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Lara Schnitger
Dutch-American Sculpture, Painting
Dutch-American
(Haarlem, Netherlands, 1969 - )


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Biography

Lara Schnitger is a Dutch-American artist whose use of fabric in sculptures, banners, and paintings interrogates social codes and narratives. Borrowing from craft traditions, like patchwork and knitting, her handmade objects bear underlying gendered implications. Her figurative sculptures made of dowel rods pulling and stretching fabric into anthropomorphic shapes represent parodies of cultural stereotypes, while her banners and paintings explicitly pronounce themes of feminism, fashion, and sexuality in her work. In addition to gallery works, Schnitger has created performances such as Suffragette City (2016), a hybrid protest-procession in which volunteers carry her handmade banners and puppet-like sculptures in support of women’s rights.    

The sculpture Don’t Let the Boys Win is a cheerleader figure with orange faux fur arms extended above her head, a plaid skirt, and tennis ball feet. The play between the surface of the fabric and wooden supports produces a double-sided figure in an evocative and playful posture. Its hand sewn fabrics and intentionally rough edges are raw and unpolished, an homage to Schnitger’s activist inclinations.

This work is the first by Lara Schnitger to enter SJMA’s permanent collection.

Biography
Born in Harrlem, Netherlands in 1969, Schnitger lives and works in Los Angeles and Amsterdam. She has studied extensively, at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, Netherlands (1987 – 1991); Academy of Performing Arts, Prague, Czech Republic (1991 – 1992); de Ateliers, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1992 – 1994), and the Center for Contemporary Art, CCA Kitakyushu, Japan (1999 – 2000). Her work has been the focus of solo exhibitions at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Kunstwerke, Berlin; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, among others. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Magasin 3, Stockholm; Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway; MoMA PS1, New York; New Museum, New York; and Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. Schnitger also participated in the Liverpool Biennial (1999) and the Shanghai Biennial (2002).  (acquisitions meeting February 20, 2018)

Lara Schnitger is a Dutch-American sculptor and painter, living and working in Los Angeles and Amsterdam.
​​Galleries: Anton Kern Gallery, New York (haley@antonkerngallery.com), and Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Berlin
(marlen@galerie-gebr-lehmann.de)


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