Joel Shapiro at L.A. Louver Gallery, Los Angeles

Joel Shapiro, Untitled, 2013, wood, casein, and cord installation, Joel Shapiro, L.A. Louver, Los Angeles, © Joel Shapiro. Courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, CA

For an established sculptor to begin working in installation over the course the last decade could be dismissed as an obligatory gesture, an appeal to dominant trends in the art world. In the case of Joel Shapiro, it should be interpreted rather as a development of his preexisting concern with scale. His untitled installation, featured in a new solo show at L.A. Louver, occupies a full room with colorful rectilinear forms. Suspended from the ceiling and walls, they complicate their own relations of scale. As the viewer navigates the space, the perceived size of the components becomes mutable, and the effect of parallax presents a myriad of fictive spaces, an experience enhanced by the variety of color. The effect is almost pictorial, but always remains in a mutually subversive relationship with the physical space of the gallery walls. It manages to challenge the confines of the architecture without disguising it, or, with the exception of one form which ventures into the reception area, literally exceeding it. Likewise, the materiality of the wooden components and the means of their suspension are not entirely hidden. This contributes to an innervating tension and sense of provisional play. The effect is not merely formal. It subtly connotes the growing ubiquity of virtually simulated space in our culture, lending the work a context broader than the art world. Still, Shapiro’s intent is far from mimetic, and the pervasive tension between real and imagined space accomplished in the installation is an experience alien to digital media.

Joel Shapiro, Untitled, 2013, wood and casein, Joel Shapiro, LA Louver, Los Angeles, © Joel Shapiro. Courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, CA

Shapiro has long insisted, through his work and words, that a sculpture can impart a sense of scale apart from its literal size. His more recent work in installation seems a consummate expression of this idea. His sculptures of the 1970s, simple miniature houses, chairs, and other recognizable objects, relied on our associations of scale to create intimate, singular worlds. His recent work leaves representational content behind and creates plural worlds for the attentive and imaginative viewer.

The installation is not the only work featured in this two-story show, though it is perhaps the most arresting, and the other sculpture is certainly informed by it. In a small room abutting the installation, a cluster like aggregation of wood presents both casein painted and raw wood planes. The sawhorses that present the piece don’t quite accomplish the tension of the installation, but the obvious material relationship does playfully elide the distinction between sculpture and support. Other pieces, bronzes presented on pedestals, are more traditionally sculptural, but acquire optical connotations in light of the installation. Their geometric constitution began to imply pixels. This association, combined with their more overt reference to the human figure, was somewhat reminiscent of certain of Antony Gormley’s recent sculptures, though imbued with a greater sense of movement.

Installation View: Joel Shapiro, LA Louver Gallery, © Joel Shapiro. Courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, CA

Despite employing less overt tactics than in his early work, Shapiro continues to investigate concerns that transcend the merely aesthetic. Behind accessible whimsy, rich formal and conceptual territory is explored with a focused and mature economy.

Joel Shapiro at L.A. Louver, Los Angeles, through January 11th, 2014