Meredyth Sparks

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Selected works by Meredyth Sparks

Gudrun Constructed I-V - detail

Gudrun Constructed I-V - detail

Gudrun Constructed I-V - detail

Gudrun Constructed I-V - detail

Gudrun Constructed I-V - detail

Gudrun Constructed I-V
Meredyth Sparks
Gudrun Constructed I-V

2008

Digital scan, aluminium foil, glitter, vinyl

5 parts, each 152.4 x 106.7 cm

Meredyth Sparks enjoys exploring the zone between figuration and abstraction across a variety of subjects for which a plethora of images already exists: musical subcultures (bulimic in the idolatory-image department), the historical avant-garde and what she calls the “ever-evolving legacies of labor and gender-based issues”.

Untitled (Brian Jones)
Meredyth Sparks
Untitled (Brian Jones)

2006

Plexiglas, aluminium foil, glitter, digital scan

244 x 131 cm

Like a number of her fellow artists in Out of Focus, she allows her works to step out of conventional frames and spill across floors and walls in quasi-Constructivist style, following El Lissitzky’s realization that the picture frame had become too narrow for representations of ‘the new reality’.

Roxy

Roxy

Roxy
Meredyth Sparks
Roxy

2008

Digital print on Sintra, 27 pieces

182 x 171 x 231 cm

El Lissitzky was diametrically opposed to the absolutely non-utilitarian Suprematism of Kasimir Malevich, whose spirit returns in Sparks’ Gudrun Constructed to engage in ideological battle with Gudrun Ensslin, a founding member of the violently revolutionary Baader-Meinhof Gang. Sparks combines Malevich motifs, photographs, vinyl, aluminium foil and glitter (which I take to stand for the seductive, even hypnotic power of all photographic imagery) to create a part-digital, part-physical, five-section collage that reads almost cinematographically, but like a snippet of film, recalling collagist Paul Nash’s observation that “The more the object is studied from the point of view of its animation, the more incalculable become its variations; the more subtle becomes the problem of assembling and associating different objects in order to create that true irrational poise which is the solution of the personal equation".

Clash (MISSING)
Meredyth Sparks
Clash (MISSING)

2008

Digital scan, Plexiglas with aluminum foil and glitter, digital print

243.8 x 238.8 cm

Text by William A Ewing


Meredyth Sparks's Biography

Meredyth Sparks
Born in 1972,Panama City, FL
Lives and works Brooklyn, NY


SOLO EXHIBITIONS


2011
Striped Bare, VeneKlasen/Werner, Berlin, Germany

2010
Extraction, Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York

2009
Everything we have loved is lost. Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris
There’s one in every crowd, Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels
Gudrun Constructed, Projects in Art and Theory, Cologne

2008
We were strangers for too long., Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York

2006
We’re treating each other just like strangers., Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris

2003
It wasn’t midnight. It wasn’t snowing. Hunter College Times Square Gallery, New York


GROUP EXHIBITIONS


2012
Out Of Focus: Photography, Saatchi Gallery, London

2011
Praxis, Elizabeth Dee, New York

2010
The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl, curated by Trevor Schoonmaker, The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham (catalog)
Mixtapes: popular music in contemporary art, The Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork
I am a cliché, curated by Emma Lavigne, Les Recontres d’Arles Photographie, Arles
CAPC, ou la vie saisie par l'art, Bordeaux CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux, France
Never Can Say Goodbye, No Longer Empty, New York, NY
Sur Le Dandysme Aujourd’hui: Del maniquí en el escaparate a la estrella mediática / From Shop Window Mannequin to Media Star, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

2009
Collection Art Foundation Mallorca, CCA Andratx, Mallorca, Spain
The Importance of Daydreams, World Class Boxing, Miami, FL
White Noise, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY
Sound of Music, Turner Contemporary Project Space, Kent, England
Otras Voces, Otras Ambitos, Galeria Marta Cervera, Madrid

2008
A New High In Getting Low II, John Connelly Presents, New York
Amy Granat, Nate Hylden and Meredyth Sparks, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago
Collection Art Foundation Mallorca, CCA Andratx, Mallorca
In Repose, The Debra and Dennis Scholl Collection, curated by Lori Mertes, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia
The Object is the Mirror (Part II), curated by Max Henry, Wilkinson Gallery, London
Recent Acquisitions, Gifts and Works from Various Exhibitions 1985-2008, curated by Bob Nickas, White Columns, New York
Sound of Music II, Frac, Nord- Pas de Calais, Tri Postal, Lille, France

2007
A New High In Getting Low, curated by John Connelly, artnews projects, Berlin
Cosmic Dreams, curated by Friederike Nymphius, Kunsthalle Centro Cultural Andratx, Mallorca
Cut, , New York
Dracularising, curated by Matthew Williams, Galerie Neue alte BrĂĽecke, Frankfurt
Elizabeth Dee Gallery, with , New York, NY (two-person)
Just Kick It Till It Breaks, curated by and , The Kitchen, New York
The Object is the Mirror, curated by Max Henry, Layr Wuestenhagan, Vienna
9 or 10 works I used to like, in no order, curated by Luca Lo Pinto, Monitor Gallery, Rome
2nd Moscow Biennale, invited by Nicolas Bourriaud, Moscow
(the) Melvins@ (the) Mandrake, curated by Bob Nickas, Los Angeles
Three Years and Counting, Tart, San Francisco

2006
Deaf: From the Audible to the Visible, Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris
Music is a Better Noise, curated by Bob Nickas, PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City
Thank You For the Music (London Beat), curated by , SprĂĽth, Magers Lee, London
This Ain’t No Karaoke, curated by Max Henry, Haas & Mayer, Zürich

2005
Lords, Notes on Vision, Tart, San Francisco (two-person)
Meeting of the Minds, with performance by Franklin County, Knoxville
Sound Clash, PH Gallery, New York

2004
First Look Photography, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York

1999
Summer Show, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York

1998
Bowie, Rupert Goldsworthy Gallery, New York

1996
I Will Sleep Like a Baby, Roll Over Like a Pussycat, A-1, Knoxville