No. 289: Nancy Rubins

Episode No. 289 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Nancy Rubins. It was recorded live at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University in Columbus.

Rubins is included in “Gray Matters,” an exhibition that opens Friday, May 19 at the Wexner. The show, curated by Michael Goodson, features the work of 37 contemporary women artists who have worked en grisaille. It is on view through July 30. The exhibition includes work by past MAN Podcast guests such as Carol Bove, Vija Celmins, Mickalene Thomas, Julie Mehretu, Mary Reid Kelley, Arlene Shechet, Amy Sillman, Xaviera Simmons and Lorna Simpson.

Rubins’s often monumental sculpture amalgamates industrially produced objects into strikingly light, sometimes lyrical objects. Her enormous drawings, of built-up graphite on single sheets of paper often installed across multiple walls, are simultaneously minimal and baroque. Rubins has had solo exhibitions at museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Her public and institutional commissions include the University of Texas in Austin, MCASD, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, and the Université Paris Diderot in France.

Air date: May 18, 2017.

Nancy Rubins, Clay Slip, Army-Surplus Canvas and Used Cups from Coffee Machine — When Clay is Dry Piece is Thrown Away, 1974.

Nancy Rubins, Clay Slip, Army-Surplus Canvas and Used Cups from Coffee Machine — When Clay is Dry Piece is Thrown Away (detail), 1974.

Nancy Rubins, Thin Concrete Wall and Rebar #3, 1977.

Nancy Rubins, Thin Concrete Wall and Rebar #2, 1977.

Nancy Rubins, Big Urn, 1978.

Nancy Rubins, Big Bil-Bored, 1980.

Nancy Rubins, Worlds Apart, 1982.

Nancy Rubins, Another Kind of Growth, 1988.

Nancy Rubins, Trailers & Hot Water Heaters, 1992.

Nancy Rubins, Drawings & Hot Water Heaters, 1991-95.

Nancy Rubins, Swiss Hot Water Heaters, 1993.

Nancy Rubins, Airplane Parts & Wire, 1999.

Nancy Rubins, Drawing, 2000-01.

Nancy Rubins, Drawing, 2000.

Nancy Rubins, Drawing (installation view), 2005.

Nancy Rubins, Chas’ Stainless Steel, Mark Thompson’s Airplane Parts, about 1,000 Pounds of Stainless Steel Wire, and Gagosian’s Beverly Hills Space at MOCA, 2002.