Regen Projects is pleased to present “Stars Don’t Stand Still in the Sky: A Tribute to Lawrence Weiner“. Weiner contributed greatly to the art of our time, helping to shape contemporary expectations of what art is, how it is seen, and how it is made. This group exhibition explores the scope of this influence, presenting Weiner’s work alongside works by his contemporaries, his friends and collaborators, as well as a younger generation of artists.
Weiner’s influence on the history of art, and more specifically within the pantheon of Conceptual artists of the late 1960s and early 1970s, is unquestionable. This tribute brings together works by many of the artists who shared in this generative moment— one that saw the birth of new kinds of autonomous artworks that sought to break the bond between idea and object. Works by artists such as Robert Barry, Stanley Brouwn, Daniel Buren, John Baldessari, Mel Bochner, Hanne Darboven, Joseph Kosuth, Barry Le Va, Sol LeWitt, and Dennis Oppenheim will illustrate the rich moment out of which Weiner’s signature work emerged.
A pioneering figure who ushered in the dematerialization of the art object, Weiner’s commitment to the primacy of language was equally instrumental in changing the course of contemporary art. Open-ended, poetic, and profound, the statements that formed Weiner’s lexicon, and his concept of language as visual art, have become fundamental to the contemporary art vernacular. The exhibition illustrates how Weiner’s groundbreaking ideas extended far beyond the genre of Conceptual art to impact emerging movements as well as the work of subsequent generations of artists using the written word as material. Works by Charles Gaines, Jenny Holzer, Glenn Ligon, Bruce Nauman, Jack Pierson, Ed Ruscha, Sable Elyse Smith, and others will make these connections visible.
Others featured in the exhibition belong to the vast, global network of friends and collaborators that Weiner fostered during his lifetime—artists such as Birgir Andrésson, Matthew Barney, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Isa Genzken, Liam Gillick, Franka Hörnschemeyer, Jacqueline Humphries, Stephen Prina, De Wain Valentine, and Christopher Williams.
Finally, the show will include a display of approximately 150 publications and posters Weiner produced during his lifetime, alongside a selection of ephemera.
“Stars Don’t Stand Still in the Sky: A Tribute to Lawrence Weiner” will include works by Doug Aitken, Carl Andre, Birgir Andrésson, Art & Language, John Baldessari, Matthew Barney, Robert Barry, Kevin Beasley, Walead Beshty, Mel Bochner, John Bock, Stanley Brouwn, Daniel Buren, Alan Charlton, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Hanne Darboven, Charles Gaines, Isa Genzken, Liam Gillick, Rachel Harrison, Franka Hörnschemeyer, Jenny Holzer, Alex Hubbard, Douglas Huebler, Jacqueline Humphries, Joseph Kosuth, Liz Larner, Clarence John Laughlin, Louise Lawler, Barry Le Va, Sol LeWitt, Glenn Ligon, Lee Lozano, Gordon Matta-Clark, John McCracken, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Catherine Opie, Dennis Oppenheim, Raymond Pettibon, Jack Pierson, Sigmar Polke, Stephen Prina, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Sable Elyse Smith, Robert Smithson, Miroslav Tichý, Wolfgang Tillmans, De Wain Valentine, Gillian Wearing, Lawrence Weiner, James Welling, Christopher Williams, and Sue Williams. The exhibition will also include an early film by Weiner featuring Kathryn Bigelow, as well as a collaboration between Weiner and Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton. Ultimately, the full extent of Weiner’s influence is impossible to encapsulate, and there are countless others who could not be represented here whose work shares an affinity to Weiner’s groundbreaking ideas.
