Ethereal blue tulle dresses line the gallery walls shoulder to shoulder. Bent or bowed at the waist, attenuated sleeves sweeping the floor, the forms suggest a deflation of breath and anticipated inhalation. Gently disturbed by passing bodies and the breeze, this corporeal curtain is in a constant state of subtle movement. Three imposing ceramic sculptures occupy the center of the space. Constructed from dozens of smaller pots these strange sentries are armed with multiple handles. Inviting and intimidating, the colossi stand with the dresses, alert to some unseen force or presence. Like the title Bow, which can be read as an ornament, a curtsy, or a weapon, these works draw meaning from a range of cultural, social, and political contexts. In this exhibition Semmes deepens her longstanding engagement with feminism and the erotics of materiality, exploring the dynamic relation of body to sculptural form.
In Gallery II, Semmes continues to develop her acclaimed Feminist Responsibility Project with a series of enlarged photos of images torn from the pages of vintage porn magazines. With pen and ink the artist censors and abstracts each image flipping the sheet in a final act of defense. By exposing only the verso, what was once an immediate and explicit image now appears as little more than a stain, an otherworldly presence.
A special presentation of large scale street level light boxes, an extension of Semmes’ FRP series is slated to run through 1 December as part of the Stern Windows Project at NYU located on the Schwartz Plaza of the NYU Stern School of Business. This pedestrian plaza is located on the east side of NYU’s Bobst Library directly off Washington Square South.
Semmes was born in Washington, D.C. and lives and works in New York City. A large scale work from 1993, “Blue Gowns," is on loan from the Rubell Family Collection to “Revival” at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. through mid-September 2017. A recent traveling solo exhibition of Semmes work, “FRP,” organized by Ian Berry, Director of the Tang Museum, debuted at the Tang in 2015 and traveled to the Weatherspoon Art Museum and the Faulconer Gallery at Grinnell College in 2016. Over the course of her career Semmes has had many solo exhibitions, including exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Camden Art Centre, London and the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio. Her work is included in numerous museum collections, including the Albright Knox Art Gallery, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Denver Art Museum, and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. In the spring of 2016 Semmes served as the Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist at Washington University in St. Louis. In the spring of 2017 Semmes was Visiting Professor at Cornell University’s College of Art Architecture and Planning Semester in NYC Program. This is the artist’s third solo exhibition at Susan Inglett Gallery.
