Rachel Lee Hovnanian
| Rachel Lee Hovnanian | |
|---|---|
 Rachel Lee Hovnanian sculpting in Massa-Carrara, Italy 2015 | |
| Born | Parkersburg, West Virginia, U.S.[1] |
| 🎓 Alma mater | University of Texas[2] |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | sculpture, installation, painting, photography |
| 🌐 Website | rachelleehovnanian.com |
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Rachel Lee Hovnanian (Born August 25, 1959) is an American conceptual artist based in New York, New York,[3] who works primarily in painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed media installations.[4] Her work explores the complexities of modern feminism, perfectionism, and the effects of social media on contemporary culture. Hovnanian's art practice engages with the societal mores that reveal dichotomies between value systems and lived experiences.
Biography[edit]
Born in Parkersburg, West Virginia and raised in Houston, Texas, Hovnanian is the daughter of Edwy and Margaret Lee. Her father was a professor of literature at the University of Houston and Houston Community College, as well as a freelance writer. Her mother taught gourmet cooking and served on the board of the Houston YWCA. Both parents were involved in political reform movements and hosted many artists in their home. Hovnanian's upbringing played a critical role in the development of her artistic practice.[5]
Hovnanian attended the University of Texas, Austin, where she received a BFA in Studio Art in 1982.[6] Hovnanian has continued her education at the Parsons School of Design, New York, NY.[7]
Hovnanian currently resides and works in New York. She married Ara Hovnanian in 1985, and they have a son and a daughter.[8]
Work[edit]
The Women's Trilogy Project[edit]
In 2018, Rachel Lee Hovnanian showcased The Women's Trilogy Project at Leila Heller Gallery in Chelsea, a three-part concurrent exhibition that ran for six months.[9] With the trilogy, Hovnanian became the first living female artist to be offered three consecutive solo exhibitions in New York.[10]
(Redacted). Hovnanian created an immersive nighttime forest within the gallery space that included a campfire, tent, and a fiber-optic star ceiling.[11] Upon entering the exhibition, visitors were asked to surrender their cell phones in exchange for a lantern to enter the space alone. In its first iteration, exhibited at Spring/Break Art Show in 2015, Hovnanian created this exhibition under the male pseudonym Ray Lee, a childhood nickname that reflected her interest in stereotypically masculine outdoor pass-time like camping and fishing.[12]
Part II, Happy Hour, is a multimedia exhibition that explores domestic culture in relationship to alcoholism through a series of paintings, works on paper and an installation. The exhibition is Hovnanian's reflection on her childhood in the American South that employs the narrative style of Dick and Jane, along with iconography borrowed from Girl Scout and debutante traditions. Hovnanian uses the series to explore the relationship between alcoholism and the domestic order.[13]
Part III, PURE, is an interactive exhibition that explores societal ideals of perfection and purity, engaging with the effects of social media on contemporary culture. The exhibition investigates notions of self-esteem in reference to social media usage. PURE presents Ivory soap casts as icons of societal pressures towards perfection that were modeled from the artist's larger Ivory soap marble sculpture. Participants were invited to select a plaster soap cast from the gallery space, inscribe it with a negative thought, and break the cast with a mallet as a catharsis.[14]
Plastic Perfect[edit]
Hovnanian's 2014 exhibition Plastic Perfect engaged with concepts of narcissism, obsession, and intimacy in a collection of installations, sculpture, video, and photography. The exhibition explored the intersection between natural and artificial worlds as it pertains to digital technology. Plastic Perfect asked viewers to confront their own relationships with the medium.[15]
The exhibition consisted of three large-scale installations, Perfect Baby Showroom, In Loco Parentis, and Foreplay. Perfect Baby Showroom is an interactive installation that allowed participants to select an "ideal" baby from a menu of infants resting in bassinets. The space imagines a future in which parents, immersed in their digital devices, go to a showroom to select a genetically-customizable infant.[16]
C.R.E.E.P.S.[edit]
In 2014, Hovnanian presented her site-specific performance and video installation, C.R.E.E.P.S., overlooking New York City's High Line Park.[17] The projected video featured three masked women in cloaks that appeared to eavesdrop and laugh at pedestrians on the street level. C.R.E.E.P.S. comments on the increasingly virtual nature of human interaction in the 21st century.
New Year's Feast[edit]
In its first iteration, Hovnanian presented her installation New Year's Feast in Beijing, China. Hovnanian created a multi-generational family dinner scene in which each person was present as their likeness on vertical tablet screens mounted to their respective chairs. The audio consists solely of notification sounds emanating from various digital devices.[18] New Year's Feast speaks to both the alienating aspects of smartphone use and new forms of connection fostered by the internet. With this work, Hovnanian suggests that the ubiquitous nature of online access may constitute the foundations of new creative thought.
