Matthew Barney: Secondary: light lens parallax

Gladstone Gallery, Sadie Coles HQ, Regen Projects, and Galerie Max Hetzler present SECONDARY, an exhibition in four parts by Matthew Barney. Unfolding sequentially across the galleries and staged in concert with an installation at the Fondation Cartier, each presentation traces the artist’s career-long interest in the relationship between the body, transmogrification, physical possibility and the deep-rooted history of violence that serves as a cornerstone to the American psyche. In addition to a new series of sculptures and drawings, Barney will premier his film, SECONDARY, in London, Paris and Los Angeles. Across the installations, Barney re-maps subject matter that has repeatedly circulated within his oeuvre, conflating notions of material potential and myth-making with the specter of entropic collapse.

Each arm of the exhibition traces back to the artist’s 2023 film, SECONDARY, a five-channel work that draws its inspiration from the infamous 1978 Raiders vs. Patriots game in which defensive back Jack Tatum delivered an open field hit that left wide receiver Darryl Stingley permanently paralyzed. Recalling his own memories of the play, the impact, and the culture of spectacle that continues to inform the incident today, Barney addresses the consequences of a sport that has become synonymous with physical brutality. Moving from pregame to game, from play to impact, and finally arriving at the media’s relentless repetition of the collision itself, the exhibitions examine the connective tissue that joins our scopophilic desire to witness lethal force with the anxieties stirred by the vulnerabilities of our own bodies.

Regen Projects, Los Angeles

Matthew Barney: SECONDARY: commencement, June 1 – August 17, 2024

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Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris

MATTHEW BARNEY: SECONDARY: object impact, Paris: 46 & 57, rue du Temple, 7 June – 25 July 2024

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Gladstone Gallery, New York

MATTHEW BARNEY: SECONDARY: object replay, May 16 – July 26, 2024, 530 West 21st Street

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