SAATCHI GALLERY
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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

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

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

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

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

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


Lara Schnitger

Mistress Of The Boa

2009
Mixed media

213.3 x 176.5 cm



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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