Centre for Contemporary Culture at Palazzo Strozzi

Palazzo Strozzi

Mandy Greer’s hallmark works are comprised of soft fabrics, moody shadows and delicate lines that create distinct, interior fantasy worlds. She uses discarded domestic items and materials, like buttons, beads, and fabrics, and repurposes them with new functions and meanings.
In occasion for American Dreamers, Greer has developed an installation, Cynosura, composed of large, draped sculptural objects that make up the elements of an impressive allegorical representation. The artist creates a path between two realms that she defines as two “heavens” through a transitory dimension, which is represented by the natural world. The title of the new work refers to the name of a nymph who, according to one version of the myth, nursed Zeus who then transformed her into the brightest star in the sky. The star named Polaris, also referred to as the North Star, is a symbol of the vital principle found in nature and serves as a tool for sailors due to it’s central, permanent position in the sky. On one side of the environment is the Honey Chandelier, a sculptural object that evokes the incandescence of a luminous sun. On the other side is the Moon, which is surrounded by seven stars, the Seven Sisters, that symbolize Pleiades. In between there are figures and shapes that recall a nocturnal atmosphere. Works such as the Owl and the Raven, along with other symbols of the natural world are expressed by intricate biomorphic sculptures that represent, for example, different tree species like the lemon and olive tree.
Greer forges conglomerates of heterogenic materials to create, layer after layer, archetypal objects. They become part of a narration fuelled by the myths of primordial cultures that lived within a pantheistic dimension. Such cultures were searching for a relationship close to nature and were united by their belief in a common vital principle: the eternal succession of death and rebirth.
Greer’s work fights against the traditional borders between artist and audience, artistic process and art object. Following her own system, she often organizes open workshops in different cities, is always searching for diverse material and promotes conceptual sharing through the creation of her works. As Greer herself states: “I aim through my work to pull diverse worlds closer together, to weave connections between people who might otherwise not have the slow space to find where their lives intersect.”

Mandy Greer (1973; lives and works in Seattle, WA) creates theatrical spaces through installations, performances, films and pictures. She joins together different fields like fairytales, myths and traditional stories and reconnects them to everyday life, inquiring the sensuality of life itself – which is shown through the sensitivity of the material the artist uses for her works. In 1996 she graduated at the University of Georgia, Athens, and in 1999 she earned her MFA at the University of Washington, Seattle. In 2006, Mandy completed a permanent installation in the Rem Koolhaas-designed Seattle Central Library and had a room-sized installation at the Bumbershoot Arts Festival supported by a City Artists Grant. In 2008, Mandy had her first solo museum show at the Bellevue Arts Museum, debuting Dare alla Luce, supported by an Artist Trust GAP grant. Recent solo exhibitions include: (2009) Dare alla luce, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR; (2010) Zuster Sweostor Systir, Ohge Ltd. Gallery, Seattle, WA; (2011) Honey and Lightening, Roq La Rue Gallery, Seattle, WA. Recent collective exhibitions include: (2009) Aqua Art Miami-Wynwood (with MyArtSpace.com Gallery), Paolo Alto, CA and Miami, FL; 5280, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle; (2010) Unravelling Tradition, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM; (2011) Seattle As Collector, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Degenerate Art Ensemble, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA.

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