Claire Oswalt: We Have Never Been Modern
Anthem
Articulate the infinite
draw a ring around a cloud
time drags in a net
behind a fearless inflection of sound
another note is needed to carry
this long and longing song
so many instruments in the orchestra
but from here I hear just one
- Claire Oswalt
Broadway is pleased to announce We Have Never Been Modern a solo presentation of new paintings, wall-mounted marble works, and works on paper by Austin-based artist Claire Oswalt.
The exhibition title, borrowed from philosopher Bruno Latour's 1991 book, provides a clue to Oswalt!s omnivorous practice. Latour's rejection of Modernity's tendency toward intellectual fragmentation and specialization resonates with the artist who blends literature, poetry, painting, craft, collage, music, and natural observation.
With a new suite of acrylic paintings on sewn canvas, Oswalt expands her lyrical, layered abstraction to include gridded passages and swathes of staccato vertical seams. Elsewhere her familiar sinewy stitched curves resolve the opposing forces of concave and convex while mimicking the small, cut paper and acrylic studies that precede them.
As a writer and literature obsessive, language has been central to Oswalt!s practice. Poetry works in tandem, and titles that turn on curious, percussive words (Mammatus) and evocative phrases (Girls on the A Team) find a parallel in her formal vocabulary of marks and gestures that have been isolated and patiently distilled through repetition. This is particularly apparent in the relatively austere and potent marble works. Concocted in a similar fashion to the paintings, with laser cut sections of marble precisely fitted together, these pieces focus on mysterious glyphs sequenced within a grid. Refined from casual, offhand line drawings, Oswalt views these gestures as an integrated system of marks and, as such, they read like a poem-acting as a Rosetta Stone for the exhibition as a whole.
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Claire OswaltWe Have Never Been Modern, 2023acrylic on sewn canvas82 x 75 inches
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Claire OswaltPolished Silverscape, 2023acrylic on sewn canvas102 x 84 inches
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Claire OswaltProse In Reverse, 2023acrylic on sewn canvas68 x 55 inches
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Claire OswaltEmbroidered Pause, 2023acrylic on sewn canvas96 x 76 inches
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Claire OswaltChannels II, 2023acrylic on sewn canvas68 x 55 inches
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Claire OswaltChannels I, 2023acrylic on sewn canvas68 x 55 inches
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Claire OswaltSpell Me, Bleed Me, Be Me..., 2023acrylic on sewn canvas68 x 55 inches
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Claire Oswalt, Anthem , 2023
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Claire OswaltEnter Permanents (Black 12), 2023marble30 x 23.5 inches
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Claire OswaltPaso Paso (study) , 2023watercolor, acrylic and adhesive on paper13 1/8 x 11 3/8 inches framed
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Claire OswaltWe Have Never Been Modern (study), 2023watercolor, acrylic and adhesive on paper13 1/8 x 11 3/8 inches framed
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Claire OswaltPolished Silver (study), 2023watercolor, acrylic and adhesive on paper13 1/8 x 11 3/8 inches framed
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Claire OswaltChannels I (study), 2023watercolor, acrylic and adhesive on paper13 1/8 x 11 3/8 inches framed
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Claire OswaltEnter Permanents (Blue 12), 2023marble30 x 23.5 inches
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Claire OswaltEnter Permanents (Green 12), 2023marble30 x 23.5 inches
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Claire OswaltEnter Permanents (Green 4), 2023marble16 x 16 inches
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Claire OswaltEnter Permanents (Blue 4), 2023marble16 x 16 inches
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Claire OswaltEnter Permanents (black 4), 2023marble16 x 16 inches
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Claire OswaltGirls on the A Team, 2023acrylic on sewn canvas96 x 76 inches
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Claire OswaltBeverly's Flute, 2023acrylic on sewn canvas68 x 55 inches