Josephine Halvorson: On the Ground

JOSEPHINE HALVORSON ON THE GROUND January 23 – February 29, 2020

JOSEPHINE HALVORSON ON THE GROUND January 23 – February 29, 2020

SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO.

530 WEST 22ND STREET NEW YORK, NY 10011 TEL 212 929 2262 WWW.SIKKEMAJENKINSCO.COM

On The Ground, also the title of her essay in Art In America (June/July 2018), continues Halvorson’s exploration of the ground—as a motif, material, and metaphor. Each painting registers an area of ground through Halvorson’s close observation and pictorial description, while its accompanying surround incorporates crushed rocks and debris from the site of the painting’s making. Together, they realize a faithful translation of place and time. The works in this exhibition were made in the Berkshire mountains, the Mojave Desert, and Matanzas, Cuba.

These hybrid paintings are made with gouache, site material, dry pigment, and printmaking. They expand Halvorson’s on-site practice of transcribing direct experience by hand. While her previous work in oil allowed her encounter with an object to congeal over the course of a day, Halvorson has turned to gouache, a fast drying and graphic medium, which, like handwriting, records her observations in real time. Her paint application is indelible and fresco-like, transferring color from the brush into the absorbent ground of the panel.

Touching down at various points of interest—a piece of plastic, a blade of grass—Halvorson’s notational marks establish a correspondence between environment, painting, and viewer. Like a map, they depict the literal scape of the ground while offering an escape from mimesis. The reality of proximity breaks down as one gets lost in the archeology of a single stride. Gravel becomes galactic. The surround acts as a legend or key, a space for evidence and tools of calibration. A ruler, coins, or color chart orient the onlooker in terms of scale and perception, and the site material indexes the painting to its original locale. These are paintings of verification and memorialization; they ask how we make sense of what we see, how we express that witnessing, and how an account of experience is made concrete.

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Halvorson holds a BFA from The Cooper Union (2003) and an MFA from Columbia University (2007). She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Vienna (2003-4), a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant (2009), and was a fellow at the French Academy in Rome (2014-15). During Fall 2019, her work was on view at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston as part of The James and Audrey Foster Prize Exhibition, curated by Ruth Erickson. Halvorson was selected to be the first artist-in-residence at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, NM. Her residency will culminate in a solo exhibition in 2020 as part of the Museum’s Contemporary Voices series.

Halvorson’s work has appeared in many solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. In the spring of 2019, Halvorson made a body of work in Matanzas, Cuba which was exhibited a part of the Havana Biennial in a project organized by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons. In 2016, she exhibited large scale sculptures at Storm King Art Center and in 2015 had her first museum survey exhibition, Slow Burn, at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, NC. Her work and has been written about widely in a variety of art publications.

Halvorson is currently Professor of Art and Chair of Graduate Studies in Painting at Boston University, MA. She has also taught at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2018), Yale University School of Art (2010-2016), Paint School (2018), among many other institutions.

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Ground Register: Bricks/Ruler, 2019 Gouache and site material on panel 42 x 32 inches (106.7 x 81.3 cm)

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Ground Register: Rake/Chart, 2019 Gouache and site material on panel 42 x 32 inches (106.7 x 81.3 cm)

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Ground View: Desert Bloom, 2019 Gouache and site material on panel 32 x 32 inches (81.3 x 81.3 cm)

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Ground Panorama, Gravel Track, 2019 Gouache and site material on panel 36 x 132 inches (91.4 x 335.3 cm)

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Ground Register: Coals/Coins, 2019 Gouache and site material on panel 42 x 32 inches (106.7 x 81.3 cm)

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Ground Panorama, Boundary Marker, 2019 Gouache and site material on panel 36 x 132 inches (91.4 x 335.3 cm)

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Matanzas (Jaw Bone), 2019 Gouache, ink, and site material on panel 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cm)

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Matanzas (Insignia), 2019 Gouache, ink, and site material on panel 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cm)

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Matanzas (Rock Pool), 2019 Gouache, ink, and site material on panel 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cm)

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Matanzas (Ritual), 2019 Gouache, ink, and site material on panel 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cm)

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Ground View: Gasket, 2019 Gouache and site material on panel 32 x 32 inches (81.3 x 81.3 cm)

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JOSEPHINE HALVORSON

Born 1981, Brewster, MA Lives and works in New Marlborough and Boston, MA

EDUCATION 2007 2003-04 2003 2002

MFA, Columbia University, New York, NY U.S. Fulbright Fellowship, Vienna, Austria BFA, The Cooper Union, New York, NY Yale Summer School of Art and Music, Norfolk, CT

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2020 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM (forthcoming)

On the Ground, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, January 23 – February 29, 2020 2019 Foster Prize Exhibition, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, August 21, 2019 –

January 5, 2020, curated by Ruth Erickson 2017 As I Went Walking, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, October 19 – November 22, 2017 2016 Outlooks: Josephine Halvorson, Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, NY, May 14 –

