Tag Archives: Pace Gallery

Tara Donovan’s Pin Drawings at Pace

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Drawing (Pins)
Drawing (Pins), 2010


While out for some openings in Chelsea last night, I noticed Pace had kept its doors open, so I got to take a close look at Tara Donovan’s latest work. As always when I see her work in person, I love it. Her use of materials manages to be subtle and simple but transformative. I originally thought when I saw the press release that these were graphite drawings, but as you can see below, they are made by sticking pins into gatorboard.

Not only do the pins create line and shading, but there’s a nice depth to the varying degrees of how deeply stuck the pins are. The pins themselves have a sheen to them, which picks up nicely in the light as you walk around them, and at 96″ x 96″ these large works leave some room to walk.

These pieces really don’t reproduce well in photographs, so if you have the chance to get over to Pace before March 19, I recommend it. The circles drawings, like the first image, are my favorite, but most of the works are  clean and perfect gradients like these:

Kiki Smith at Pace Gallery

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Lodestar, Kiki Smith’s current show at Pace Gallery in Chelsea, features paintings on glass panels in black metal frames, arranged as a grouping that tells of the cycle of a woman’s life. The images run from young to old to the encoffined, often posed alone or sitting. Images of a single tree and bare branch enhance the sense of isolation. The monochromatic palette has a milky glow and the etched and rough style creates an earthy rather than ethereal environment.


Certainly the grouping seen as a whole is more powerful than any one image. I wan’t sure I liked Smith, but walking through this exhibition yesterday felt contemplative and rather touching. Perhaps this was merely because there were few people around on a Wednesday morning, but I greatly enjoyed having the run of the place and appreciated her work the better for it. Lodestar runs concurrently with Smith’s exhibition Sojourn at the Brooklyn Museum, but only through June 17–so hurry if you want to catch it.