Selections Fall 1999

The artists included in Selections Fall 1999 demonstrate a shared interest in issues of mapping, space, and in several instances, landscape. The Selections exhibition series, while typically non-thematic, provided the artists with an opportunity to present a significant body of work, and demonstrated the diversity of content, materials, and formal concerns found in contemporary drawing. Selections Fall 1999 featured the work of Katharina Grosse, Honda Takeshi, Steve Roden, Barbara Camilla Tucholski, and Paul Zawisha.

Katharina Grosse constructs wall drawings by applying a monochromatic "stain" of spray paint directly to a section of the gallery wall. Both menacing and beautiful at once, Grosse's installations appear to hover in the gallery like occupying clouds. Confining himself for the most part to three charcoal marks that he positions in different ways on separate sheets of paper, Paul Zawisha charts complex and seemingly infinite spatial interactions. Steve Roden works with a rediscovered 1969 Mattel "Hot Wheels" stencil kit, incorporating the bright colors typically associated with such cars; Roden rejects the intended forms and allows the stencils to guide him in the creation of free and expressive abstractions. With astounding skill and sensitivity, Honda Takeshi creates large-scale drawings in charcoal, based on photographs he takes during his walks through nature. Barbara Camilla Tucholski draws gardens in graphite, drawing inspiration from the gardens surrounding her home in Germany, and from her travels.

Selections Fall 1999 was one in a continuing series of exhibitions that brought the work of emerging artists from across the nation and abroad to public attention. All of the featured artists had participated in The Drawing Center's Viewing Program, a service which offered emerging artists an opportunity to present drawing to the curatorial staff for professional feedback and to be considered for inclusion in an exhibition.

The publication accompanying Selections Fall 1999 marked the first in a new series entitled The Drawing Center's Drawing Papers. This series had been developed by The Drawing Center's executive director Catherine de Zegher to complement the Center's exhibition catalogues and to provide a vital and versatile forum for the discussion and study of drawing.