiriconi
Matthew Ronay
Dieter Roth
Thomas Schütte
Arlene Shechet
Alan Shields
Diane Simpson
Cauleen Smith
John Sparagana
Steven Urry
William Weege
Richard Wentworth
Karl Wirsum
Christopher Wool
Jimmy Wright