Lehmann Maupin is pleased to present an exclusive digital preview of Robin Rhode & Nari Ward: Power Wall. Our Online Viewing Room offers an enhanced digital companion to the exhibition at our Hong Kong location (April 3–May 16). Please contact hongkong@lehmannmaupin.com to arrange an appointment to visit the gallery in person.
This marks the first presentation of Nari Ward’s work in Hong Kong and the first time Ward and Rhode’s works are being shown together. The exhibition highlights how Rhode and Ward uniquely engage with the wall through an accumulation of marks, producing large-scale works steeped in socio-political subtext. Both artists activate the wall as a physical space and as a surface for individual and cultural expression.
Both Rhode and Ward explore a rich range of historical and contemporary references and showcase an ability to blend so-called high and low art forms.
Inquire about these and other artworks by Robin Rhode and Nari Ward: inquire@lehmannmaupin.com
Both artists’ use of quotidian materials―shoelaces for Ward and soap, charcoal, chalk, or paint for Rhode―emphasize a sense of solidarity, community, and collectivity, as well as an alternative method of drawing. They each utilize the wall (of the gallery or the street) as spaces to activate and the surface on which they make their marks. The viewer is drawn into their acute aesthetics, awakening a sense of consciousness through their performative activist practices.
NARI WARD
Power Wall - Power People, 2019
Shoelaces
120 x 60 x 2.5 inches
304.8 x 152.4 x 6.4 cm
Unique
Inquire
NARI WARD
Power Wall - Power People, 2019
Shoelaces
120 x 60 x 2.5 inches
304.8 x 152.4 x 6.4 cm
Unique
Inquire
NARI WARD
Power Wall - Power People, 2019 (detail)
Shoelaces
120 x 60 x 2.5 inches
304.8 x 152.4 x 6.4 cm
Unique
Inquire
NARI WARD
Power Wall - Power People, 2019 (detail)
Shoelaces
120 x 60 x 2.5 inches
304.8 x 152.4 x 6.4 cm
Unique
Inquire
NARI WARD
Power Wall - Power People, 2019 (detail)
Shoelaces
120 x 60 x 2.5 inches
304.8 x 152.4 x 6.4 cm
Unique
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
S, 2014 (detail)
C-print
Overall, framed: 49.21 x 74.8 inches
125 x 190 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
S, 2014 (detail)
C-print
Overall, framed: 49.21 x 74.8 inches
125 x 190 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
S, 2014 (detail)
C-print
Overall, framed: 49.21 x 74.8 inches
125 x 190 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
S, 2014 (detail)
C-print
Overall, framed: 49.21 x 74.8 inches
125 x 190 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
S, 2014 (detail)
C-print
Overall, framed: 49.21 x 74.8 inches
125 x 190 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
S, 2014 (detail)
C-print
Overall, framed: 49.21 x 74.8 inches
125 x 190 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
S, 2014
C-print
Overall, framed: 49.21 x 74.8 inches
125 x 190 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
In Ward’s shoelace series, one of his most recognizable bodies of work, he renders words and phrases out of shoelaces inserted directly into a wall. For Ward, the shoelaces make general reference to an anonymous mass of people through their ubiquitous universal use. The audience’s familiarity with this material is critical, as Ward prioritizes the experience of the viewer and their ability to find a personal entry point over grand, overarching ideology.
Click here to read Ward’s full biography.
Nari Ward: We the People
Installation view, New Museum, New York, 2019
Photo by Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio
Nari Ward: We the People
Installation view, New Museum, New York, 2019
Photo by Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio
Nari Ward: We the People
Installation view, New Museum, New York, 2019
Photo by Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio
Nari Ward: We the People
Installation view, New Museum, New York, 2019
Photo by Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio
Nari Ward: We the People
Installation view, New Museum, New York, 2019
Photo by Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio
“Ward is an accumulation artist: Wherever he goes—Rome, Athens, Vermont—he gathers resonant detritus and transforms it, sometimes with cargo-cult-like handmade effect, into something imbued with memory.” — New York Magazine
NARI WARD
Sole Revel, 2020 (detail)
Shoelaces
39 x 65 x 1.5 inches
99.1 x 165.1 x 3.8 cm
Unique
Inquire
NARI WARD
Sole Revel, 2020 (detail)
Shoelaces
39 x 65 x 1.5 inches
99.1 x 165.1 x 3.8 cm
Unique
Inquire
NARI WARD
Sole Revel, 2020 (detail)
Shoelaces
39 x 65 x 1.5 inches
99.1 x 165.1 x 3.8 cm
Unique
Inquire
NARI WARD
Sole Revel, 2020 (detail)
Shoelaces
39 x 65 x 1.5 inches
99.1 x 165.1 x 3.8 cm
Unique
Inquire
Power Wall - Power People (2019), the work from which this exhibition takes its title, features a clenched fist, the universal symbol of solidarity. In this work, Ward provides an alternate consideration of power and its aesthetic and cultural manifestations. Rendering the symbol with shoelaces not only disturbs and destabilizes the traditional iconography, but also hints more broadly at the human tendency to strive for power and authority.
