Frieze New York
Thursday, May 7th – Sunday, May 10th, 2020
Randall’s Island Park, New York
Represented by Casemore Kirkeby
Casemore Kirkeby will present a solo booth of work by Sonya Rapoport at Frieze New York. Rapoport was selected for the prestigious Spotlight section, which features “solo presentations of significant work by overlooked figures and rarely seen practices of modern masters.”
Please contact the gallery for additional information.
Sonya Rapoport, Detail: Right-On (Yarn Drawing No. 19), 1976. Pencil, colored pencil, stamp and thread on found continuous-feed computer paper, 44.5″ x 55″. Courtesy Estate of Sonya Rapoport.
Casemore Kirkeby (later known as Casemore Gallery), San Francisco, will present a selection of paintings and works on paper by late Bay Area artist Sonya Rapoport (1923-2015, Berkeley, CA). Focusing on a pivotal moment (1973-1979) in Rapoport’s six-decade career, we will share large scale works that have rarely been seen outside of the Bay Area.
The earlier works, including No Rush (1973), will be a monumental discovery for viewers. These large scale acrylic airbrush paintings on canvas make use of imagery, including graphs and survey charts, that reflects Rapoport’s early interest in data and computer science. They feature a coded language of stencils that represent gendered symbols; a fetus, a uterus, an “udder.”
Also on view will be several of Rapoport’s large scale Yarn Drawings (1976), the first of many works she created on salvaged, mainframe computer printout paper. These multi-panel drawings are delicately rendered with colored pencil and ink stamps, and stitched together like a patchwork quilt with rainbow yarn.
Rapoport’s work from the 1970’s is a unique instance of a woman artist from the West Coast addressing rapid technological and social change with beauty and humor. Her work seems uncannily relevant today, as our society continues to be transformed by technology.