Booth B1
David Kordansky Gallery is pleased to present a solo presentation of new works by Mai-Thu Perret for Frieze New York. Preview the presentation here, and visit us at Booth B1 at the fair from May 18 – 22, 2022.
The sculptures and watercolors featured in this presentation are related to works in Perret's solo exhibition Real Estate, on view at the Istituto Svizzero in Rome through June 26, 2022. These works draw on her interest in the goddesses of Roman mythology and elaborate upon her ongoing explorations of feminist counter-narratives and mystical and utopian impulses.
Diana, one of Perret's new large-scale sculptures on view, references Diana of Ephesus, a distinctive incarnation of the Roman goddess of the hunt who is depicted with rows of bulbous, breast-like lumps on her torso. In two of the most well-known depictions of Diana of Ephesus—dating from the first and second centuries A.D.—the goddess's lower body also features panels from which sculptural representations of bulls, lions, and other creatures emerge. Perret has recreated the rows of strange, breast-like protrusions, but in her sculpture, the ancient figure has been refashioned as a contemporary young woman with cropped, close-cut hair, wearing sneakers and an open-back dress. The rectangular panels that grid this floor-length skirt, absent the assortment of animals that characterize its historical counterparts, suggest underlying order and mystical geometries. Such anachronistic dissonances, alongside the material counterbalance between the ceramic figure and her bronze hands, position Perret's Diana within myth as well as science fiction, generating new stories for this ancient goddess. The sculpture also serves as a companion to another recent sculpture by the artist, on view at the Istituto Svizzero, that depicts the Roman goddess Minerva.