Sole Revel (2020), pictured above, is the most recent work from Ward’s signature shoelace series. By enlarging the imagery of footsteps, the artist evokes an anonymous presence, eliciting ideas of bodily gesture, mass movement, and migration. The title, Sole Revel, offers a joyful lens through which to view the work as a hopeful emblem of the power in uniting in solidarity.
Knot Endings (2010), also pictured above, is an early example of Ward’s series of shoelace installations that investigate how art making and activism can overlap. By placing everyday materials, such as shoelaces, in an alternative context, Ward’s work examines issues related to race, poverty, and consumer culture.
“Viewed up close, [Ward’s shoelace works become] a mass of color, as if the skeins and drips of an action painting had taken shape in fabric form. Only from afar does it read as coherent text. Thus the artwork makes a physical demand on the viewer to shift positions in relation to it so that he or she may have a multivalent experience of the art object—first optically, as an abstract assemblage when standing near it, then linguistically, as a text work from a distance.” — Naomi Beckwith, Senior Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in Nari Ward: Sun Splashed
Rhode is known for his photographic series that merge photography, performance, drawing, and sculpture to create visual narratives that are brought to life using everyday materials. For Rhode, the wall provides both medium and subject for his work. He often activates public walls in socially disadvantaged areas by documenting a sole protagonist interacting with murals that he has painted onto the wall’s surface. The wall becomes an activation point as well as a site to create meaning.
Over the years, Rhode has created ambitious works on public walls in cities all over the world, including Johannesburg and Berlin, and more recently the city of Jericho. In contrast to Graffiti and Street Art, Rhode is not interested in what he leaves behind, but rather in documenting his complex, layered process. Step by step, he photographs the development of narratives on his stone canvas, which in turn bears marks of its own history.
Click here to read Rhode’s full biography.
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013 (detail)
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013 (detail)
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013 (detail)
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013 (detail)
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013 (detail)
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013 (detail)
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013 (detail)
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013 (detail)
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013 (detail)
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013 (detail)
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
€80,000
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013 (detail)
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
€80,000
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013 (detail)
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
€80,000
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013 (detail)
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013 (detail)
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013 (detail)
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
The Point of Vanishing, 2012–2013
Mounted c-prints
Framed, overall: 52.28 x 127.56 inches
132.8 x 324 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013 (detail)
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire
ROBIN RHODE
Four Plays, 2012–2013
Black and white inkjet print
Framed, overall: 71.81 x 103.31 inches
182.4 x 262.4 cm
Edition of 5 with 2 AP
Inquire“In all Rhode’s outdoor works, walls and the ground are never just a neutral background. They always contribute something of their own history, conditions, inherent structures, and colors. As such, they form an important part of the composition and can be a source of inspiration for the drawing: cracks in the finish, moss, dirty and not-so-dirty areas, uneven top and bottom edges to walls (broken bricks or irregular wooden beams in the roof above), holes in the ground, and here and there, the shadows of clotheslines or electric cables. All these are signs of the time or the light that temporarily join forces in Rhode’s drawings.” — Stephanie Rosenthal, Director, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin in Robin Rhode: Walk Off
Robin Rhode: Memory Is the Weapon
Installation view, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany, 2019–2020
Photo by Marek Kruszewski, © Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
Robin Rhode: Memory Is the Weapon
Installation view, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany, 2019–2020
Photo by Marek Kruszewski, © Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
Robin Rhode: Memory Is the Weapon
Installation view, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany, 2019–2020
Photo by Marek Kruszewski, © Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
Robin Rhode: Memory Is the Weapon
Installation view, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany, 2019–2020
Photo by Marek Kruszewski, © Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
Robin Rhode: Memory Is the Weapon
Installation view, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany, 2019–2020
Photo by Marek Kruszewski, © Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
“For Rhode, the ephemerality of the movements and the reactionary nature of graffiti art underline the overlooked poverty and injustice permeating urban slums in cities.” — T: The New York Times Style Magazine
Robin Rhode in his Berlin studio. Photo by Robert Rieger for T: The New York Times Style Magazine
For more information about the artists presented in this Online Viewing Room or others at Lehmann Maupin, please contact:
Sales inquiries: inquire@lehmannmaupin.com
Media inquiries: communications@lehmannmaupin.com