FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

THOMAS LANIGAN-SCHMIDT        

Placemats & Potholders (Memory & Desire)                         

November 16 – December 16, 2006                  curated by Dan Cameron

PAVEL ZOUBOK GALLERY is pleased to announce the opening of Placemats & Potholders (Memory & Desire), an exhibition of new mixed-media works by THOMAS LANIGAN-SCHMIDT, curated by Dan Cameron. Please join us for the opening reception on Thursday, November 16 from 6-8pm, or during the run of the exhibition, which continues through December 16.

The gallery is located at: 533 West 23rd Street (between 10th & 11th Avenues). Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10am-6pm.

THOMAS LANIGAN-SCHMIDT has spent the last forty years breaking rules and tearing down barriers. His glittering and audacious mixed-media constructions speak directly to the kinds of experiences and issues most people prefer not to talk about at dinner parties – sex, class and religion. Born and raised in the multi-ethnic Catholic enclaves of Elizabeth and Linden, New Jersey, Lanigan-Schmidt’s work reveals a subtly articulated gay and working-class consciousness as well as an encyclopedic understanding of theological, philosophical and aesthetic ideas/ideals. Employing the most humble of materials; plastic, Mylar, colored foils, chenille stems, staples and all manner of ephemera, Lanigan-Schmidt’s unique vision pays homage to the religious and secular objects he reveres. A pioneer in the use of reflective materials, he has influenced subsequent generations of artists who have engaged a similar “glitter” aesthetic, exploring themes of material opulence, Baroque excess, cultural status, glamour, sexual transgression, camp and kitsch. 

Lanigan-Schmidt’s new works are a continued exploration into the relationship between “high” and “low” culture. Drawing on the kinds of “collectible” souvenirs so often marketed to working and middle-class families (e.g. commemorative plates, figurines, decorative kitchen accessories and the like), the artist has created a series of collages based on common household placemats and potholders. These glittering and entirely non-functional objects are replete with images drawn from Hollywood movies, theological texts, commercial kitsch and personal mementos.

Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt is represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and abroad, including the Venice Biennale of 1984, the Whitney Biennial of 1991 and the 1999 exhibition The American Century at the Whitney Museum. He has been an instructor in the M.F.A. Program of The School of Visual Arts in New York City since the mid-1980s. The artist has also served on the Governing Board of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine since 1992.

This exhibition will be accompanied by a full-color catalogue.

For additional images and information, please contact Maggie Seidel at [email protected]