27.09.2014 | 23.11.2014
IN ABSENTIA | AN TE LIU

Opening reception: September 27 at 8 PM

Reception sponsored by MNP

I look at an object and its underlying cultural assumptions.  What does it look like, how does (or did) it function, and why?  It is interesting to me how form and intention come together, and how strange, paradoxical - and telling - this relation can be.

                                                                                                                                                                   - An Te Liu

For this new multi-venue exhibition, An Te Liu presents a selection of recent work, which lies at the intersection of contemporary material culture, modernism, and ethnographic display.  At a glance, Liu's bronze, ceramic, and concrete sculptures resonate within the tradition of modern sculptors from Constantin Brâncuși to Barbara Hepworth, together with their affinity for raw, elementary forms.  Inspired by collections in the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City and the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Liu has assimilated references as diverse as Mayan and Aztec artifacts, rare minerals, fossils and meteorites.  Using the enigmatic shapes of foam packaging and other found sources as a point of departure, Liu constructs an archaeology of forms spanning the primeval, ancient and present day.  Just as the partial imprint of a new laptop might also resemble a ritualistic idol of a vanished race, the abstract and decayed remnants of In Absentia invite us to unravel their identity and meaning: their origins are obscured, while new ones are conjured.  As an ensemble, these works compel us to consider how ways of seeing and knowing shape our relationship to objects, across cultures and time.

An Te Liu (born 1967, Tainan, Taiwan) lives and works in Toronto.  His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including the CAG (Vancouver), the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art (Rotterdam), the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Humlebæk), the Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna), the Venice Biennale of Architecture, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  Liu's works are included in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Art Institute of Chicago.  Upcoming exhibitions include Art Labor Gallery in Shanghai, and the 2014 Biennial of the National Gallery of Canada.

This exhibition is organized by the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in conjunction with the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie.  Funding assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the City of Lethbridge and the City of Grande Prairie.