November 13, 2016, curated by Nora Lawrence 2015 Josephine Halvorson: Slow Burn, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston Salem, NC, March 26 – May 31, 2015, curated by Cora Fisher 2014 À Moly-Sabata, Angle Art Conteporain, St-Paul-Trois-Chateaux, France, September 17 –

November 8, 2014

Facings, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, January 23 – March 1, 2014 2012 Side By Side, Galerie Nelson-Freeman, Paris, France, November 17, 2012 – January 26, 2013 2011 What Looks Back, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, October 21 – December 3, 2011 2009 Clockwise From Window, Monya Rowe, New York, NY, November 7, 2009 – January 16, 2010

Josephine Halvorson, The Volta Show, exhibited by Monya Rowe, New York, NY, March 5 – 8, 2009 2008 Peintures de Patience, Fondation des États-Unis, Paris, France 2005 Vienna Portraits, Humanities Gallery, The Cooper Union, New York, NY

Still Lifes, RKL Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2020 Visionary New England, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA, April 24 –

September 13, 2020 2019 Space Heater, Able Baker, Portland, ME, December 6, 2019 – January 12, 2020, curated by Annika Earley

The Practice of Everyday Life, Slag Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, April 18 – May 19, 2019

Rios Intermitentes/Intermittent Rivers, XIII Bienal de La Habana/Havana Biennial, Matanzas,

Cuba, April 13 – May 21, 2019, curated by Maria Magdalena Campos Pons

Those Who Can: Works by Boston University Painting Faculty, Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA,

April 5 – May 1, 2019 49

2018 A Few Conversations Between Women, 808 Gallery at Boston University, Boston, MA,

September 4 – 28, 2018

Crosstown Contemporary Art, UMass Amherst, Amherst, MA, July 1 – November 1, 2018,

curated by Loretta Yarlow and Sandy Litchfield

Excavation, Peter Blum, New York, NY, June 7 – August 31, 2018

Measure (Tree), deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA, June 2, 2018 – July 1, 2019

Fenêtre Jaune Cadmium, Institut Français, Centre Saint-Louis, Rome, May 24 – June 13, 2018

The Lure of the Dark: Contemporary Painters Conjure the Night, MASS MoCA, North

Adams, MA, March 2018 – March 10, 2019

The Case Against Reality, Marinaro, New York, NY, February 22 – April 8, 2018 2017 En Crue, Moly Sabata, Sablons, France, September 16 – October 29, 2017

Immigrancy, Samsøn, Boston, MA, September 8 – November 11, 2017, curated by Camilø Álvårez

Gray Matters, Wexner Art Center, Columbus, OH, May 20 – July 30, 2017

Images at Work: L’abstration au quotidian – Volet 1, Abstract Room, Paris, France, May 20 – 21, 2017 2016 A Way of Living, Apalazzogallery, Brescia, Italy, September 29 – November 15, 2016, curated

by Nathalie Provosty and N. Dash

Studio Systems, AAR Gallery at the American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy, May 19 –

July 3, 2016, curated by Peter Benson Miller

It Was Never Linear…Recent Painting, Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska –

Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, May 6 – July 31, 2016

Cynthia Daignault: There is nothing I could say that I haven’t thought of before, Stems Gallery,

Brussels, Belgium, April 19 – May 28, 2016 2015 Social Ecologies, Rail Curatorial Projects, Industry City, Brooklyn, NY, December 10, 2015 –

February 21, 2016, curated by Greg Lindquist

Josephine Halvorson, Leslie Hewitt, and Jennie C. Jones, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York,

NY, December 10, 2015 – January 23, 2016

Intimacy in Discourse: Reasonable-Sized Paintings, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ,

October 18 – December 22, 2015, curated by Phong Bui

muscular, Kansas, New York, NY, June 27 – July 25, 2015, curated by John McAllister

The Guston Effect, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA, May 15 – August 15, 2015

Stirring Still, LeRoy Neiman Gallery at Columbia University, New York, NY, April 3 – 29, 2015,

organized by Ioana Manolache and Maria Stabio

Tracing Shadows, PLATEAU, Seoul, Korea, March 12 – June 7, 2015

Teatro delle Esposizioni #6, French Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy, February 27 – April 12,

2015, curated by Claudio Libero-Pisano and Éric de Chassey

Souvenirs de Paris, Peter Freeman, Inc., New York, NY, February 26 – April 4, 2015, curated

by Camille Morineau

Conversation Piece – Part 1, Fondazione Memmo-Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy,

February 10 – April 12, 2015, curated by Marcello Smarrelli 2014 Please Enter, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY, October 23 – December 20, 2014,

curated by Beth Rudin deWoody 50

Acquisition Trust: Celebrating Thirty Years of Building a Collection, Orlando Museum of Art,

Orlando, FL, October 11 – November 2, 2015

Painter’s Painter: Gifts from Alex Katz, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, June 14 –

