Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes
STROUM AND EAST GALLERIES
April 22– September 3, 2006

AUDIO: Exhibition Curator Richard Andrews tours Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes (27.5 MB)


Maya Lin. Water Line. 2006. Aluminum tubing and paint. Photo: Colleen Chartier.

This summer, the Henry devotes its expansive Stroum and East Galleries to a dramatic exhibition of new work by Maya Lin. Systematic Landscapes, organized by Henry Art Gallery Director Richard Andrews, focuses on a trio of large-scale sculptural installations that offer a different means for viewers to encounter and comprehend the landscape. 2x4 Landscape is a vast hill or wave built of 65,000 boards set on end; Water Line, a distorted grid in space, can be walked under or viewed from above. Visitors can walk through Blue Lake Pass, modeling an actual mountain range near the artist's Colorado home that is sliced into a grid.

Maya Lin. Blue Lake Pass. 2006. Duraflake particleboard. Photo: Colleen Chartier.

Systematic Landscapes complements the Confluence Project, a grand collaboration between Lin, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla, the Nez Perce Tribe, the Lewis and Clark Commemorative Committee of Vancouver/Clark County, and the Friends of Lewis and Clark of Pacific County. The models and designs on view mark sites of contact along the Columbia River between Native Americans and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Maya Lin has continuously addressed notions of landscape and geologic phenomena in her work. She has an extraordinary ability to convey complex and poetic ideas using simple forms and natural materials. She thinks and works in a scale that relates to the land. This exhibition is a meditation on our relationship to landscape, whether direct or reinterpreted via computer or satellite imagery. Wedding a deep interest in forces and forms of nature with a long-term investigation into the possibilities of sculptural form to embody meaning, Systematic Landscapes offers a rich, immersive experience for visitors. Following the model of previous Henry exhibitions of the work of Ann Hamilton and James Turrell, Systematic Landscapes confirms the museum's commitment to the art of our time and to the possibilities of contemporary installation art.

For more information about Maya Lin's Confluence Project, please visit the Project's website at www.confluenceproject.org

The Henry Art Gallery is delighted to exhibit Maya Lin's Silver River as part of the exhibition Systematic Landscapes. Sales of this signed and numbered edition of 30 benefit the Henry Art Gallery and the Confluence Project. For information on acquiring Silver River, please contact Leila Martin, Director of Development at the Henry Art Gallery, at leila@henryart.org Maya Lin. Silver River. 2006. Cast silver, Custom Saifu-covered portfolio box (not shown). Photo: Richard Nicol.

The Henry thanks the following crew for all their hard work in the creation of Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes:

CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING: Ben Black, Richard Manderbach
EXHIBITION COORDINATION: Jim Rittimann, Sallie-Jo Wall

Maya Lin. 2 X 4 Landscape. 2006. Wood. Photo: Colleen Chartier.

Organized for the Henry Art Gallery by Director Richard Andrews. Major support for this exhibition has been provided by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, ArtsFund, The Boeing Company, PONCHO, and donors to the Special Exhibition Initiative. Additional support provided by Peter Norton Family Foundation, Kongsgaard-Goldman Foundation, Haas Charitable Trusts, Simpson Timber Company – Northwest, NBBJ Group, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Trillium Corporation, and the Washington State Arts Commission. In-kind support provided by The Seattle Times, KUOW 94.9, Grant Hyatt Seattle, KrekowJenningsInc., Vulcan Inc., and The Stranger.