Suzanne Harris & Gordon Matta-Clark 1971 - 1978

Rhona Hoffman Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition highlighting the groundbreaking work of Suzanne Harris and Gordon Matta-Clark, two seminal artists of the nascent SoHo art scene of the early 1970s.

This period of intense experimental creativity and interdisciplinary work challenged conventional art boundaries redefining what, where, and how art could be made. Both Matta-Clark and Harris were integral members of two collaborative artist-run spaces: 112 Greene Street, the hub of impromptu events, performances, and exhibits, and FOOD, an open-plan restaurant with family-style seating encouraging dialogue between friends and strangers. They were also protagonists in the Anarchitecture collective which endeavored to disrupt normative assumptions about urban environments and the way people interact with them. 

Gordon Matta-Clark made the photographs on view by cutting and configuring negatives of his ‘building cuts’. These images were intended as a memory and glimpse of the project as it was and felt in person. Matta-Clark is renowned for these radical "building cuts" where he sliced and carved into abandoned structures transforming them into hybrid forms challenging traditional views of architecture and space; pushing the definitions of art and the urban environment. 

Suzanne Harris, equal in her influence at the time though lesser known, defies categories due to her use of many materials and disciplines. As a dancer, painter, and sculptor she explored actions in space and time creating ephemeral forms that invite intrigue and a satisfying disorientation to the viewers preconceived notions of space, action and materiality.  On view are glass sculptures suspended from the ceiling and penetrating the gallery wall, and works on paper.

“I consider glass, as a material, to be stone. It has a similarity of formative elements, causality, density, strength, and weight, with one important special characteristic-transparency.”*

Artforum Suzanne Harris: the Energy of Time by Ted Castle 1980

Image: Gordon Matta-Clark, Circus or Caribbean Orange, 1978
Cibachrome photograph
30 x 40 inches