Anne Chu

Born 1959 in New York, lives and works in New York

Galleries:
Gallery Christine Burgin, New York
Monica De Cardenas, Mailand
Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
303Gallery, New York









There is a long tradition of performing bears in circuses and carnivals, and Carnival Within has two impressive bears of its own; both are exquisite sculptures by Anne Chu. At first glance, their materiality is deceptive. With their lumpy surfaces, sunken eyes, and knobby ears they look like massive versions of miniature clay figurines fashioned by hand, although they also seem very light, made, perhaps, of paper-mâché covering chicken wire structures. In fact, one is  made of bronze and the other of wood, which means they are classic, hard, and heavy, and this solidity, once you discover it, is startling and at odds with all their whimsy and loveliness. At once quizzical, attentive, expectant, and painfully self-conscious, these bears also seem so complex and humane as to be almost ridiculously touching. Nor do they appear to perform; instead they merely stand, but as they do they seem at once regal and deeply thoughtful: public figures glimpsed in a vulnerable moment of privacy and introspection. Even though made of tough materials, Chu’s bears also appear fragile and a little awkward, yet they are full of strange, alluring grace, like ancient and magical animal deities suddenly transported into and bewildered by a confusing modern world.

Anne Chu is among the most accomplished, and surely one of the most idiosyncratic, figurative sculptors of her generation, and her works, which expertly utilize multiple materials and techniques, allude to a broad array of world influences. The life-size terra-cotta soldiers excavated from the tomb of the third-century BC Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, folkloric masks and costumes from many cultures, various forms of puppetry, canonical European art history, Chinese Tang dynasty ceramics, and American pop culture knickknacks are just a few of her eclectic sources. What is remarkable is how Chu’s expertly crafted figures, including both animals and humans, seem simultaneously playful, solemn, and psychologically raw. They are enchanting but they also deal in complexities: our aspirations and anxieties, our ungainliness and aplomb.

 

Exhibitions | Bibliography

Exhibitions:
2008: The Puppet Show, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia/PA
2005: Anne Chu, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami/FL
2004: The 54th Annual Carnegie International Exhibition, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh/PA

Bibliography:
The Puppet Show, ed. by Ingrid Schaffner and Carin Kuoni, texts by Michael Taylor, Allen Weiss, and Claudia Gould, exh. cat. Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia/PA 2008
Anne Chu. Modes, Manners and Monsters, Zurich 2006
Anne Chu, text by Bonnie Clearwater, exh. cat. Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami/FL 2005