ICA: Past Exhibitions > Charles LeDray

Charles LeDray

May 11 to July 14, 2002

	Charles LeDray, Come Together, 1995-1996, fabric, thread, embroidery floss, metal, 43.5 x 26 x 6.5 inches, Collection: San Francisco Museum of Art, couresy Sperone Westwater.

The Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania is organizing the first museum survey of the works of Charles LeDray. LeDray creates sculpture notable for its range of scale and wide variety of materials such as bone, fabric, and porcelain. His objects embody the conviction that ideas are experienced not only through the life of the mind but also through the skill of the hand. The exhibition opens May 11, 2002 and continues through July 14, 2002. The Preview Reception, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled for May 10, 2002 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The ICA is located at 118 South 36th Street at the University of Pennsylvania.

In his sculpture, LeDray's meticulous attention to detail and personal subject matter elicits a strong response from the viewer. This is evident in such works as Milk and Honey, (1994-1996), in which 2000 unique, hand-thrown porcelain vessels are incorporated into a huge multi-tiered vitrine. For his clothing-based sculptures he embroiders patches, constructs zippers, and fabricates hangers. His oeuvre also includes human bone which has been sculpted into buttons, furniture, a shaft of wheat and Tellurian, (2000), a complex planetary model.

Charles LeDray
Milk and Honey (detail), 1994-1996
2000 hand-thrown porcelain vessels
collection: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

This comprehensive exhibition of recent works will feature approximately 30 pieces created by LeDray since 1989. Included are several of LeDray's early works such as untitled/Broken bear (1993), as well as his clothing based sculpture Come Together (1995-1996), and other pieces drawn from private and public collections.

The exhibition, curated by ICA Director Claudia Gould, will be accompanied by a full-color catalog. It will include an introduction by Gould, as well as an interview between her and the artist, and an essay by Russell Ferguson, Deputy Director of Exhibitions and Programs and Chief Curator, UCLA Hammer Museum. Following its opening at the ICA, the exhibition will travel to the Arts Club of Chicago, September 20-December 21, 2002; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, January 25, 2003-April 6, 2003; and the Seattle Art Museum, April 26-July 27, 2003.

Charles LeDray's work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1993 he received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award and in 1997 the Prix de Rome from the American Academy in Rome.

installation views > click to enlarge

Charles LeDray
Installation view

ICA acknowledges the generous support of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and members of ICA's New York Leadership Circle: Christopher J. Carrera Foundation, Jason and Ashley Bernhard, James Berman and Lisa Rechsteiner, Debra and Craig S. Cogut, Christopher and Cecile D'Amelio, The Ellen and Gary S. Davis Foundation, Robert Fogelson, David and Virginia Ford/The Ford Family Foundation, Glenn R. Fuhrman, Lori T. Moore, Lauren and Gerardo Rosenkranz, Allison and Neil Rubler, Geoffrey and Melissa Greener, K. Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc., Anurag Bhargava, Alice Blank and David S. Udell, James Gray, Eric S. Lane, Maria Parker Paumgarten and John Parker, John C. Phelan and Amy Merriman, Kevin Raidy, Pamela and Arthur Sanders, Daniel C. Scheffey, Joey and Christopher Schlank and Maggie and Amor Towles. Additonal support has been provied by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Dietrich Foundation Inc., the Overseers Board for the Institute of Contemporary Art, friends and members of ICA, and the University of Pennsylvania. (Information complete as of 3/19/02)

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