From the 22nd of November to the 29th of December 2024, Marc Jancou Contemporary presents How About Today? an exhibition by Louise Lawler featuring her seminal paperweight works.

In this group of works, created between 1982 and 2000 Louise Lawler presents scaled-down versions of her photographs in the form of half-sphere paperweight globes. Displayed on custom-made plinths under plexiglass covers, the otherwise everyday objects allude to museological practices bringing into focus notions of display which are at the heart of Lawler’s practice. Compelling the viewer to hover above the plinths and peer through two sets of glass to look at the photographs—both the actual globe and cover—they call for close inspection and careful contemplation accentuating the experience of observing something behind glass and all it entails.

Characteristic of Lawler’s practice in more ways than one, the paperweights remind us of the artist’s playful take on appropriation through the re-staging of her own works. At the same time they are exemplary of her positing of functional, everyday objects versus works of art, blurring the boundaries between the two and addressing broader questions of context, meaning and value. Equally compellingly, the paperweights tap into ideas of the souvenir and the keepsake and their role in preserving memory while exploring the performativity of objects.

Previous presentations of the paperweights include those at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2017,  the Museum Ludwig in Cologne in 2013, the National Museum of Art in Oslo in 2005, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca in 1996 and the De Appel Centre for Contemporary Art, Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1995-1996.

Louise Lawler was born in 1947 in Bronxville, New York and graduated from Cornell University in 1969. Working primarily in photography her practice has developed alongside the exploration of the different contexts and systems in which works of art are experienced and circulated. Characteristic examples of her work include photographs of works of art captured in museums, auction houses and galleries,  but also corporate offices and private homes. Along with artists like Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons and Barbara Kruger, Lawler is considered to be part of the Pictures Generation.

Lawler has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Selected solo exhibitions include Grand Arles Express, Collection Lambert, Avignon (2023), Andy in Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (2019–2021), She’s Here, Sammlung Verbund, Vienna (2018), WHY PICTURES NOW, MoMA, New York (2017), Adjusted, Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2013), (Selected). Louise Lawler, Albertinum, Dresden (2012), Twice Untitled and Other Pictures (looking back), Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2006), Louise Lawler and Andy Warhol: In and Out of Place, Dia:Beacon, New York (2005), and Louise Lawler and Others, Museum for Gegenwartskunst, Basel (2004). Selected group exhibitions include Fondazione Prada, Venice; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum Brandhorst, Munich; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; MoMA, New York; MoMA PS1, New York; MUMOK, Vienna; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and the Whitney Museum, New York, which additionally featured the artist in its 1991, 2000, and 2008 biennials. Lawler’s work was also included in the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (2022).

Marc Jancou Contemporary first exhibited Louise Lawler’s work in Rossinière, Switzerland, in the show  Is Anybody Home of 2019, which featured new works by the artist alongside Fixed Intervals, a collaborative piece with Allan McCollum. The gallery has also published several Online Viewing Rooms dedicated to the artist’s work including FOCUS: LOUISE LAWLER AND ALLAN McCOLLUM: FIXED INTERVALS, HIGHLIGHT: LOUISE LAWLER: WOMAN WITH PICASSO, 1912 of 1986, HIGHLIGHT: LOUISE LAWLER: UNTITLED (GOLD JACKIE) of 1993, HIGHLIGHT: LOUISE LAWLER: LIFE AFTER 1945,of 2007,  The Princess, Now the Queen dedicated to her 2005 work of the same title, a double feature titled A Dialogue: Alighiero Boetti and Louise Lawler where Lawler’s work was presented alongside that of Boetti, and Pictures, a focus Online Viewing Room dedicated to the Pictures Generation. 

On the occasion of the exhibition How About Today? Louise Lawler will produce a special edition postcard which will be available to visitors. 

The exhibition will run at The Saanen Vitrine in Switzerland from the 22nd of November to the 29th of December 2024.

The Saanen Vitrine, Saanen train station, Saanen, 3792, Switzerland

For more information please contact us at: office@marcjancou.com