Out of Their Hands

On view from March 2 through April 30, 2016, Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl is pleased to present a partial survey of prints and sculptures created independently by Nauman and Rothenberg but in collaboration with the Gemini G.E.L. workshop dating back to the 1980s. Both artists have, at times, isolated body parts – hands, heads, arms, mouths – but often to very different effects. Interestingly, in their projects with the Gemini G.E.L. workshop in Los Angeles, particularly those after the two became a couple in the 1980s, a significant visual connection can be perceived. In Rothenberg's work, one immediately sees the evidence of her hand. Sensual and deeply emotional, mark-making is the place where her art begins. The imagery is not without importance, but what seems to spur her creative process is the application of her hand to the material. The emotion in Nauman's prints is more laconic; he investigates gesture as much as he uses it. His drawing technique is spare yet substantial. In each mark, there's a motion and subtle touch that energizes the imagery. Like Rothenberg, he is an experienced printmaker, and he uses the medium in sly and sophisticated ways, always conscious that the marks he applies to the printing elements will be reversed in the final work on paper. While Nauman and Rothenberg share a common intensity in their artistic activity, principally this presentation invites an examination of their individual creative impulses.