Tony Oursler

April 11 - June 1, 2002
540 West 26th Street

Press Release

Lehmann Maupin would like to announce an exhibition of drawings by Tony Oursler. The exhibition includes a large group of drawings in acrylic from the last few years and marks the first time Oursler's drawings will be shown in New York.

Tony Oursler received a BFA from the California Institute for the Arts in 1979. He has since participated in numerous international exhibitions including a mid-career survey, Introjection, which was on view from 1999 to 2001 at the Williams College Museum of Art in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Des Moines Art Center. Primarily known for his innovative combination of video, sculpture, and performance, Oursler's work explores the relationship between the individual and mass media systems with humor, irony, and imagination. The artist's work is represented in a number of major museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Tate Gallery in London.

Drawing has always been an essential part of Oursler's creative process. He describes his drawings as a series of perceptions, scenes, delusions, and diagrams that are a free association of ideas and themes informing his work. A diary of his conceptualization process, Oursler uses drawing as a way of capturing an idea and a means of remembering, associating, or layering thoughts. Some of the themes explored in this group of drawings are the supernatural, methods of mass communication, and the history and development of media technology. Common elements include broadcast patterns and antennae pick-up diagrams as well as studies of projection devices. As a medium, drawing provides Oursler with a natural way of working out ideas and allows for an immediate and personal relationship to the subject.