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拍品专文
The first work by the artist to come to auction, Rick Lowe’s Untitled (2021) is a masterful example of the artist’s signature use of constellations of vibrant hues and sprawling linear forms to create a layered visual narrative. Fields of overlapping paper strips, strewn with shades of yellow, red, green, and blue, reveal an underlying vascular system reminiscent of the streets, blocks, and buildings that make up a metropolitan city. Through a process of covering and uncovering, Lowe calls forth the ever-changing infrastructure of urban centers, as well as the sentiment behind his public practice: of humans as connected beings, even in moments of isolation and fracture.
Lowe’s paintings evolved from the ongoing community programs that brought the artist national acclaim – works of “social sculpture” that move beyond the conventions of visual practice by centering civic transformation. In 1993, he cofounded Project Row Houses in Houston’s Third Ward, a historically significant African American neighborhood. Conceived in collaboration with artists and locals, Project Row Houses transformed a stretch of rundown shotgun houses into a vibrant cultural district that creates opportunities for local artists, small businesses, young mothers, and neighboring residents. Lowe has continued these programs with Victoria Square Project in Athens, Greece (2016-); Greenwood Art Project in Tulsa (2018-21); and Black Wall Street Journey (2021-) in Chicago.
From Houston to Athens, Lowe used the game of dominoes to engage directly and playfully with local communities, establishing meaningful dialogue with residents despite cultural barriers. “When you talk to people in group settings, like community meetings, you get a particular kind of response. People don’t want to sound stupid. They’re careful about what they’re saying. But when you’re sitting with people playing cards or dominoes or checkers, where everybody’s just relaxed, that’s when you really get to know them” (R. Lowe quoted in “From Houston to Athens, Rick Lowe Takes His Social Sculpture Global, New York Times, June 2023, digital). Returning to painting, Lowe developed a visual language based on overhead photographs of these games, revealing the similarities between its dense, improvised patterns and the interlocking infrastructure of urban areas. Tracing and layering the repetitions in these images, he produces canvases that, while visually abstract, evoke the splintering and reconfiguration of communities over time, as well as the pastimes that bind them.
In addition to his work in public spaces, Lowe has exhibited in institutions worldwide, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In 2013, President Barack Obama appointed him to the National Council on the Arts, and in 2014 he was named a MacArthur Fellow. Lowe has served as a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Distinguished Visitor at the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University, California; and Mel King Community Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Community Innovators Lab (MIT CoLab), Cambridge.
Lowe’s paintings evolved from the ongoing community programs that brought the artist national acclaim – works of “social sculpture” that move beyond the conventions of visual practice by centering civic transformation. In 1993, he cofounded Project Row Houses in Houston’s Third Ward, a historically significant African American neighborhood. Conceived in collaboration with artists and locals, Project Row Houses transformed a stretch of rundown shotgun houses into a vibrant cultural district that creates opportunities for local artists, small businesses, young mothers, and neighboring residents. Lowe has continued these programs with Victoria Square Project in Athens, Greece (2016-); Greenwood Art Project in Tulsa (2018-21); and Black Wall Street Journey (2021-) in Chicago.
From Houston to Athens, Lowe used the game of dominoes to engage directly and playfully with local communities, establishing meaningful dialogue with residents despite cultural barriers. “When you talk to people in group settings, like community meetings, you get a particular kind of response. People don’t want to sound stupid. They’re careful about what they’re saying. But when you’re sitting with people playing cards or dominoes or checkers, where everybody’s just relaxed, that’s when you really get to know them” (R. Lowe quoted in “From Houston to Athens, Rick Lowe Takes His Social Sculpture Global, New York Times, June 2023, digital). Returning to painting, Lowe developed a visual language based on overhead photographs of these games, revealing the similarities between its dense, improvised patterns and the interlocking infrastructure of urban areas. Tracing and layering the repetitions in these images, he produces canvases that, while visually abstract, evoke the splintering and reconfiguration of communities over time, as well as the pastimes that bind them.
In addition to his work in public spaces, Lowe has exhibited in institutions worldwide, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In 2013, President Barack Obama appointed him to the National Council on the Arts, and in 2014 he was named a MacArthur Fellow. Lowe has served as a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Distinguished Visitor at the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University, California; and Mel King Community Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Community Innovators Lab (MIT CoLab), Cambridge.