Camden Art Centre presents the first major institutional solo exhibition in Europe of French artist Nicola L.
Camden Art Centre is delighted to present the first major solo exhibition of the work of celebrated French artist Nicola L. (1932-2018). Encompassing sculpture, performance, painting, collage and film all of which carry an air of wit, playfulness, and radical subversion—the show will be an opportunity to experience all aspects of Nicola L.’s multidisciplinary practice. There has yet to be an in-depth exploration of the multi-layered and expansive nature of her practice which ranged into cosmology, environmental concerns, spirituality, mortality, sexuality, soft sculpture, activism and political resistance. This will be the first time the full breadth of her practice has been shown in the UK or indeed on the European continent.
A significant group of the artist’s Pénétrables will be shown along with performance documentation. These life-size textile sculptures were originally intended as participatory works with apertures that people could insert limbs or heads into, in some cases with other performers to create a single organism. This was a political gesture—all people united in one skin, regardless of ethnicity or gender.
Many of the artist’s large-scale functional objects will also appear throughout the show, including sofas and commodes: lacquered wooded cabinets produced with the silhouette of a stereotypical female torso. Taking furniture as their basis, the sculptures are endowed with an anthropomorphic quality—lamps take the shape of an eye, a coffee table has the outline of a woman’s body, and a sofa reads as a head seen in profile. Other ‘loungers’ are made from various soft, pliable forms, including feet and other fragments of dismembered bodies. The exaggerated, oversized and caricatured shapes are imbued with a political commentary on equality, collectivity and the place of women in particular, within the home and society.
Her concern with feminist politics continues in another major series included in the exhibition: ‘The Femme Fatale’ (1995) – paintings and collage on bed sheets memorialising women whose lives ended in tragedy or violence, among them Eva Hesse, Marilyn Monroe, Billie Holiday and Ulrike Meinhof.
The exhibition will integrate the artist’s work in moving image which became a focus for her from 1977 onwards, including a feature film shot in Ibiza, Les Têtes sont Encore Dans L’île (The Heads are Still in the Island) with Terry Thomas and Pierral, and documentaries touching on diverse subjects from the punk-rock band Bad Brains, the activist Abbie Hoffman and the Chelsea Hotel.
Nicola L. - 04 Oct 2024 - 29 Dec 2024
Venue: Camden Art Centre, London NW3
Further Information: Nicola L. - Camden Art Centre