3 Women atThe Landing

August 11, 2016Text by Katie Bode

3 Women at the Landing(installation view). Image

courtesy of the artists and theLanding, Los Angeles. Photo:Joshua White/JW Pictures.

In her essay “How to Install Art as a Feminist” HelenMolesworth critiques the oedipal narratives oftraditional art history, and proposes instead a loosernetwork modelled on the rhizome. Disparateart-historical nodes are here connected via “electivemothers”; artistic influence is mapped across time andspace. 3 Women at The Landing brings together thework of two developing artists in conversation with aniconoclastic voice from the past—illuminating the

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powerful possibilities of such methods of curatorialinquiry.

The grande dame in 3 Women is Leonore Tawney, astudent of Moholy-Nagy and maverick textile pioneer.Her precise line drawings bring to mind the work of herclose friend Agnes Martin. But it is her monumentallinen works that best illustrate her innovativetechniques. Tawney freed tapestry from the wall tofloat in space, transforming flat planes into dramatic,figurative volumes. Spirit River (1966) in particulartransfixes with nuanced color shifts from inky blue toblack; a night sky reflected in the ripples of thread-made-water.

The paintings of Loie Hollowell likewise find theirpower in the interplay of line and texture.They oftenseem to vibrate along the sinuous swaths of rough andslick paint that twine through her compositions likeintestines. Like Hollowell, Tanya Aguiniga’s works areequally bodily, but far less muscular. In the back of thegallery flesh-hued forms hang from the ceiling, cradledin improvised macrame slings. These works make useof the corporal, organic forms of fiber pioneered byTawney but rather than austere, monolithic figuresAguiniga gives us fragile, misshapen mutants. Freedfrom the false binary of the heroic individual orobliterating community the triangle of 3 Women givesspace to a more nuanced conversation, one whichallows a far healthier balance of individuality andinterdependence.

3 Women runs July 23-September 17, 2016 at theLanding (5118 W. Jefferson Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA90016)

Tanya Aguiñiga, Teetering of theMarginal series (all 2016). Photo

courtesy of the artist and the

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Landing. Image: JoshuaWhite/JW Pictures.

Loie Hollowell, Stacked Linghamin Purple, Red, Green (2016). Oil

and modeling paste on linen andpanel, 28 × 21 inches. Image

courtesy of the artist andLanding, Los Angeles. Photo:Joshua White/JW Pictures.

3 Women at The Landing – Carla http://contemporaryartreview.la/3-women-at-the-landing/

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3 Women at the Landing(installation view). Image

courtesy of the artists and theLanding, Los Angeles. Photo:Joshua White/JW Pictures.

Lenore Tawney, Untitled (1972).Red india ink on paper, 17.5 × 14

3 Women at The Landing – Carla http://contemporaryartreview.la/3-women-at-the-landing/

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inches. Image courtesy of theartists and the Landing, Los

Angeles. Photo: JoshuaWhite/JW Pictures.

3 Women at The Landing(installation view). Image

courtesy of the artists and theLanding, Los Angeles. Photo:Joshua White/JW Pictures.

 

3 Women at The Landing – Carla http://contemporaryartreview.la/3-women-at-the-landing/

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Tanya Aguiñiga, Teetering of theMarginal series (all 2016). Image

courtesy of the artists and theLanding, Los Angeles. Photo:Joshua White/JW Pictures.

3 Women at The Landing – Carla http://contemporaryartreview.la/3-women-at-the-landing/

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