No. 328: Deborah Luster, François Morellet

Episode No. 328 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artists Deborah Luster and curator Béatrice Gross.

Deborah Luster is featured in Aperture magazine’s spring issue, titled “Prison Nation”. It spotlights how artists have responded to America’s astronomical incarceration rate. The magazine will feature a suite of pictures Luster made in 2013 at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, a maximum-security prison. They show actors in The Life of Jesus Christ, a passion play staged by prisoners for the general public. Luster’s photographs are also on view in Aperture’s New York gallery, which is showing pictures from the issue through March 7.

Concurrently, Luster’s work with poet C. D. Wright is on view in “The Art of Collaboration,” an exhibition at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. The exhibition examines how separate elements may come together to make projects deeper and more meaningful. Curated by Melissa Barton, Elizabeth Frengel and Nancy Kuhl, it will be on view through April 15.

Luster’s work has most often looked at circles of violence and how they perpetuate themselves. Her work, including portraits of Louisiana prisoners and of places in New Orleans where homicides were committed, is in the collections of dozens of museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

On the second segment, curator Béatrice Gross discusses her exhibition “François Morellet,” which is at Dia’s Beacon and Chelsea locations through June 2. Morellet was a pioneering conceptualist whose abstract work was often built around systems and, later, randomness. This is the first in-depth examination of Morellet’s work in the United States in over three decades. Gross’s exhibition brochure is available for free download.

Air date: February 15, 2018.

Deborah Luster, Bobby Wallace (Jesus Christ) from the series Passion Play, 2012-13.

Deborah Luster, Layla “Roach” Roberts (Inquisitor) from the series Passion Play, 2012-13.

Deborah Luster, Jamal Johnson (Roman Soldier) from the series Passion Play, 2012-13.

Deborah Luster, James Blackburn (Roman Horse Soldier) from the series Passion Play, 2012-13.

Deborah Luster, Gary Tyler, nd.

Deborah Luster, from the series Tooth for an Eye, 2008-10.

Deborah Luster, from the series Tooth for an Eye, 2008-10.

Deborah Luster, from the series Tooth for an Eye, 2008-10.

Deborah Luster, from the series Tooth for an Eye, 2008-10.

George Barnard, Nashville, from the Capitol, ca. 1864.

Deborah Luster, LSP 105 from the series One Big Self Prisoners of Louisiana, 1999.

Deborah Luster, LSP 108 from the series One Big Self Prisoners of Louisiana, 1999.

Deborah Luster, LSP 107 from the series One Big Self Prisoners of Louisiana, 1999.

François Morellet, installation view, Dia:Chelsea, 545 West 22nd Street, New York.

François Morellet, installation view, Dia:Chelsea, 545 West 22nd Street, New York.

François Morellet, installation view, Dia:Chelsea, 545 West 22nd Street, New York.

François Morellet, No End Neon, 1990/2017. Installation view of Dia:Beacon, Beacon, New York.

One thought on “No. 328: Deborah Luster, François Morellet

  1. Terrific interview with Deborah Luster, Tyler. Her story and those of her sitters were quite extraordinary. She didn’t resort to art-speak which made a refreshing change, too.

    Like

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