Annette Lemieux New Work – ‘SCAPES

Press Release
March 6, 2001

The McKee Gallery is pleased to announce its third exhibition of the work of Annette Lemieux, opening Thursday, March 15, and continuing through Saturday, April 14 .* There will be an opening reception for the artist on Thursday, 6-8 pm.

The new body of work 2000-2001 is entitled “‘Scapes”–landscapes, seascapes, skyscapes–and includes 4 large photo murals, 4 framed photographs and 2 hairpiece hangings, also inspired by photographs.

The artist explains:

“In 1995 I made new rules for myself- If I was going to present an image, I would present my own instead of using found images. They would be moments that I directly experienced. Since the early 80’s, the idea had come first, then the image, object or painting. The new photographs are very different. They are those moments in life that you capture. They are not staged. The images are more personal, coming from my garden, or snorkeling, or running into a child/neighbor with a fantastic (hair) do. The image creates the idea.

If the 1995 gallery exhibition was about finding myself up against a wall and the 1998 exhibition showed the wall coming down, allowing for atmosphere and image to come forward again, this exhibition is 100% image-based. Even the hair objects are inspired by the photographs.”

The 4 murals in the current exhibition are:

Fall 2000, photograph taken by filmmaker Ross McElwee, of Lemieux laying over an enormous tree stump after a violent storm.

Walking on Water Revisited 2000, a large mural on muslin, photograph taken by Alberto Balestrieri, later manipulated by the artist, of Lemieux de-installing her Charles River piece in Boston.

4 PM (Crows) 2000, large photographic mural on sheer material.

Untitled (Ocean) 2000, large mural on sheer material, of an underwater photograph taken by the artist. All the images are life size or larger, photographed or actual (hair sculptures). The artist wants the viewer to experience what she has experienced. Fans create a breeze to make the water mural ripple and to suggest the feeling of flight in the crow mural. The movement makes the murals more cinema-like.

Annette Lemieux was born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1957. She received her BFA from the University of Hartford, Connecticut, where she had her first solo show in 1980. Lemieux has received several grants and has had many one-person exhibitions in galleries and museums all over the world, including the New Museum, New York; Castello di Rivoli, Italy; Duke University, Durham, N.C.; Haus Esters, Krefeld, Germany; Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City. The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Massachusetts, is currently organizing a retrospective 1984-2003.

For further information or photographs, please contact Meg Larned or Kendra Schweitzer at the gallery, 212-688-5951, fax: 212-752-5638.
*extended through April 21, 2001