Styles of Radical Will (Italian Sculpture)

Solo Exhibition by Stephen Lapthisophon

Sep 09 – Nov 20, 2016
with an opening reception on Fri Sep 09 @ 6-9pm
at Sector 2337 (Main Gallery), 2337, N Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL

The Green Lantern Press is pleased to present its fall exhibition, Styles of Radical Will (Italian Sculpture), by Stephen Lapthisophon, on view in the main gallery from Sept 09-Nov 20, 2016. Styles of Radical Will (Italian Sculpture) mixes sculpture, wall drawing, found objects, text, photography, works on paper, and fabric to address issues of time and duration. Works prepared in both the artist’s studio and created onsite in the gallery space make reference to artistic precedents in Italian art from the mid 20th c. such as Piero Manzoni, Jannis Kounellis, Giovanni Anselmo and Giuseppe Penone. This show extends Toccare (Non) Toccare, a body of work Lapthisophon presented for a 2016 project at the Nasher Sculpture Center. Texts will be drawn from an artist book produced in conjunction with the Nasher project, Notebook 1967-68, incorporating the work of Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi. The way the show brings together installation, sculpture, and writing congeals in Lapthisophon’s simple correspondence about his materials, unified suddenly in a list without commas:

Paper flowers ink vegetables fabric lumber cardboard leaves egg shells string
Books dead flowers light nails glass and a flag

“Lapthisophon’s work evokes the past, and in general a sense of pastness, to poetically address the present.” — Artforum, print edition, May 2016.

Sept 09 - Nov 20, 2016

Stephen Lapthisophon is an American artist and educator working in the field of conceptual art, critical theory, and disability studies. Lapthisophon received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1979. His early work combined poetry, performance, sound art, and visual arts with postmodern philosophical concerns. He was also influenced by the legacy of the Situationists, who sought to make everyday life a focus of artistic activity. Lapthisophon has taught at Columbia College in Chicago, the School of the Art Institute, and the University of Texas at Dallas. He currently teaches art and art history at The University of Texas at Arlington.

Installation Images