Ceysson & Bénétière

Laska, who might be previously best known as half of the New York sound band I.U.D. takes an almost improvisatory musical process to her paintings, creating dissonance and harmonies inside the structure of a frame. And framing is a device she uses for effect, whether applying the outline of a frame in paint or nailing different-size canvases against each other in box-like grids. In one painting, a fragmented canvas is framed by an old T-shirt, almost like a straight jacket, emphasizing the strain put on enclosure. In other works, the commitment to the rectangle breaks loose. "I keep fighting against the framework and the shape of the canvas and whether it should adhere to the structure of a stretched form, "she says. "Many of the pieces I make end up getting pulled apart again. I’ve accepted that as part of my process that everything might not come together until the final moment."

Christopher Bollen, Interview Magazine

December 12, 2013

In her first New York solo show, Laska's scuffed and mistreated paintings are evidence of a loving gratitude to Arte Povera and Art Brut; but the anarchic compositions are teeming with energy. Punkish filching, toward creations of dry brushy blocks of magenta, purple and yellow, with passages and coated colors that equal depth, space, and joy in excess. Variant in scale and shape, these intimate paintings manipulate their edges with a reckless abandon that breaks the rigid geometry of a stretched frame.

Fetishistic, scrappy and brimming with chaotic intensity, often liberated off of and out from the picture plane, Sadie Laska's emotionally charged inner landscapes contain multitudes, including, but not limited to, recycled bits of paint, stains, staples, umbrella parts, cardboard, lightbulb screw caps, and earphones. Embracing the uncertain, images are inverted and corrupted, conveying the timbre of Robert Rauschenberg's combines through a disheveled and wholly contemporary layering. With an honest and insouciant debt to truly underground cultures that are foreign to "fine" art, cheap trash is glued to and hanging off the works, at odds with and in revolt against the current status quo.

This is an art of straightforward accretion and an expressive gestural language, canceling and in turn brashly reconstructing interpretive possibilities. Cluttered, grubby, and untidy remnants proliferate, with a nod to Abstract Expressionism at its most vulgar. Events and actions are created with a vigorous velocity of line and grimy abstraction, forging unstable compositions full of aggressive and fast-and-furious stabs of color. Reversing orientation and loving the destruction of the painting's previous states, Laska's captivating degenerative forms are manifested in gnarly canvases that unashamedly record their own making.

Solo shows at Ceysson Gallery
Sadie Laska, Saint-Etienne
March 04 - April 22, 2023

Sadie Laska, Saint-Etienne
September 28 - December 16, 2017

Sadie Laska, Luxembourg
September 26 - December 05, 2015

Sadie Laska , Genève
March 20 - May 17, 2014

Sadie Laska, Paris
December 08, 2012 - January 26, 2013


Group shows at Ceysson Gallery
LuLLabIES, New York
March 20 - May 01, 2021

The Spaces In Between, New York
September 09 - November 07, 2020

Spring Saint-Étienne, Saint-Etienne
June 12 - July 25, 2020

Spring Paris, Paris
May 18 - July 23, 2020

10 YEARS in Luxembourg, Wandhaff
June 02 - August 04, 2018

Inflatable tear, New York
January 23 - February 24, 2018

Feed the Meter, Wandhaff
September 23 - December 16, 2017

Combustible Cocktail, Offsite
July 08 - July 30, 2017

IOWA, Paris
October 20 - December 10, 2016

FEED THE METER, Wandhaff
September 26, 2015 - January 30, 2016

Special Guest New York, Offsite
September 08 - September 28, 2015

La Ligne Passée, Luxembourg
June 30 - September 16, 2012

La Ligne Passée, Luxembourg Art Moderne
June 30 - September 15, 2012

CANADA, Paris
March 17 - May 07, 2011

Solo shows  

2020 

Erehwon, Canada gallery, New York, United States 

2017 

Nudes, Ceysson & Bénétière, Saint-Étienne, France 

2016 

Rock Solid, Office Baroque gallery, Brussels, Belgium 

A Foot, Some Guns, A Boot, Some Hands, Some Lips, A Breast, & A Snail, 56 Henry, New York, United States

2015 

Plain Air, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Luxembourg

I Clouded, CANADA Gallery, New York, United States 

2014 

Play it as it Lays, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Geneva, Switzerland 

2013 

SAROJANE, Kerry Schuss, New York, United States  

2012 

Sadie Laska, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Paris, France 

Group shows (Selection)   

2021 

Deep blue, curated by Katherine Bradford, Hall art foundation, Reading, United States 

2020  

The space in between, Ceysson & Bénétière, New York, United States  

Printemps, Galerie Ceysson & Bénétière, Paris, France 

Printemps, Galerie Ceysson & Bénétière, Saint-Étienne, France 

2019 

Bushwick Rodeo, Horton Gallery, Texas, United States  

2018 

True Colours, Newport Street Gallery, London, United-Kingdom

Inflatable Tear, Ceysson & Bénétière, New York, United States 

I Am A Scientist, curated by Sadie Laska, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark 

2017 

Animal Farm, curated by Sadie Laska, The Brant Foundation, Greenwich, United States  

Unobstructed Views, MoCAD, Hawkins Ferry House, Grosse Point Shores, United States  

Based on true story, Galerie Derouillon, Paris, France 

Feed the Meter Vol. II, curated by Wallace Whitney, Ceysson & Bénétière, Wandhaff, Luxembourg 