Exhibitions[edit]
Solo Exhibitions[edit]
- 2019 - Rachel Lee Hovnanian, The Medici Palace, Seravezza, Italy
- 2018 -The Women's Trilogy Project, Leila Heller Gallery, New York, NY
- 2017 - (The Ray Lee Project Vol 1): NDD Immersion Room, Victori + Mo, Brooklyn, NY
- 2014 - Plastic Perfect, Leila Heller Gallery, New York, NY
- 2014 - Plastic Perfect, Pechersky Gallery, Moscow, Russia
- 2014 - New Year's Feast: Beijing, Joyce Gallery, Beijing, China
- 2013 - Rachel Lee Hovnanian: Power, Beauty, Narcissism, Imago Galleries, Palm Springs, CA
- 2012 - Mud Pie, Leila Heller Gallery, New York, NY
- 2012 - Too Good to be True, Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong, China
- 2011 - American Beauty: Too Good to be True, Foundation Pons, Barcelona, Spain
- 2010 - Too Good to be True, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL
- 2009 - Power and Burden of Beauty, Jason McCoy Gallery, New York, NY
- 2005 - Preservation of the Narcissus, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, TX
- 2001 - Isolation Beauty, David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY
Selected Group Exhibitions[edit]
- 2019 - Furies, Fairies, Visionaries, Pen + Brush Gallery, New York, NY
- 2019 - OFF-SPRING: New Generations, 21c Museum Hotels, Lexington, KY
- 2018 - Verdure, Leila Heller Gallery, New York, NY
- 2018 - The Ideal Feminine/The Feminine Ideal?, Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY
- 2017 - Fool the Eye, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, NY
- 2017 - TICK-TOCK: Time In Contemporary Art, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY
- 2015 - Art AM 3 (Artisti Americani e Non), Galleria Spazio Soncino, Soncino, Italy
- 2013 - Transparencies: Contemporary Art and a History of Glass, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA
- 2011 - Tender is the Night, Marine Contemporary, Venice Beach, CA
- 2011 - Public Exhibition, Manarat al Sadiyaat, Abu Dhabi, UAE
- 2010 - Think Pink, Curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody, Gavlak Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
- 2009 - Parades and Processions: Here Comes Everybody, Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, London, UK[19]
Bibliography[edit]
- Bob Morris, Nature with Chirps, but No Tweets The New York Times, March 2018
- Natalie Proulx, How Do You Get Your Nature Fix? The New York Times Learning Network, March 2018
- Rebecca Milzoff, Rachel Lee Hovnanian's Ambitious 'The Women's Trilogy Project' Probes the Complexities of Modern Feminism Departures Magazine, July 2018
- Julie Belcove, Rachel Lee Hovnanian's Art is Probing and Provocative 1stdibs, June 2018
- Sarah Hassan, This Woman's Work Harper's Bazaar Art, July 2018
- Daniel Kunitz, Rachel Lee Hovnanian's Women's Trilogy Project Arrives at Leila Heller Cultured Magazine, April 2018
- Paige Silveria, American Woman INPRINT, August 2018
- Kelly Laffey, Escape the Room - If You Want To Avenue Magazine, March 2018
- Daniel Kunitz, Why Meditating Might Make You a Better Artist Artsy, May 2018
- Mary Alice Stephenson, Is This Happening in Your Bedroom? What Foreplay Looks Like Now Huffington Post, April 2015
- Dorothy Spears, Rachel Lee Hovnanian BOMB Magazine, November 2014
- Rachel Small, Rachel Lee Hovnanian Versus the Future Interview Magazine, September 2014
- Maura Egan, Valley of the Dolls The New York Times - T Magazine, June 2010
References[edit]
- ↑ Desk, BWW News. "Marylyn Dintenfass and Rachel Lee Hovnanian Set for 'TOXIC BEAUTY' Talk Today".
- ↑ "UTexas Austin's Department of Art and Art History's website".
- ↑ Morris, Bob (March 22, 2018). "Nature With Chirps, but No Tweets". The New York Times.
- ↑ "Rachel Lee Hovnanian's Woman's Trilogy Project Arrives at Leila Heller". Cultured Magazine. 2018-04-19. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
- ↑ Spears, Dororthy (November 6, 2014). "Rachel Lee Hovnanian". bombmagazine.org.
- ↑ "Multi-part exhibition from alumna Rachel Lee Hovnanian featured at Leila Heller Gallery - Department of Art and Art History - The University of Texas at Austin". Department of Art and Art History - University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
- ↑ "Rachel Hovnanian Bio". www.jasonmccoyinc.com. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
- ↑ "Rachel Lee Is Married To Ara K. Hovnanian". The New York Times. 1985-02-24. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
- ↑ "Rachel Lee Hovnanian's Woman's Trilogy Project Arrives at Leila Heller". Cultured Magazine. 2018-04-19. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
- ↑ "Rachel Lee Hovnanian's Ambitious 'The Women's Trilogy Project' Probes the Complexities of Modern Feminism". Departures. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
- ↑ "A Return to Nature". Office Magazine. 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
- ↑ "Unbelievable Installations Dominate SPRING/BREAK". artnet News. 2017-03-01. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
- ↑ "Rachel Lee Hovnanian : The Women's Trilogy Project". Musée Magazine. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
- ↑ "Artist Rachel Lee Hovnanian Gives a Tour of "Pure"". Cultured Magazine. 2018-07-03. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
- ↑ "Rachel Lee Hovnanian Versus The Future". Interview Magazine. 2014-09-02. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
- ↑ McCarthy, Lauren; McCarthy, Lauren (2014-09-02). "Artist Rachel Lee Hovnanian Discusses 'Plastic Perfect'". WWD. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
- ↑ "The Chelsea Art Tour Recap". Vulture. 2014-05-01. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
- ↑ Owen, Lorna (2014-10-19). "A Virtual Feast". MOUSE INTERRUPTED. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
- ↑ "Rachel Lee Hovnanian - Artists - Leila Heller Gallery". www.leilahellergallery.com. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
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