Worry Beads
Loren Madsen
Opening Reception with the Artist:
October 29th, 2020 from 6 - 7pm
RSVP on our home page to get the invite!
Data Art
In the early 1990s in NYC, I was struck by how my students' experience as young artists differed so radically from my own. They paid unthinkable rents and equally unthinkable tuition. They could not, as I did thirty years previously, work sporadically to finance full time in the studio
I graphed historical trends in housing, food and fuel costs then and now, and, realizing the numbers could—like numerical dimensions—be turned into a sculpture I made CPI, an example of the process of data art I've followed since. Other personal interests led to research, analysis and artworks: the historical relationship of defense versus social spending; marriage and birth rates; the murder rate in contrast to incarceration rate (one of every 150 Americans is in jail).
What you see here are some of my inquiries exposing themselves as art. Along with purely expressive, non-referential sculpture, I still pursue clarification through 3D "charts."
I hope that, even if you are not engaged by the data, you might still enjoy the formal aspects of the pieces.
Meet The Artist
Loren Madsen (1943-) was born in Oakland, CA and graduated high school in Seattle, WA. He attended Reed College in Portland, OR and graduated from UCLA with an MA in 1970 where he majored in art and art history. In 1977 Madsen moved from the west coast to NYC, where he would live for 30 years, to pursue a very successful career in the arts. In 2005, he and his family moved back to northern California to a parcel of land that he had purchased in the 1970s. He still lives there with his wife in a home that he built.
His first solo exhibition in 1973 consisted of sculptures made of bricks and wood suspended, propped, or balanced in studies of courtervailing forces. An earthquake destroyed the show before it opened. Despite this divine intervention, Madsen continued to create these early sculptures, which mutated into large site-specific installations that currently exist only in photographs.
By the early 1990s, however, he found that theater was not enough and he wanted his work to embody a more explicit narrative. This led to the creation of a large installation titled “Missing
Matter” that summarized what he knew and felt about issues cosmological. By 1994 Madsen was using the Statistical Abstract of the U.S. and other sources to turn data into sculpture and prints. As the artist says, “These sculptures are broadly historical if the viewer chooses to engage with the information and abstract if the viewer does not. The subjects of my interest are purely personal (and, OK, political)”.
The current exhibition here at the “Virtual” Haldan Art Gallery at Lake Tahoe Community College, titled “Worry Beads”, is based on one large, site-specific, sculpture that is made of wood-carved “beads” and strung together like a beaded chain. Each bead, one for every year since 1945, is scaled at one cubic centimeter per human life. The volume of each is set by the number of terrorist-caused deaths for that year globally. The whole is about 40’ long and the largest bead (representing the year 2014) is 19 inches in diameter. The sculpture ends with 2017. This piece along with other sculptures comprise this solo exhibition by Loren Madsen.
Interview from VIS'18, Toward a Design Language for Data Physicalization
Biographical Data and Resume
Born: Oakland, CA, 1943
Reed College, Portland, OR, 1961-63
B.A., U.C.L.A., 1966
M.A., U.C.L.A., 1970
Resides: Northern California
One Person Shows (* indicates catalogue)
2019 Worry Beads, Willits Center for the Arts, Willits, Ca
2014 An Artist Collects, Mendocino College, Ukiah, Ca
2009 Wheel of Fortune *, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburg, PA
(with Ryan Alexiev and Hank Willis Thomas)
2005 Six Billion Monkeys, Lafayette College, Easton, PA
god&demons, McKee Gallery, New York, NY
2000 Crime And Punishment, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
1999 Six Billion Monkeys *, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY
American Playhouse, Drury College, Springfield, MO
1998 David McKee Gallery, New York, N.Y.
Art First, London, England
1996 David McKee Gallery, New York, N.Y.
1992 David McKee Gallery, New York, N.Y.
1991 Cheryl Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
1990 David McKee Gallery, New York, N.Y.
1986 David McKee Gallery *, New York, N.Y.
1984 Miami Dade Community College, Miami, FL
David McKee Gallery, New York, N.Y.
1982 David McKee Gallery, New York, N.Y.
1981 University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
1980 Wright State University, Dayton, OH
Hansen-Fuller-Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1978 L.A. Louver Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Zolla-Lieberman Gallery, and Grant Park, Chicago. IL
1977 David McKee Gallery, New York, N.Y.
1976 David McKee Gallery, New York, N.Y.
Site, San Francisco, CA
L.A. Louver Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1975 Projects: Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y.
