About
Since the early 2000s, Carol Bove has focused on the interdependence of artworks and their contexts. From found objects to industrial construction hardware and architectural sites, her poetic use of materials is amplified by her current work in large-scale metal sculpture. Bove embraces the strategies of modernist formalism as a point of departure, exploring previously overlooked openings in the conventional narratives of art history.
Bove was born in 1971 in Geneva, Switzerland, and raised in Berkeley, California. She relocated to New York in 1993 and earned a BS from New York University in 2000. Her first major museum exhibition was held at Kunstverein Hamburg, Germany, in 2003. Between 2009 and 2013, Bove taught at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
Bove’s early assemblages often feature publications related to the intellectual fashions of the 1960s and ’70s, juxtaposed with objects such as stones and feathers to trace links between periods, places, and ideas. Thus, even while drawing on conventions of display and exercising formal restraint, Bove integrates philosophical and cultural allusions into her work. When Attitudes Become Form (2002) features wooden shelves stocked with books, including the catalogue for the eponymous 1969 exhibition and volumes on psychedelic drugs. Other projects incorporate the work of other artists; in Shrine to Eris (2010), Bove adds reproductions of paintings by Hans Hofmann to an arrangement of peacock feathers and other items, while in “setting” for A. Pomodoro (2014), she includes a sculpture by Italian modernist Arnaldo Pomodoro.
Photo: Jeff Henrikson
#CarolBove
Fairs, Events & Announcements
Art Fair
Art Basel Hong Kong 2024
March 27–30, 2024
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
www.artbasel.com
Gagosian is participating in Art Basel Hong Kong 2024 with a selection of works by international contemporary artists. The works on view, which embrace a dizzying variety of subjects and approaches, see the participating artists identify fresh ways to disrupt established histories of abstraction and figuration, and instill sculptural and painterly representations of the natural world with complex cultural significance.
Sarah Sze, Turning and Turning, 2024 © Sarah Sze. Photo: Maris Hutchinson
Honor
Carol Bove
Museum of Contemporary Art Distinguished Women in the Arts 2024
Carol Bove will be honored, along with fellow artist Kelly Akashi and the late philanthropist Mandy Einstein, for their extraordinary talents and contributions to the arts at the Twelfth Distinguished Women in the Arts Luncheon on January 11, 2024, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Established in 1994 by the Projects Council of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the event recognizes the many gifted women providing leadership and innovation in the visual arts, dance, music, and literature. This year’s luncheon will feature a performance by dance company BODYTRAFFIC and a silent auction to raise funds in support of the museum’s mission.
Photo: Jeff Henrikson
Talk
My Harry: Magick and Mysticism
Carol Bove, Raymond Foye, Andrew Lampert, Charles Stein
Friday, December 8, 2023, 5:30–9pm
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
whitney.org
“Magick and Mysticism” is the first night of My Harry, a three-day gathering celebrating the eclectic life and serpentine pursuits of Harry Smith. Featuring Carol Bove, Raymond Foye, Andrew Lampert, and Charles Stein, this evening is devoted to talks and conversations about Smith’s interest in and artistic explorations of spiritual and occult practices alongside listening sessions and screenings.
Harry Smith, Untitled (Zodiacal hexagramscratchboard), c. 1952 © Harry Smith
Museum Exhibitions
Closed
Making Their Mark
November 2, 2023–March 23, 2024
Shah Garg Foundation, New York
www.shahgargfoundation.org
Making Their Mark, curated by Cecilia Alemani, showcases the works of more than seventy women artists from the last eight decades. The exhibition champions the lives and work of women artists, bringing into vibrant relief their intergenerational relationships, formal and material breakthroughs, and historical impact. Through drawings, mixed media, paintings, sculptures, and textile works, these artists aim to rechart art history through their singular, iconic practices. Work by Carol Bove, Jadé Fadojutimi, Sarah Sze, and Mary Weatherford is included.
Installation view, Making Their Mark, Shah Garg Foundation, New York, November 2, 2023–March 23, 2024. Artwork, left to right: © Joan Semmel, © Carol Bove, © Maria Lassnig, © 2024 Dana Schutz, © Cecily Brown
Closed
Fragments of a Faith Forgotten
The Art of Harry Smith
October 4, 2023–January 28, 2024
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
whitney.org
The first solo exhibition of artist, experimental filmmaker, and groundbreaking musicologist Harry Smith (1923–1991)—whose 1952 compendium of song recordings, Anthology of American Folk Music, laid the groundwork for the popularization of folk music in the 1960s—is cocurated and designed by Carol Bove. This major survey introduces Smith’s life and work within a museum setting for the first time and includes paintings, drawings, experimental films, designs, and objects from Smith’s personal collections, such as string figures and found paper airplanes.
Installation view, Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 4–January 28, 2024. Artwork © Harry Smith. Photo: Ron Amstutz
Closed
Room by Room
Concepts, Themes, and Artists in the Rachofsky Collection
September 9–November 25, 2023
The Warehouse, Dallas
thewarehousedallas.org
Room by Room builds on the ongoing interest at The Warehouse to reflect on the development of its collection, presenting works for the first time. Spanning a range of mediums, geographies, and eras, each gallery focuses on a single artist or theme, allowing an in-depth look at the artistic movements important to the collection from the outset, together with other avenues of interest that have developed over the years. Work by Richard Artschwager, Carol Bove, Alex Israel, Sterling Ruby, and Jonas Wood is included.
Jonas Wood, Patterned Interior with Mar Vista View, 2020, Rachofsky Collection, installation view, The Warehouse, Dallas © Jonas Wood. Photo: Kevin Todora
Closed
Entangled, Ensnared, Entwined
Carol Bove, Hu Xiaoyuan, Alicja Kwade
March 3–August 15, 2023
Longlati Foundation, Shanghai
www.longlatifoundation.org
Counterposing the work of Carol Bove, Hu Xiaoyuan, and Alicja Kwade, this exhibition reflects their nuanced insights into the sculptural forms of personal, psychological, and social attachments. Three sub-themes—“Entangled Positions,” “Ensnared Beings,” and “Entwined Engagements”—describe various dimensions of intertwining as a metaphor for living in or with nature.
Carol Bove, Hairpin, 2018, Longlati Foundation, Shanghai © Carol Bove
Press
Sculptor Carol Bove’s First Exhibition at Gagosian Reveals the Many Faces of Steel by Ariana Reines
Cultured
November 6, 2023
Online
PDF
Carol Bove’s Light-Touch Heavy Metal Faces Down the Met by Jason Farago
New York Times
March 4, 2021
Online
PDF