Thirty years after her passing, A Dark Place of Dreams revisits the monochromatic assemblages of Louise Nevelson, one of the pioneering American sculptors of the twentieth century, alongside three contemporary artists: Chakaia Booker, Lauren Fensterstock, and Kate Gilmore.
In her most iconic works, Nevelson utilized wooden objects gathered from urban debris piles to create monumental installations. This exhibition celebrates Nevelson’s lasting impact on contemporary sculptors who expand the tradition of assemblage in innovative and provocative ways. In the works of Booker, Fensterstock, and Gilmore, varied and dissimilar objects—from rubber tires to shells to paint in motion—register as somber black volumes dissolving into complex surfaces, echoing the mystery and scale of Nevelson’s pieces.
This exhibition marks the 35th anniversary of Nevelson’s unforgettable one-person exhibition at the Gibbes entitled Louise Nevelson, Sculpture, which filled the museum’s Main Gallery with her monumental works.