“Finished drawings are not any less works of art, and for these artists, the use of the term as a status differentiation is not relevant. Drawing is a noun”

— Mel Bochner to Heiner Friedrich

Flat Out: Drawings, 2000–2019 expands upon curators Ysabel Pinyol Blasi and Karline Moeller’s earlier survey of “flat” work from the previous forty years, examining how drawing as practice and concept has undergone a transformation over the past two decades.

Mel Bochner’s 1968 wall drawing Smudge will remain in the gallery space, establishing a dialogue between the exhibition’s first and second parts. While Smudge continues to serve as a touchstone for an expanded notion of drawing, Flat Out gathers reimaginings of the process that are identified specifically with the 21st century, focusing in particular on how accelerating technological advancement has influenced patterns of communication and representation. Tracing the intrinsic and subjective value of drawing over time, Flat Out re-examines a practice that is at once creatively vital and inherently ephemeral.

In a uniquely contemporary return to naturalism, Martin Roth removes human beings from the artistic process, employing instead the motion of worms to generate a visual imprint. Anne Vieux’s video //, meanwhile, hinges on the use of digital tools to manipulate traditional mediums, further challenging a conventional understanding of drawing as both method and outcome.

ARTISTS
Amina Ahmed, Miya Ando, Jay Batlle, Mel Bochner, Daniel Bejar, Matias Cuevas, Mara De Luca, Jamie Diamond, Chris Dorland, Lacey Dorn, Kelly Driscoll, Aleksandar Duravcevic, Robert Feintuch, Kate Gilmore, Michael Gitlin, Ron Gorchov, Lena Henke, Serban Ionescu, Samuel Jablon, Mille Kalsmose, Ben Keating, Sotirios Kotoulas, Alex Kwartler, James English Leary, Cary Leibowitz, Maria de Los Angeles, Mara De Luca, Sean Mellyn, Sam Messer, Azikiwe Mohammed, Ebecho Muslimova, Nathlie Provosty, Martin Roth, Ben Schumacher, Rezarta Seferi, Shelter Serra, Kianja Strobert, Francisca Sutil, Daniel Turner, Anne Vieux, Joan Waltemath