Louise Despont and Jennifer Bartlett Exhibitions Open Today at The Drawing Center

Louise Despont: Energy Scaffolds and Information Architecture and Jennifer Bartlett: Hospital will be on view at The Drawing Center in January 2016. The opening reception is set for tonight, January 21 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Energy Scaffolds and Information Architecture will be the first solo museum exhibition for Louise Despont, an artist best known for using compasses, stencils, and rulers to create intricate and deeply meditative drawings on ledger paper. For Energy Scaffolds and Information Architecture, The Drawing Center has commissioned a new site-specific architectural installation and several series of large-scale drawings that have been influenced by Despont's recent relocation to Bali.

The first architectural enclosure on view, entitled Pure Potential, will consist of a wooden façade covered by wooden dowels that create a textured and protective surface. For Despont, the series of eight Pure Potential drawings represent the transition of energy from formlessness into form. The second architectural space, which is oval in shape, will hold a monumental frieze drawing that is sixty feet in length, six feet in height, and composed of seven panels. The drawing depicts the relationship between a material form and a subtle body-the independent entity that manifests through the physical self.

As part of the installation, Despont will invite conceptual artist Aaron Taylor Kuffner to present his gamelatron, an original instrument created by Kuffner that is a robotic variant of the gamelan, the traditional Balinese and Javanese orchestra that includes vibraphones, drums, chimes, bells, and gongs

Concurrently in the Drawing Room gallery, Jennifer Bartlett: Hospital is the first museum exhibition of this new series of ten pastels made in 2012. The works are based on a series of photographs that Bartlett took during an extended stay at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and which she later cropped and edited in her studio. Bartlett has included pastels in other large-scale serial works like InThe Garden (1980) and Air: 24 Hours (1991-92). As well, pastels have acted as a sort of travelogue for Bartlett, with various series referencing places she has lived in or traveled to, including: Cape Cod, Bermuda, Aspen, Iceland, Mayeaux, Sun Valley, Amagansett, Brooklyn, and Manhattan.

With Hospital, Bartlett continues her long-established practice of close observation and responsiveness to her environment, but this time turns her attention to interior spaces and window views rather than landscapes, gardens, and atmospheric conditions. The drawings mine the liminal experience of "hospital time," long periods of waiting interspersed with highly organized routines of treatment, medication, and physical therapy. Both exhibits are curated by Brett Littman, Executive Director.

The Drawing Center, a museum in Manhattan's SoHo district, explores the medium of drawing as primary, dynamic, and relevant to contemporary culture, the future of art and creative thought. Its activities, which are both multidisciplinary and broadly historical, include exhibitions; Open Sessions, a curated artist program encouraging community and collaboration; the Drawing Papers publication series; and education and public programs.

The Drawing Center is located at 35 Wooster Street (btwn Broome and Grand St) in SoHo, New York. Hours: Wednesday-Sunday: 12pm-6pm; Thursday: 12pm-8pm. Tickets: Adults: $5; Students & Seniors: $3; Children under 12: Free. Thursdays 6-8pm free admission for all visitors. The Drawing Center is wheelchair accessible. Call 212.219.2166, email info@drawingcenter.org or visit drawingcenter.org for more information.

Pictured: Louise Despont, Energy Scaffolds and Information Architecture (Subtle and Circulatory, Male) (detail), 2015. Colored pencil and graphite on antique ledger book pages. 71 1/2 x 68 1/2, 12 ledger book pages. Courtesy of the artist and Nicelle Beauchene Gallery; Jennifer Bartlett, Hospital, 2012. Pastel on paper, 30 x 30 inches. Courtesy of Michael Forman and Jennifer Rice. Photo by Joseph Hu.