Sleeping on the Skin of a Nightmare, Romeo, New York, United States 

UNDERCOVER BOSS, Reyes Projects, Birmingham, United States 

Nude, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark 

Bluets, Burning In Water, New York, United States  

2016 

IOWA, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Paris, France 

Make Painting Great Again, CANADA gallery, New York, United States  

2015 

Call and response, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York, United States  

Justin Aidan/Sadie Laska/Leo Fitzpatrick, United Artists, Ltc., Marfa, United States  

Feed the Meter, curated by Wallace Whitney, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Luxembourg 

Special Guest, curated by Bernard Ceysson, Zürcher Gallery, New York , United States  

Call and Response, Gavin Brown Enterprise, New York, United States  

Slam Section, Gallery Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm, Sweden 

2014 

Laska & Magenheimer, Which arbitrary thing are you ?, Cleopatra's, Brooklyn, New York, United States  

Beware of the Stares, 246356, Brookyn, New York, United States  

Sadie Laska and Jesse Littlefield, Harper's Books, East Hampton, New York, United States  

Café Dancer Pop-Up, Edlin Gallery, New York, United States  

Edge of Continuation, Pablo's Birthday, New York, United States  

Bakerman, IUD collaborative exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tuscon, United States  

Summer : 2014, Kerry Schuss, New York, United States  

2013 

The Cat Show, White Columns, New York, United States  

Greetings From Bitburg, Galerie Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France 

2012 

La Ligne Passée, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Luxembourg 

Le Confort Moderne, Galerie Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France 

Suggested Destination, Basilica, Hudson, New York, United States  

2011 

READYKEULOUS, The Hurtful Healer, Invisible Exports, New York, United States  

Scruffy, KS ART, New York, United States  

Dirt Don't Hurt, Jolie Laide Gallery, Philadelphia, United States  

STREET TRASH, Intersection of Commercial Street, Brooklyn, United States  

CANADA, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Paris, France 

2010 

Dirty Hands, Soloway Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, United States  

Clean Break, Charlie Horse Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, United States  

In There, Out Here, Leo Koenig Projekte, New York, United States  

2009 

Spaced Out/On Time, CANADA Gallery, New York, United States  

If The Darks Are Barking, Apartment Show, Artist Space, New York, United States  

Circle of Friends, Vacant Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 

A Dry Run, Charlie Horse, Brooklyn, United States  

Coco Loco, Stairwell Gallery, Providence, United States  

2008 

The Dark Age, Stairwell Gallery, Providence, United States  

Gold is the New Metal, Stairwell Gallery, Providence, United States  

2005 

Red, White and Blue, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York, United States  

I Throw Herring to the Dog, CANADA Gallery, New York, United States  

Performances (Selection) 

2015 

Performance IUD, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Wandhaff, Luxembourg 

2013 

Performance IUD, Kunsthalle, Zurich, Switzerland 

Performance IUD, Sunday Sessions, Moma PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, United States  

2012 

Performance IUD, EMERGENCY CHEESECAKE, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA 

2011 

IUD performance, Astrup Fearnley, Oslo, Norway 

2010 

"Finger It", video screening, Cinders Gallery, New York, United States  

Performance IUD Printed Matter Benefit, Deitch Projects, Long Island City, New York, United States  

2009 

Sound Wreckage Volume 1, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York, United States  

Performance IUD for the Constraction Show, Deitch Projects, New York, United States  

2008 

Performance IUD for WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, Moma PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York, United States  

Performance IUD, in collaboration with Nick Relph and Oliver Payne, Galerie Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France 

Performance IUD for Jekyll Island, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, United States  

2007 

Performance IUD, The Swiss Institute, New York, United States 

Selected Bibliography

Upcoming
Sadie Laska, by Ceysson Éditions d'Art

2017
Trinie Dalton. "Peter's Farm." Artforum, May 17, 2017

2016
Editors "Collectors Susan and Michael Hort's Picks from FIAC 2016." Artspace.com, October 22, 2016

"Make Painting Great Again." The New Yorker, June 29, 2016

Andrew Nunes. "CANADA is Making Painting Great Again." The Creators Project: Vice Magazine, June 22, 2016

Jerry Saltz. "I Love Canada’s 17-Artist State-of-the-Medium Spectacle "Make Painting Great Again." It Also Makes Me Worry for the Fate of the Lower East Side.." Vulture.com, June 14, 2016

"The Six Most Exciting Exhibitions at Independent Brussels." The New York Times Magazine, April 24, 2016

2015
Scott Indrisek. "5 Must-See Gallery Shows: JJ PEET, Huma Bhaba, and More." BLOUIN ARTINFO, June 22, 2015

2014
Boudreau, Alice. "Expositions, Sadie Laska." Go Out Magazine, Geneva, #19

2013
Bollen, Christopher. "The New Abstract", Interview Magazine, December

2011
Heinrich, Will. "Avoiding the Subject: 'Scruffy' at KS ART and 'Walking Forward- Running Past' at Art in General", New York Observer, November 1.

2010
Theme Magazine, issue 22, July, 2010

2009
"Spaced Out/On Time", NY Times, September 25, 2009
"IUD", ANP Quarterly Vol / No 2
"Womb and Doom", New York Press, March 24, 2009

2008
"The Softer Sex Gets Hard", USELESS Magazine, Fall 2008
"Next Wave New York", Interview Magazine, September 2008 2007 Kelsey, John. "Top Ten", Artforum December 2007

Publications
"Catholic No. 1, Cats", Evil Twin