Lehmann Maupin is pleased to announce Heidi Bucher: The Site of Memory. Organized with the artist’s estate, the exhibition marks Bucher’s first solo presentation since her landmark survey last year at Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, London, and her first with the gallery. This exhibition features work from the mid-1970s through the 1980s and will include some of her most significant sculptures, including Borg (1976), a sculpture modeled on the entire cellar of Bucher’s studio, and the first work to use her signature latex casting method, as well as works that will be exhibited for the first time in the United States, such as Untitled (Door to the Herrenzimmer) (1978) and Elfenbornhaut (1982). The gallery will host an opening reception on Thursday, April 25, from 6 to 8 PM, followed by a public talk on Friday, April 26, from 6 to 8 PM with Ziba Ardalan, Founder and Director, Parasol unit; Simon Castets, Director, Swiss Institute; and Ruth Erickson, Mannion Family Curator, ICA Boston, moderated by Lehmann Maupin Curatorial Director, Anna Stothart at 501 West 24th Street.

Heidi Bucher (b. 1926 Winterthur, Switzerland; d. 1993, Brunnen, Switzerland) is best known for her innovative use of latex to cast large-scale architectural features, including entire buildings. Bucher referred to these castings as “skinnings” or “moultings,” imbuing these captured spaces with animal or biological attributes. Her investigation of the physical boundaries between the body and its surroundings aligns her with other feminist artists who were committed to exposing the complex relationship between women and the gendered, domestic environments to which they were often relegated. The works featured in this exhibition, produced during the 1970s and 1980s, were particularly significant as they marked both Bucher’s return to Zurich after living in the U.S. and Canada, and the enfranchisement of Swiss women, who did not gain the right to vote until 1971. It was amid this personal and political transformation that Bucher developed her signature process. Coming from this era, alongside hallmarks of postminimalism such as the devoted site-specificity of artists like Richard Serra, the self-casting of artists like Alina Szapocznikow, and pioneering experimentation with new materials like plastics, latex, and fiberglass by Eva Hesse, Bucher’s work can be understood as a unique amalgamation of this art historic period.