November 2, 2014

2014 Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York,

NY, March 6 – April 12, 2014 2013 L’Hourloupe, Greenlease Art Gallery, Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO, September 6 –

October 12, 2013, curated by David Rhoades

Black Cake, Team Gallery, New York, NY, January 10 – February 16, 2013, curated by Alex Gartenfeld 2012 Still, Frith Street Gallery, London, UK, June 29 – September 15, 2012, curated by Peter Fleissig

The Big Picture, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, June 8 – July 25, 2012 2011 2011 Artist in Residence Biennial, Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture at The University of

Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, November 10 – December 9, 2011

The Death of Affect, Artblog/Artblog, New York, NY, October 14 – 28, 2011, curated by Fran

Holdtrom & Jeffrey Scott Mathews

Paper A-Z, Sue Scott Gallery, New York, NY, March 16 – April 22, 2011

Ex Libris, Adam Baumgold Gallery, New York, NY, January 26 – February 26, 2011 2010 Between Picture and Viewer: The Image in Contemporary Painting, School of Visual Arts, New

York, NY, November 23 – December 22, 2010

Perceiving Place, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery at Alfred University, Alfred, NY, October 22 –

December 1, 2010

Americanana, Hunter College Art Galleries, New York, NY, September 16 – December 4,

2010, curated by Katy Siegal

Precarity and the Butter Tower, CTRL, Houston, TX, May 8 – June 19, 2010, curated by

Jackie Gendel and Tom McGrath

New Work from New York, Golden Gallery, Chicago, IL, curated by Patricia Treib

Perceiving Place, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred University, Alfred, NY, curated by Stephanie McMahon

Fool’s House, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY, curated by Nora

Griffin

Painting and Sculpture, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY

The Image in Contemporary Painting, The School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, curated by

Tom Huhn and Isabel Taube

Rites of Passage, 41 Cooper Gallery, The Cooper Union, New York, NY, curated by Thomas Micchelli 2009 Party At Chris’s House, Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, November 20 –

December 20, 2009, curated by Phong Bui

The Open, Deitch Projects, Long Island City, NY, September 10 – October 25, 2009

Perception as Object, Monya Rowe, New York, NY, January 8 – February 14, 2009

Editions/Artists Book Fair, monoprints exhibited by Sue Scott Gallery, New York, NY

What’s Bin Did and What’s Bin Hid, Gallery 106 Green, Brooklyn, NY, curated by Ryan Stedman

Hand-In-Hand, Non-Objectif Sud, Tulette, France, curated by Michael Zahn 51

2009 Subverted Genres, Sue Scott Gallery, New York, NY, curated by Gabriela Galati and Rebecca Mirsky

Close to Home, Cuchifritos, New York, NY, curated by Melissa Levin and Mike Quinn

Breaking into the Human Race, Great Hall Gallery, The Cooper Union, New York, NY 2008 Lost in Your Eyes, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY

A Friend Indeed: Contemporary Art and The Academy, Katzen Arts Center, American

University, Washington D.C.

Union Square, Taxter & Spengemann, New York, NY 2007 The Show’s So Nice, Monya Rowe, New York, NY

Columbia University MFA Thesis Exhibition, curated by Daniel Bozhkov, Rockefeller Center,

New York, NY 2006 Dead Serious, The Leroy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY, curated by Yola Monakhov 2005 Special Collection, The New York Public Library, New York, NY, curated by Laura Napier

GRANTS, AWARDS, RESIDENCIES

2019 The James and Audrey Foster Prize, The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Boston, MA

Recipient of the Blackwell Prize in Painting, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA

ArtRez, Newnan, GA

Inaugural Artist in Residence, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM 2018 Printmaking residency, Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Printmaking residency, Experimental Print Institute, Lafayette College, Easton, PA 2017 Artist residency, Moly Sabata, Sablons, France

Printmaking residency, Flying Horse Editions, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 2016 Artist residency, Robert Rauschenberg Residency, Captiva, Florida 2014 Rome Prize, French Academy at the Villa Medici, Rome, Italy 2014 Artist residency, Moly Sabata, Sablons, France 2013 Printmaking Residency, Neiman Center for Print Studies, Columbia University, New York, NY 2012 Steep Rock Arts Residency, Washington, CT 2010 New York Foundation for the Arts Award in Painting

Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award 2009 Marie Walsh Sharpe Studio Residency, Brooklyn, NY 2007 Harriet Hale Woolley Artist Residency, Fondation des Etats-Unis, Paris, France 2006 D’Arcy Hayman Trust Scholarship, Columbia University, New York, NY 2005 Artist residency, Weir Farm National Historic Site, Wilton, CT 2003 U.S. Fulbright Fellowship in Painting, Vienna, Austria

COLLECTIONS

High Museum, Atlanta, GA Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA Orlando Museum of Art, Winter Park, FL Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE

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SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO.

530 WEST 22ND STREET NEW YORK, NY 10011 TEL 212 929 2262 WWW.SIKKEMAJENKINSCO.COM