Mark Handforth: Zig, Zag & Flag

Kayne Griffin Corcoran is pleased to present Zig, Zag & Flag, the gallery’s second solo exhibition of works by Mark Handforth. The exhibition will include three new sculptural light installations and a large-scale site-specific flag pole situated in the courtyard of the gallery.

Handforth is well-known for his large-format and medium-sized sculptures. Using familiar objects such as lampposts (his first iteration created in 1999), telephone booths, vespas and flagpoles, his work is often a reference to the urban landscape. The artist’s poetic transformation and distortion of the scale and proportions of these objects into sculpture speaks to the identity of the object and its ability to evolve. They reveal something new about the ways in which these things exist and function in our everyday lives. Far from adhering to any rules and restrictions, they form the basis on which a flow of associations can be built. Born in Hong Kong, raised in England, and based in Miami since 1992, Handforth revels in the skewed perspectives and unintended consequences that result from cultural migration and displacement. His sculptures are a direct response, and at times a critique (i.e.; the twisted flagpole), of the complexity of civilization on earth and life beyond.

The three zig zag representations in the gallery space are comprised of natural and manmade materials collaged together that form narrative structures between opposing concepts, geometric and free forms, of the artificial and natural, of abstraction and symbolic representation, the concepts of continuity and change. Line is a dominant characteristic in the work. Light fixtures, such as fluorescent bulbs, are used as a drawing device. The light objects define edges but also illuminate and reflect onto the sculpture creating an oscillating effect between the permanent and the changing. The shadow of the light painted on the wall, the neon light itself, and the organic forms of a branch flowing into the rigid shapes of a metal tube, confuse the reading of background and foreground in each zig zag composition.

Mark Handforth (Hong Kong, 1969) lives and works in Miami. His work has been presented in important solo and group exhibitions all over the world, including: SMOKE, Villa Croce Contemporary Art Museum, Genoa (2016); Sidewalk Island, Governors Island, New York; Drop Shadow, Mazarine invites Mark Handforth, Studio des Acacias, Paris (2014); Horseshoe, Abbaye de Cluny, Cluny, France; Rolling Stop, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (cat.); L'Etoile de Bagnolet, permanent installation, Place de la Porte de Bagnolet, Paris (2012); MCA Chicago Plaza Project, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, New York (2011); Kunstnernes Hus (with Urs Fischer and Georg Herold), Oslo (2009); Concentrations 51: Mark Handforth, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (2007); Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich (2005) Stroom Den Haag, The Hague, The Netherlands (2005); Lamppost, commission of the Public Art Fund, New York (2003); Hammer Projects, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2002). Among the group exhibitions we mention: 99 Cents or Less , MoCAD, Detroit, MI (2017); FRAC Poitou-Charentes, Poitou-Charentes (2016); Global Positioning Systems, Perez Art Museum, Miami, FL (2015); Joie de Vivre, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille (2015); Ugo Rondinone: I love John Day, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2015); Room To Live: Recent acquisitions and works from the collection, MOCA, Los Angeles (2013); Retour du monde, a commission for public transport in Paris, Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Geneva (2013); Hors les Murs, FIAC Jardin des Tuileries, Paris (2012); Mapping the Studio: Artists from the François Pinault Collection, Palazzo Grassi / Punta della Dogana, Venice (2009); Château de Tokyo / Tokyo, Redux, Ile de Vassivière (2008); The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC (2006); 5 Milliards d'Années, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2006); Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of Art, New York (2004); Terminal 5, JFK Airport, New York (2004).

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