Sonic Youth founder Kim Gordon's art coming to Warhol Museum
lofi
The first solo North American museum exhibition by Kim Gordon, co-founder of alternative rock band Sonic Youth, will open May 17 in the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
”Kim Gordon: Lo-Fi Glamour” encompasses two separate but integrated components: a survey exhibition of Gordon’s paintings, drawings and sculpture, and a commissioned score titled “Sound for Andy Warhol’s Kiss,” created for Warhol’s 1963–64 silent film “Kiss.”
A veteran of the avant-garde music scene, Gordon is best known as a music icon of the 1980s, although her work as a visual artist has run parallel to her music career, the Warhol says.
In interviews and in her memoir, “Girl in a Band,” Gordon cites Warhol as an early artistic influence and a source of inspiration, specifically the lo-fi glamour of his studio, the Silver Factory, and the multidisciplinary approach of his artistic practice, the Warhol says.
“I was interested in the lo-fi take on popular culture that Andy Warhol represented,” Gordon said in a 2013 interview with W Magazine.
The exhibition will feature new, never-before shown figure drawings, along with sculptures that highlight the eroticism and elegance of Warhol’s “Kiss,” the museum says. The exhibition will also highlight Gordon’s persistent use of language in her paintings, such as the obscure band names in her “Noise Name” paintings, and phrases lifted from the media for her “Twitter” paintings.
In conjunction with the score commission “Sound for Andy Warhol’s Kiss,” a limited-edition vinyl double LP will be released. The LP, recorded live in The Warhol theater on Aug. 1-2, 2018, includes the sound score by Kim Gordon, Bill Nace, Steve Gunn and John Truscinski.
It will feature three sides of audio on clear vinyl, with a silkscreen still image from the film “Kiss” on the fourth side of the record, and an inserted booklet featuring work from the exhibition. An insert of essays will accompany the vinyl.
The 50-minute “Kiss” film features various couples kissing for 3½ minutes each.
A schedule of public programs complementing the exhibition, which will run through Sept. 1, will be announced later.
The project is co-curated by Jessica Beck, Milton Fine curator of art, and Ben Harrison, curator of performance arts and special projects, and is presented with support from Alexa and Adam Wolman.
Details: 412-237-8300 or warhol.org
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley at 724-836-5750, smcmarlin@tribweb.com or via Twitter @shirley_trib.
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley by email at smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.
