SELECTED WORKS BY Lara Schnitger
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Lara Schnitger
I Want Kids
2005
stencil on plaid, cotton, fake fur, wood, zipper, pins
211 x 251 x 211 cm |
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Lara Schnitger’s fabric constructions sit uneasily as both sculpture and costume design; her figurative forms create grating parody caricatures of the most unsavoury types. I Want Kids lures with cuddly toy seduction, a goofy three legged monster decked out in Oshkosh B’Gosh plaid, its big hairy ‘slingshot’ dangling with Jolly Jumper enthusiasm. Outrageously perverse, Schnitger’s sculpture doesn’t downplay the morbidity of paedophilia, but rather questions the too-easy public perception of predators. In Brass Eye style, Schnitger addresses our darkest fears and taboos, using wry humour to expose a lurking reality. |
Lara Schnitger
Grim Boy
2005
wood, fabric, and mixed media
180 x 150 x 51 cm |
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Swathed in black with fuzzy face and dangling dreads, Lara Schnitger’s Grim Boy is the epitome of skulking teenager: grody, rank, and insipid. Draping fabric over a wooden frame base, Schnitger perfectly captures the awkwardness of physical development, disproportioned and gangly, torso bugling with the remnants of puppy fat, head thrust forward in a spit of aggression. Her jostling laugh at pubescent boorishness turns quickly to horror. In the light of Columbine, and the recent spate of goth gang murders and suicides, adolescent angst poses as real threat, a demon seed bread from cultural anxiety. |
Lara Schnitger
Lost Hippie
2004
Fabric, wood, necklace, scarves, watches, earrings, pins
211 x 119 x 75 cm |
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Using craft media, Lara Schnitger’s portrayals of cultural stereotypes are constructed as homespun ‘truths’, made more 'endearing' and identifiable through their beguiling materials. Standing as aggrandised puppets, her figures are abstracted exaggerations confronting preconceptions and prejudices. Lost Hippie lumbers as a lumpy elephant of obsolescence, a virtual caravan of faded patchwork and love-bead nostalgia. An effigy of bygone innocent and idealism, Lost Hippie is met with satirical contempt and suspicion. |
Lara Schnitger
Tickler-Stick
2004
Wood, fabric, zippers, pins
389 x 91 x 102 cm |
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Working in domestic arts, Lara Schnitger’s knitted and sewn sculptures create a quirky brand of feminism. Swaddled in a patchwork of remnant fabrics, Tickler-Stick offers a dubious promiscuity. Stretching and bulging around its internal wood frame, Schnitger’s abstraction seduces with homespun tactility. Dressed up in feminine frills and alluring see-through lace, Tickler-Stick gives a weird corporeality to formalist design, suggesting something deeply naughty in traditional granny-craft. |
Lara Schnitger
126 inches of fun
2006
Fabric, cord and wood
320 x 208 x 172 cm |
 
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Lara Schnitger’s 126 Inches of Fun towers as an Amazonian monument: pink, sexy, and larger than life. Stretched around a wooden support, lengths of silky fabric and black lace trestle an invisible bulking form like a ridiculously contrived girdle or fashion-disaster evening gown. Emblazoned with suggestive text Schnitger’s sculpture is an icon of feminine celebration, its diva-esque architecture posing as a bulwark of womanly wiles. |
Lara Schnitger
Cupidity (After Bronzino)
2009
Mixed media
208.3 x 228.5 cm |
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Lara Schnitger
Mistress Of The Boa
2009
Mixed media
213.3 x 176.5 cm |
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ARTIST INFORMATION
Lara Schnitger's BIOGRAPHY

1969
Born in Haarlem, Netherlands
Lives and works in Los Angeles and Amsterdam
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2005
My Other Car is a Broom, Magasin 3, Stockholm, Sweden
Stroom den Haag, The Hague, The Netherlands
Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Blacks on Blondes, Triple Candie, New York
2004
Air 2 Paris, Paris
2002
Civilized Special Zone, Lara Schnitger and Matthew Monahan, Chinese European Art Center, Xiamen
Anton Kern Gallery, New York
2001
Statements, Basel Art Fair, Basel
Raum Aktuellekunst, Martin Janda Gallery, Vienna
Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, California
2000
Kunstwerke, Berlin
Gozaimas, Lara Schnitger and Matthew Monahan, Bureau Amsterdam, Amsterdam
1999
Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Up & Co, New York
1998
Hyper Space, Galerie Daniel Blau, Munich
Basel Art Fair, Galerie Daniel Blau
SpaceInvader, Vleeshal, Middelburg, Netherlands
1997
University of Buffalo Art Gallery, Buffalo
1996
Anton Kern Gallery, New York
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2005
THING New Sculpture from Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Both Ends Burning, David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles
Follow Me: A Fantasy, curated by Malik Gaines, Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica
My Barbarian, Powerplant, Toronto, Canada
2004
Obsession, Galerie Diana Stigter, Amsterdam
M.B. The Mary Blair Story (with My Barbarian), REDCAT Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, Los Angeles
Sectrets of de '90s, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem
2003
To Be Recycled, Six Months, Los Angeles
Nice and Easy, Sprengel Museum, Hannover
Social Fabric, lothringer13, Munich
2002
Building Structures, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York
Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai
2001
Freestanding, Beaver College Art Gallery
I Love NY, Benefit show, Anton Kern Gallery, New York
2000
Trendwande, Kunstraum D?sseldorf, Dusseldorf
The Body Between Condition and Construction, EXPO 2000, Hanover
Raumkorper, Netze und andere Gebilde, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel
1999
10th Fukuoka Art Adventure, IMS‚ place Fukuoka, Japan
artLovers, curated by Marcia Fortes, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, England
Maeda Exhibitions, C.C.A, Kitakyusha, Japan.
Smooth Space, Vlaams Cultureel Centrum de Brakke Grond, Amsterdam
Provisorium I, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, Netherlands
Prix NI, Galerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag, Netherlands
1998
Een Keuze, De Grote Kerk, Den Haag, Netherlands
Art Sculpture Basel iL98, Basel
Neuro-Artonomy, Eramzus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands Morning Glory, De Ateliers, Amsterdam
The Centre Holds, Gmurzynska Gallery, Cologne
1997
Group Show: Painting, Photography, Drawing, Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Basel Art Fair, Galerie Daniel Blau
Gramercy Art Fair, Anton Kern Gallery
1996
Sublieme Vormen, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Tien Jaar Lustrum, Niggerdijker, Groningen
Culture Dialogue, Ateliers Hoherweg, Dusseldorf
1995
Wild Walls, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Shaking Patterns, W139, Amsterdam
Uitgelicht, RAI, Amsterdam
1994
East Award, Norwich Gallery, Norwich, England
1992
Met Vlag en Wimpel, Nederlands Textielmuseum, Tilburg Moderni Galerie u VystavistE, Prague
Kulturni Stredisko, Boskovice, Czech Republic
1991
Stalling, Haagse Kunstkring, Den Haag
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