Photo: Nathan Perkel

Nicole Eisenman now represented by Hauser & Wirth

14 November 2019

We are thrilled to be showcasing Eisenman’s work this December at Art Basel Miami Beach as the gallery's first collaboration with the artist.

Born in 1965 in Verdun, France, Eisenman has defined herself as one of the most important painters of her generation by developing a powerful and timely new figurative language that combines elements both factual and fictive, mainstream and countercultural. After graduating with a BA in Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1987, Eisenman moved to Manhattan’s Lower East Side where she emerged as a central figure in the resurgence of painting in America, and a singular voice for identity and culture at the margins.

Eisenman's oeuvre is distinctive in its emphasis upon the allegorical and its deft mingling of autobiographical elements with historical and fictional narratives that draw attention to contemporary sociopolitical conflicts. Her art has attracted critical admiration for its skillful, subversive appropriation of compositional and stylistic elements of the great painterly traditions, including Old Master and Italian Renaissance art, to interrogate the corruption of contemporary life by politics, technology, and consumerism. Unable to locate her own experience and point of view in the art historical canon, she takes pleasure in complicating its hierarchies, altering the course of accepted narratives with outré colors, varied styles, and mismatched metaphors.

Nicole Eisenman, Going Down River on the USS J - Bone of an Ass, 2017 © Nicole Eisenman; Courtesy of the Ovitz Family Collection, Los Angeles

Installation view, 'Nicole Eisenman, Procession. Whitney Biennial 2019', Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2019 © Matt Grubb

Marc Payot, Partner and Vice President, remarked: ‘We are honored and delighted to announce our collaboration with Nicole and welcome her to the Hauser & Wirth family. While formally astonishing, her work is particularly powerful because it explores and lays before us all the undercurrents of American society. In this way, her practice resonates with the work of artists central to our program. Hauser & Wirth is devoted to supporting and advancing the efforts of creative pioneers whose talent is placed in the service of sociopolitical dialogue. We are excited about projects ahead with Nicole and look forward to introducing her work to ever-broader audiences worldwide.’

Eisenman’s art has been the subject of major international exhibitions, including a mid-career retrospective, ‘Al-Ugh-Ories,’ at the New Museum, New York (2016); and the traveling exhibition ‘Dear Nemesis, Nicole Eisenman 1993 – 2013,’ at The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (2015), The Institute of Contemporary Art,Philadelphia (2014), and the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis (2014). She was included in the decennial ‘Skulptur Projekte Münster,’ Münster, Germany (2017) and the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany, presented a solo exhibition of her work in 2018. Eisenman’s large-scale outdoor sculptural ensemble ‘Procession,’ (2019) was a highlight of the Whitney Biennial in 2019.

Hauser & Wirth’s representation of Nicole Eisenman is worldwide. She will continue working relationships with her current galleries, Anton Kern in New York City and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects.