Polly Apfelbaum, Amy Bessone, Alexander da Cunha, Leonardo Drew, Melvin Edwards, Ann Hamilton, Harmony Hammond, Sheila Hicks, William J. O'Brien, Howardena Pindell, Norbert Prangenberg, Jacolby Satterwhite, Hassan Sharif, Betty Woodman

Alexander Gray Associates

510 West 26 Street, New York NY 10001 United States

+1 212 399 2636 e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

July 7 > August 12, 2016

Betty Woodman, "Kamin Posing" (2009) Glazed earthenware, epoxy resin, lacquer, acrylic paint 35.5h x 98.5w x 7.5d in (90.2h x 250.2w x 19.1d cm) Courtesy the artist and Salon 94, New York

Haptic: of or relating to the sense of touch, in particular relating to the perception and manipulation of objects using the senses of touch and proprioception.”
Haptic features a range of artists who incorporate craft practices in contemporary art. Each of these works are haptic in quality in that they have irregular or tactile surfaces, and because handiwork is present in the making of the objects. The artists included have subverted traditional modes of making (craft) by imbuing their work with personal perspective and as a means of commenting on their social or political reality.
As art historian and curator Helen Molesworth explains in her recent essay Imaginary Landscape from the exhibition catalogue Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College:  1933–1975, “while the dictionary may define haptic as ‘relating to the sense of touch, in particular relating to the perception and manipulation of objects using the senses of touch and proprioception,’ the word, when used in reference to works of art, denotes those works that engage visuality through an appeal to tactility. Haptic objects intertwine visuality and tactility so thoroughly that they are inextricable from each other.”
While all of the works on view will be an example of craft, the works span a variety of media, including ceramic, collage, and textile. The artists do not only span media, but also represent a variety of cultural backgrounds and generations, highlighting the omnipresence of craft modalities across cultures and ages.