New exhibition by Egyptian artist Ghada Amer opens at Aspen’s Marianne Boesky Gallery

Marianne Boesky Gallery is returning to Aspen for the summer. To kick off, the gallery, located at 616 East Hyman Ave., will present an exhibition of new work by Egyptian artist Ghada Amer from Tuesday, June 25 through Saturday, July 27. An opening reception with the artist will take place from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

“We have wanted to show Ghada in Aspen for a long time and are thrilled to present this body of new bronze sculptures and text-based felt paintings the artist refers to as QR codes,” Boesky said. “The messages in Ghada’s work, while ever relevant and potent, have never been more poignant, and I am honored to work with such a brilliant and thoughtful artist.”

For her first solo exhibition in Aspen, Amer brings together two of her recent, materially innovative bodies of work: the “Paravent Girls” and “QR CODES REVISITED.”  In a practice that spans painting, sculpture, ceramic, garden, and installation, Amer examines cultural dualities with sensitivity and specificity: feminine and masculine, craft and art, figuration and abstraction. Often appropriating sexualized imagery sourced from pornographic magazines, Amer subverts the masculinist tropes that permeate them, reimagining women in moments of ecstasy, pleasure, and tenderness.

As a Muslim-raised woman born in Egypt, her work is both provocative and revolutionary. She said that she’s not entirely sure how and why her art evolved in that way but suspects it was due in part to moving to France at the age of 11.

“I left Egypt for France in the ’70s and didn’t return until I was 18, and I was shocked to see the veiling of women and every part of a woman’s body being totally covered because when I left in the ’70s it was not like that,” Amer said. “I come from a Muslim family, very conservative but sexuality is a taboo, for all Egyptians. I never had a boyfriend. For me, sexuality was not easy, so I decided to speak about it. That’s why it was important for me to do art. I am making this for myself and it’s liberating.”

Amer said she began to draw during the Six-Day War also known as the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. She was a schoolgirl who took solace in drawing when she and her sister spent time in underground bunkers during bombings and found it was a way to escape into her thoughts and block out what was happening outside.

“Drawing has always had a healing, soothing effect,” she said. I always loved it.”

She always knew she wanted to be an artist but this also came up against her culture. Not because she was a woman but because although her father and mother encouraged and supported her to get an education, they didn’t consider being an artist a viable career choice.

“I was good in math, so my parents wanted me to become a computer engineer, and I got depressed and the only thing I could do was to draw,” she said. “My father wanted us to be very well educated. He just didn’t believe in art as a career.”

But Amer never gave up on her dream. Eventually going on to study at Villa Arson École Nationale Supérieure d’Art in Nice, France where she received her B.F.A.

In the years since, Amer has become an internationally recognized artist with a vast range of works that include paintings, bronze sculptures, clay ceramics, prints, installations, videos, and outdoor gardens. Her works are sought after by private collectors and are a permanent part of key museum collections around the world including the Centre Georges Pompidou, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Barjeel Art Foundation, the Brooklyn Museum, the Detroit Institute of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Arab Museum of Modern Art and the Fond National d’art contemporain.

In Aspen, she will show the metal “Paravent Girls” sculptures, cast in bronze or aluminum from cardboard boxes found in the streets that undergo an extensive creative process before taking their final form.

First, Amer draws faces of anonymous women on abandoned cardboard boxes, the excess ink from her deceptively simple line drawings trailing down the corrugated texture of the surface of each box. Next, the artist transfers these portraits to clay, redrawing each figures’ features in relief in the soft, earthen material by hand before casting them in bronze or aluminum. The “Paravent Girls” exemplify Amer’s interest in notions of the gaze and the dynamics invested in the act of looking.

The other part of the show is entitled “QR CODES REVISITED.” In this work Amer reimagines a textile appliqué craft long associated with male tentmakers in Egypt. In the ancient tradition of khayamiya, richly colored appliqué panels are used to decorate the interiors of tents and pavilions for weddings and other celebrations.

Amer reappropriates the craft, transforming it into abstract grids of monochromatic, geometric patterns, reminiscent of the ubiquitous form of QR codes. Within the surfaces, Amer embeds feminist texts — some English, some Arabic, all using stylized, abstracted characters.

Amer frequently incorporates language into her work, often borrowing short sayings from other feminist activists, artists, and writers. Embedding these texts within her work, Amer once again refutes the objectification of women — deploying instead the voices of feminist writers to reclaim agency for women.

“I don’t make art for people. I hate that. I’ve never done it because it’s a trap,” she said. “I make art for myself. I hope viewers will find it good and soothing, and if it resonates with them, great. If not, it’s not my problem.”

Sarah Girgis is the Arts and Entertainment Editor for The Aspen Times. She can be reached at 970-429-9151 or sgirgis@aspentimes.com.