Nicole Eisenman Understudies

a swirly frosting-like surface of white plaster on a burlap wrapped panel shows the finger marks of nicole eisenman, the artist who sculpted a rough, slightly abstracted face out of it. from a group titled understudies, on view at anton kern gallery in early 2025

I’m a fan of Nicole Eisenman, I’m a fan of time between making something and showing it. And from the online preview, at least, I am a fan of these Understudies, plaster on burlap sculptures Eisenman made in 2012, which feel classic and new. I think they came from a month-long plaster-soaked residency at Studio Voltaire full of figural sculptures made onsite—and seemingly stuck there. So maybe the Understudies were the only thing that made it out.

a gallery space in a repurposed church-like hall in london with a high beamed ceiling and three gothic pointed windows on the end wall has white walls and a light grey floor, which is splattered with plaster, particularly around the roughly made, awkardly shaped and posed plaster figures in the space, a clear sign the artworks were made there. on the wall is a 3x3 grid of plaster headlike shapes, flat on burlap wrapped board, some more obviously faces than others. a 2012 show by nicole eisenman at studio voltaire.
installation view of ‘Tis but a scratch’ ‘A scratch?! Your arm’s off!’ ‘No, it isn’t’, Nicole Eisenman’s exhibition at Studio Voltaire, London, Sept-Dec 2012, photo: Andy Keate

The figures in that show seem now like ancestors of Eisenman’s 2017 installation at Sculpture Projekte Münster. So plaster and Eisenman have been for each other.

Nicole Eisenman, Plastered, 22 Jan – 6 Mar 2025 at Anton Kern Gallery [antonkerngallery]
Nicole Eisenman, ‘Tis but a scratch’ ‘A scratch?! Your arm’s off!’ ‘No, it isn’t’, Sep-Dec 2012 [studiovoltaire.org]
Nicole Eisenman, Sketch for a Fountain, 2017 [scultpure-projekte-archiv.de]