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Kathryn Andrews: Run for President

Images

A black and white image of a laughing clown appears on a panel of red, white, and blue vertical stripes inside a gray frame. Inside the frame, above the image, a cubbyhole is filled with holiday lights and campaign buttons in red, white, and blue sections that mirror the stripes below.

Kathryn Andrews, Hobo (Santa’s Helper No. 2), 2014. Ink on paper and Plexiglas, aluminum, paint, and mixed media; 43 3/4 x 37 x 2 1/4 in. (111.1 x 94 x 5.7 cm). Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles

Photo: Fredrik Nilsen
A chrome metal cart with three shelves holds boxes gift wrapped in colorful, shiny paper and ribbons with bows.

Kathryn Andrews, Gift Cart, 2011. Stainless steel and rented props; 60 x 38 x 24 in. (152.4 x 96.5 x 61 cm). Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles

Photo: Fredrik Nilsen

Kathryn Andrews, Lethal Weapon, 2012. Stainless steel, paint, and certified film prop; 76 x 36 x 36 in. (193 x 91.4 x 91.4 cm). Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

Photo: Fredrik Nilsen
A red column resembling a coat stand balances two silver tubes and is topped by the head of a colorful pirate with green hair, a blue hat, and a red scarf.

Kathryn Andrews, Coming to America (Filet-O-Fish), 2013. Stainless steel, paint, found object, and certified film props; 104 1/4 x 54 x 43 in. (264.8 x 137.2 x 109.2 cm). Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles

Photo: Fredrik Nilsen
Detail of a cylindrical sculpture wrapped with the image of a white, red, and blue clown

Kathryn Andrews, "Bozo"™" The World’s Most Famous Clown" Bop Bag with Occasional Performance (Blue Variation) (detail), 2014. Aluminum, vinyl, polyurethane, and chrome-plated steel; 92 x 36 x 36 in. (233.7 x 91.4 x 91.4 cm). Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles

Photo: Fredrik Nilsen
A cylinder is wrapped with the repeating image of a white, red, and black clown holding a target with "BOZO" written below. An upside-down stool protrudes from the top of the sculpture.

Kathryn Andrews, "Bozo"™" The World’s Most Famous Clown" Bop Bag with Occasional Performance (Black Variation), 2014. Aluminum, vinyl, polyurethane, and chrome-plated steel; 92 x 36 x 36 in. (233.7 x 91.4 x 91.4 cm). Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles

Photo: Fredrik Nilsen
The black-and-white photo of a clown is covered by broad transparent yellow stripes and framed. The top section of the frame displays a blue flag with white stars and three pins featuring different US politicians.

Kathryn Andrews, Hobo (The Candidates), 2014. Ink on paper and Plexiglas, aluminum, paint, and mixed media; 43 3/4 x 37 x 2 1/4 in. (111.1 x 94 x 5.7 cm). Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles

Photo: Fredrik Nilsen
A cylinder is wrapped with the repeating image of a white, red, and blue clown holding a target with "BOZO" written below. An upside-down stool protrudes from the top of the sculpture.

Kathryn Andrews, "Bozo"™" The World’s Most Famous Clown" Bop Bag with Occasional Performance (Blue Variation), 2014. Aluminum, vinyl, polyurethane, and chrome-plated steel; 92 x 36 x 36 in. (233.7 x 91.4 x 91.4 cm). Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles

Photo: Fredrik Nilsen

About

Kathryn Andrews (American, b. 1973) examines how image producers—such as artists, corporations, Hollywood studios, and politicians who mirror and shape social values at large—employ visual cues and material packaging to elicit desire. In doing so, she often calls attention to our power, or lack of power, to resist such forces and the complicated act of looking itself. Her sculptures, installations, and performances sample the aesthetics of pop art, minimalism, and conceptualism as readymades, and reinscribes them into new narratives about gender, class, and race.

Kathryn Andrews: Run for President, the artist's first solo museum exhibition in the United States, features the sculptures that have made her one of the crucial new voices of her generation. For this exhibition, Andrews situates her sculptures against a conceptual and, at times, pictorial backdrop of presidential elections that functions as a rich allegory. The linear narrative explores candidates, campaigns, sitting in office, and the end of presidency, charting the rise and fall of the president—a metaphorical double for the figure of the artist as well as the viewer. Revealing cultural connections that are both humorous and critical, while questioning the consequences of seeing anything as fixed, Andrews demonstrates how meanings are always contingent and in flux.

This exhibition is organized by Julie Rodrigues Widholm, former Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

The exhibition is presented in the Bergman Family Gallery on the museum’s second floor.

Gallery Text

Funding

Generous support for Kathryn Andrews: Run for President is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris: Caryn and King Harris, Katherine Harris, Toni and Ron Paul, Pam and Joe Szokol, Linda and Bill Friend, and Stephanie and John Harris; David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles; the Nancy Lauter McDougal and Alfred L. McDougal Exhibition Fund; Christen and Derek Wilson; the Pamela Alper Curatorial Fund; Rodney Lubeznik and Susan D. Goodman; Cari and Michael Sacks; Rena and Daniel Sternberg; and Lisa Roumell and Mark Rosenthal.