Pace’s second solo show of Edward Kienholz’s work, featuring the monumental tableaux The Ozymandias Parade (1985), a politically charged, nationalistic installation created by the artist and his wife, Nancy Reddin Kienholz, in 1985. One element of the parade relies on the results of a political poll conducted for each new presentation of the work. The exhibition will also include a group of ten Concept Tableaux, instructions for unrealized installations from the 1960s.
About the Artists
Edward Kienholz (1927–1994) was an American installation artist and sculptor who, from 1972 onwards, created most of his work in close collaboration with his partner and wife, Nancy Reddin Kienholz (b. 1943). Through a direct and sometimes shocking visual language composed of discarded everyday objects and life-size figures, the Kienholzes’ assemblages confront political and social issues, from racial discrimination and the oppression of women to violence or the Vietnam War. After moving from Washington State to Los Angeles in 1953, Ed Kienholz quickly became a central figure in the Southern California art scene, showing at the influential Ferus Gallery. By the early 60s, he abandoned the wall-based work of his early career and dedicated himself to installation. Ed Kienholz and Nancy Reddin Kienholz’s work has been the subject of dozens of museum exhibitions worldwide, including at the Louisiana Museum of Art, Denmark (2012, 1979); the Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland (2012); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2011, 1971); the National Gallery, London (2009); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1996); the Menil Collection, Houston (1995); and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1971).