Austin Way Magazine - GreenGale Publishing - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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photography Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann maupin, n ew y ork and h ong k ong GOING HOME SOUTH KOREA' S DO HO SUH EXPLORES A UNIVERSAL THEME IN HIS FALL EXHIBIT AS THE CONTEMPORARY BROADENS ITS SCOPE. BY TOBIN LEVY For Louis Grachos, executive director of the Contemporary Aus- tin, the fall exhibition by South Korean artist Do Ho Suh reflects the fulfillment of one of the primary objectives he established for the museum when he took the helm of it almost two years ago. "I felt we needed to make a strong statement by bringing in some of the artists who are really making important strides internation - ally," he says. This is not to the exclusion of local artists; collabora- tive efforts are in the works with Co-Lab Projects, Canopy, Okay Mountain, and UT's College of Fine Arts. But Grachos and senior curator Heather Pesanti are also reaching out to international artists up for the challenge of working with two disparate spaces: the Jones Center and Laguna Gloria. The selection process includes inviting to Austin the artists who were being considered for a 48- hour introduction to the city. To date, no one has declined the offer. "This was something that was a big challenge in Buffalo," says Pesanti, who, like Grachos, came from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY. If the artists are interested, they are invited to submit a proposal. Much of Suh's work explores the concept of home and what it means, particularly when a person moves. "It's such a universal theme and so relevant for Austin, a city flooding with ex-pats," says Pesanti. The show at the Jones Center features Suh's reimagining of two of the New York apartments and a studio—all in the same build- ing—in which Suh once lived and worked. The artist's outdoor piece, Net-Work, at the lagoon at Laguna Gloria, continues to address the idea of home and place through his interpretation of the fishermen's nets he saw in a Korean village. "He loved watching the fish- ermen at the end of the day draping their nets over a series of poles and mending them," says Grachos. Suh's net is 70 feet long, and the webbing is made of gold- and chrome-plated male figurines. The artist identifies with the turtles he found there on his initial visit. As Pesanti notes, in many ways he, too, carries his home on his back. Do Ho Suh's exhibition runs September 20–January 11 at the Jones Center, 700 Congress Ave., 512-453-5312 and at Laguna Gloria, 3809 W. 35th St., 512-458-8191; thecontemporaryaustin.org. AW Net-Work by Do Ho Suh, 2010. 60 AUSTINWAY.COM CULTURE Art Full