"Nari Ward • Re-Presence" to open at Nerman Museum

ari Ward • Re-Presence" to open at Nerman Museum

05/19/10

Story by Bruce Hartman

"Nari Ward • Re-Presence" to open at Nerman Museum

Nari Ward Radha Liquorsoul, 2010, 10.5 x 2 x 2.5 feet Metal and neon sign, PVC tube with artificial flowers, shoelaces and shoe tips Courtesy of the Artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - Celebrated New York artist Nari Ward will open an exhibition Nari Ward • Re-Presence from 6-8:30 p.m. Friday, June 4, in the first-floor galleries of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College. A lecture by Ward begins at 7 p.m. in the M.R. and Evelyn Hudson Auditorium on the second floor of the museum. The exhibition will be on view through Aug 29. The opening reception and lecture are free and open to the public. Additionally, a free concert by The Good Foot will take place at 8 p.m. on the museum lawn.

Nari Ward Airplane Tears, 2005, 16 x 39 x 2 feet Found TV backs and handkerchiefs Courtesy of the Artist, New York, NY

Nari Ward Riot Gate Skull (front view), 2010, 76 x 53 x 5 inches Stencil ink, metal gates, shoe tips and laces, 3 mil vinyl with images Courtesy private collection, Puerto Rico

Born in St. Andrews, Jamaica, in 1963, Ward has been included in the 2008 Prospect.1 New Orleans Biennial, 2006 Whitney Biennial in New York and in Documenta XI in Kassel, Germany in 2003. Ward is currently working on a solo exhibition to be presented at Mass MoCA next year.

Known for dramatic sculptures made from discarded materials found in urban neighborhoods, Ward's works most often comment on issues related to consumer culture, poverty, race and, most recently, support for those with physical and mental illness. Using a sense of irony and irreverence, he suggests a point of view, poses a question or tells a story. Writers have compared him to a modern archeologist who uses salvaged materials - television sets, plastic bags, liquor signs, grocery carts, oil barrels and fake luxury goods - to interpret the history and emotions attached to those "recycled" elements.

Since 2000, Ward has lived and worked in Harlem, collecting the neighborhood's discarded clothes and trash for use in his work. Included in Re-Presence are various signs that Ward has gathered and repurposed. A Chase Bank banner is morphed into AfroChase, replete with hair picks and cowrie shells. Massive neon signs that originally promoted "LIQUORS" now glow with a single pronouncement - SOUL. And a monumental installation Airplane Tears utilizes wall-mounted

"Nari Ward • Re-Presence" to open at Nerman Museum