~Live Horses On Exhibit at NYC Art Gallery ~ Homage to Jannis Kounellis’s Untitled (12 Horses) Lara Nikel

The art gallery, Gavin Brown’s “Enterprise”, will be relocating from Greenwich Village (NY) to Harlem (NY). Today is the last day of their last three day exhibit in that location. They have recreated Jannis Kounellis’ Untitled (12 Horses) for the first time in the USA. Untitled was first staged in 1969 in Rome with twelve horses in a underground parking garage with a polished tile floor. The photo below was taken during that exhibit:

This exhibit in the 1960s was called “1960s Conceptualism/Arte Povera/performance and installation art”. The original exhibit was meant to bring the natural world into the private gallery space, creating a tension between the idea of “enjoying art” and the presence of twelve large and real horses.

The New York City recreation is open to the public at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise through Saturday, June 27th, 2015. Each of the horses has it’s own feed and water, is tied to a comfortably long rope. The horses are only at the gallery from noon until 6:00 pm, when the horses return to a nearby stable for the night. The exhibit is for three days, with today being that last day. Three grooms are in attendance while the installation is open. The horses just hang out for those six hours, eating, drinking, napping and doing other horsey things. The floor has been covered in rubber for comfort and traction.

If you are going to be in NYC, you might want to stop in and see this. Here are a few more photos below!

Here is the link to Gavin Brown’s website: https://www.gavinbrown.biz

~Homage to Jannis Kounellis’s Untitled (12 Horses)~

homage to Jannis Kounellis, Lara Nickel, life-size horse paintings

Artist Lara Nickel is making 12 life size paintings of horses as a homage to Jannis Kounellis’s Untitled (12 Horses) project. The project will be completed in 2017 and will be exhibited around the world. The artist says it best:

“My project will consist of twelve life-size horse paintings – all painted realistically with white backgrounds. They will be displayed in a similar manner to Kounellis’ live horses: installed perpendicularly to the wall in a U shaped room, five paintings on each side and two at the back . Not all of the paintings will be clearly visible from the front of the room, requiring viewers to walk in between the paintings in order to properly see them. This will expose the backs of the canvases – something often ignored in the tradition of painting, but which is the very structure of painting.”

“This project will reference several ideas in Kounellis’ original piece (such as challenging our pre-established image of the Horse in Art, salability, and creating a level of awkwardness in viewing my installation). This project will, as well, highlight my own ideas concerning strictly painting (such as challenging how viewers normally interact with painting, activating the neutral space of a gallery/museum, and making representational painting act like an object or sculpture through a non-traditional display). Using Kounellis’ original piece as an art historical backdrop, these paintings are not only portraits of horses but painting as illusion, painting as object, and painting as situation.”

“The horse world and horse culture is a broad genre. I have and will be working with various types of horses and equestrian organizations including the Republican Guard, the Manade Laurent and the Cadre Noir in France, Spanish-Colonial horses and rescued Mustangs in New Mexico, racehorses from famous race tracks such as Santa Anita Park in Los Angeles, and the racehorses of the Palio in Italy, a yearly race which originates from Medieval times and continues to present day.”

“In June 2015, I will be traveling to Rome to meet Mr. Kounellis in person (I am learning Italian for this purpose). This project will be shown in Italy (and other international locations) after its completion in 2017.”