Bonnie Collura

In the Gutter

April 27 - May 26, 2000
540 West 26th Street

Press Release

Lehmann Maupin is pleased to announce a one-person exhibition by Bonnie Collura entitled "In the Gutter." This show marks Collura's first show at Lehmann Maupin and it will consist of Collura's signature works on paper as well as her amalgamated sculptures of plaster, foam, paper, putty and paint.

Bonnie Collura studied sculpture at Virginia Commonwealth University and then completed her MFA at Yale University before moving to Brooklyn. Since beginning to exhibit four years ago, her work has been included in the "Pop Surrealism" exhibition at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Connecticut, the "Concentrations" series at the Dallas Museum of Art, as well as the "Spectacular Optical" exhibition at Thread Waxing Space and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami. Jan Hoet selected her for two commissions in Germany: one for the Kunstwegen outdoor sculpture center in Nordhorn in 1999 and the other for Hannmünden in 1998. Last year, Collura was presented with the Emerging Artist Award by the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art. This spring she will participate in the "Dialogue" series curated by Douglas Fogle at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis.

The word gutter has a number of meanings, including the space between each cell of an animated cartoon and the gully space at the inside edge of a printed text. It is in these spaces that Collura's imagery is born. Systems of connected characters are drawn into the gutter from mainstream popular culture, mythology and folklore to meet, intermingle, and morph. In this realm, iconic figures such as Snow White, Persephone, Bernini's St. Ludovica and Dorothy Gale from the Wizard of Oz can all relate. Each work in Collura's fantastic universe is an evolving assemblage of transplanted bodies and trademarks.

Much like a pop-up book, the exhibition moves from the flat to the three-dimensional. The first room of the exhibition is predominantly contoured wall drawings in black, white and the three colors used in dot matrix color printing: yellow, magenta, and cyan. In the main gallery, Collura's sculptural hybrids are installed from the walls, the ceiling and the floor alongside a number of her dynamic drawings. Finally, the third room becomes home to the sculpture "Snowman," a figure that seamlessly combines Collura's varied references. In this way, the gallery space itself becomes a gutter or in-between place where characters become elastic and play out their own struggles and transformations.

Exhibition Works

Chain Reaction, 1999 fiberglass resin and paint 70 x 60 x 66 inches (4 parts) 177.8 x 152.4 x 167.6 cm 67 x 53 x 44 inches 170.2 x 134.6 x 111.8 cm 45 x 29 x 45 inches 114.3 x 73.7 x 114.3 cm 45 x 26 x 22 inches 114.3 x 66 x 55.9 cm LM2206


Snowman, 2000 fiberglass resin and paint 80 x 30 x 32 inches 203.2 x 76.2 x 81.3 cm Edition of 3 LM2685


Virgin and Child, 2000 foam, paper, glue, forton paint, shellac, wood 31 x 24 x 26 inches 78.7 x 61 x 66 cm LM2155


Technicolor Line Up, 2000 Ink and airbrush on paper 90 x 28 inches 228.6 x 71.1 cm LM2226


Decomposer, 2000 ink on paper with plexiglass frame 107 x 65 inches 271.8 x 165.1 cm LM2280


Entrail, 2000 ink on paper with plexiglass frame 60 x 97 inches 152.4 x 246.4 cm LM2279


Model for Daphne, 2000 ink on paper, plexiglass frame 60 x 67 inches 152.4 x 170.2 cm LM2281


Producer, 2000 ink on paper with plexiglass frame 100 x 57 inches 254 x 144.8 cm LM2278


Totem, 2000 foam, wood, metal, water putty, paint, glue, easter grass 160 x 43 x 33 inches 406.4 x 109.2 x 83.8 cm Top: 59.25 x 29 x 32 inches 150.5 x 73.7 x 81.3 cm Bottom: 73 x 43 x 33 inches 185.4 x 109.2 x 83.8 cm Pedestal:28 x 33 x 33 inches 71.1 x 83.8 x 83.8 cm LM2283