Mario Merz’s first major solo exhibition on the West Coast commissioned a series of installations from the prominent Arte Povera artist. Best known for his sculptural works that combine found, industrial and organic materials into archetypal geometries, Merz was invited to work for one month as an artist-in-residence in the Grand Avenue building, constructing his three-room exhibition directly onsite. The resulting installations harmonized with the museum’s architecture while alluding to the sensibility and geography of LA more broadly.
The first room of Mario Merz featured two of the artist’s iconic “igloos” nested one inside the other. The smaller dome was made of wax and cloth on a steel frame and positioned at the center of the room, while the larger, glass igloo filled most of the gallery. The second room comprised a triangular, glass and steel floor sculpture, neon numbers on the wall, and a suspended, stuffed alligator facing the sky. The last gallery had been transformed into a garden with a water feature, a large-scale painting, chairs from a local restaurant, steel street slabs, two igloos, and a table. Neon numbers from the Fibonacci sequence appeared throughout the exhibition.
Mario Merz was organized by MOCA in collaboration with the Incontri Internazionali d'Arte, Rome.
The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue.