Lehmann Maupin is pleased to announce Liza Lou: Painting, an exhibition of new work by the Los Angeles-based artist. Spanning the gallery’s New York location, the exhibition features a series of abstract works on canvas in which Lou explores the most singular feature of a painting—the brushstroke. Activating the intense chroma and refractive qualities of glass beads, Lou uses her signature material to flow and coagulate into a new form of paint, applying beads in free-form gestures through an intuitive approach. As they collide and overlap on the canvas, Lou’s beads reconstruct strokes of paint, an often-fetishized aspect of mid-century American Abstraction. Concurrent to this exhibition, Lou’s landmark Trailer (1998–2000), will be installed in the Brooklyn Museum lobby gallery; it is a recent addition to the permanent collection and will debut at the museum in September, offering an opportunity to experience the artist’s most recent work alongside this rarely-seen immersive sculpture.

In a career spanning three decades, Lou has become widely known for introducing beads as a contemporary fine art medium. Her persistent experimentation has challenged hierarchies and injected humor and glamour into a Feminist vision. Lou’s project is an open-ended investigation into the metaphoric possibilities of a humble material to draw attention to the poetic and painful dimensions of labor, the artistic process, and the complexities of American life.