1974 Riko Mizuno Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1973 Riko Mizuno Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Selected Group Shows (* indicates catalogue)
2018 Cloverdale Sculpture Trail, Cloverdale, CA
2017 Hold These Truths*, NLE, New York, NY
2016 Structural Integrity, Eugene Binder Gallery, Marfa, TX
2015 Drawing in L.A.: The 1960s and 1970s, L.A. County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Sculpture Trail, Cloverdale - Geyserville, Geyserville, CA
2014 Once Upon a Time, There Was the End, Center for Book Arts, NY, NY
2012 CANY, Nora Fisch Contemporary Art, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Data Deluge, Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX
2011 SiTE:LAB* / ArtPrize , Grand Rapids, MI
Momentum, Napa, CA
Library Science, New Haven, CT
2004 Voice of Site*, Tokyo, Japan
2003 Letterform, Text and Image, Reed College, Portland, OR
2002 9/11 Memorial Exhibition*, VA Museum, New York
2001 All Systems Go, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston
Contemporary Collectors XVI, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
2000 Precious Metals*, Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO (traveled)
New, McKee Gallery, New York, NY
1999 Actual Size*, Apex Art C.P., New York, NY
1999 Best of the Season *, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CN
1998 Masters of the Masters*, Butler Inst. of American Art, Youngstown, OH
1997 World Views, Deutsche Bank, New York, NY
Wall Pieces, McKee Gallery, New York, NY
1997 79-97, VA Gallery, New York, NY
1995 2nd Fujisankei Biennale Competition*, Hakone Museum, Japan
1994 Newport Harbor Art Museum, Highlights of Permanent Collection
1993 Nature for Art's Sake, LaSalle Partners, Charlotte, NC
1992 Technorama*, Barbara Toll Gallery, New York, NY (11,769 drawings produced)
1991 Loren Madsen/James Adley, Albion College, Albion, MI
McKee Gallery, New York, NY
1990 McKee Gallery, New York, NY
1990 New Sculpture, Eve Mannes Gallery, Atlanta, GA
1989 David McKee Gallery, New York, NY
Selected Recent Acquisitions, Mt. Holyoke College Art Mus., S. Hadley, MA
1988 David McKee Gallery, New York, NY
1987 Computer Assisted *, Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Reading, PA
1986 Courtesy David McKee, Pamela Auchincloss Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
1986 A Southern California Collection, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1985 10*, University Gallery, U. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
1984 American Sculpture, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Preparation and Proposition, Islip Art Museum, East Islip, N.Y.
1983 New Talent Award Winners/20 Years*,
L.A. County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1982 Shift L.A./N.Y.*, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA
1980 New Drawings, David McKee Gallery, New York, N.Y.
Maquettes and Small Works, Diane Brown Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Sculpture in California,
1975-80*, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
Stacking, Rigging, Binding: 10 Contemporary Sculptors*, Washington Project for the Arts,
Washington, D.C.
1979 Directions*, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Annual Award Competition Show, American Academy and Inst. of Arts and Letters,
New York, N.Y.
Aspects of Abstract, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
1978 Constructs, Organization of Independent Artists, NY
1977 L.A. in the Seventies*, Fort Worth Museum of Art, Fort Worth, TX
Private Images-Photos by Sculptors, L.A. County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1976 Sculpture Made in Place*, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
New Selections/New Talent Award Winners, L.A. County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
The Biennale of Sculpture*, Sydney, Australia
Drawing, photo, video studies, LA Louver, Venice, CA
Sequence, Site, San Francisco, CA
1975 The Condition of Sculpture*, Hayward Gallery, London, England
Drawings, Tortue Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1974 L.A. 6/Summer '74, L.A. County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Ca 90291, Baxter Art Gallery, Cal. Inst. Of Technology, Pasadena, CA
Constructions, Long Beach CC, Long Beach, CA
Eight West side Artists, Cal State San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA
1973 Sculptural Invitational, College of Marin, Kentfield, CA
Museum Collections
Anderson Collection at Stanford, CA
Akron Art Institute, Akron, OH
Georges Pompidou Center, Paris, France
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, N.Y.
Hakone Open-Air Museum, Japan
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Karl Stirner Arts Trail, Easton, PA
L.A. County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Mt. Holyoke College, S. Hadley, MA
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y.
Orange Co. Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
San Angelo Museum of Fine Art, San Angelo, TX
Vancouver Museum of Art, Vancouver, Canada
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Awards
New Talent Purchase Award, The Modern and Contemporary Art Council of the L.A. County Museum of Art, 1975
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant, 1975-76
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant, 1980-81
Honorable Mention, Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Competition, 1981
Pollock-Krasner Grant, 2004
Major Permanent Sculpture Installations
2015 Capital One Tech Ctr, San Francisco, Ca
Karl Stirner Arts Trail, Easton, Pa
2014 District 5 Police Station, Chicago, IL
1997 JR Kinshicyo Station, Sumida Ward, Tokyo, Japan
1991 LaGuardia Community College, Long Island City, NY
1990 Pacific Enterprises, Los Angeles, CA
1986 Schering Pharmaceutical Research Facility, Kenilworth, N.J.
1985 Quorum, Dallas, TX
Horton Plaza, San Diego, CA
Chevy Chase Metro Building, Chevy Chase, MD
1984 Brookhollow Atrium, San Antonio, TX
RepublicBank San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
1983 Nursing Home, V.A. Hospital, Hines (Chicago), IL
1981 SSA Metro West, Baltimore, MD (GSA)
Area 2 Police Center, Chicago, IL
1st Bank Atrium, Pillsbury Center, Minneapolis, MN 1980
Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA
1979 Michael's Restaurant, Santa Monica, CA
Prudential Insurance Company, Woodland, Hills, CA
(new sculpture for destroyed original)
1977 L.A. County Museum of Art Sculpture Garden, Los Angeles, CA
Prudential Insurance Company, Woodland Hills, CA
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Beverly Hills, CA
1974 Prudential Insurance Company, Florham Park, N.J.