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Barbara Takenaga

Installations

Installations Thumbnails
Barbara Takenaga, Space | 42

Barbara Takenaga

Space | 42

The Neuberger Museum of Art produced a commissioned public project for SPACE | 42—Barbara Takenaga: Outburst, a large-scale mural based on one of the artist’s exuberant abstract paintings translated into an immersive digital print. According to Takenaga, her work “depicts possibilities that are both abstract and narrative.” These include, “imagined landscapes, microscopic views, stylized architecture, mathematical diagrams, and ‘spacescapes.’” In Takenaga’s work, there is often a sense of waiting, anticipation, or dread, as big shapes loom on the horizon, float overhead, fold or explode. Throughout, natural phenomena are often used as metaphors for the comic, cosmic, or catastrophic.

Barbara Takenaga, Space | 42

Barbara Takenaga

Space | 42

The Neuberger Museum of Art produced a commissioned public project for SPACE | 42—Barbara Takenaga: Outburst, a large-scale mural based on one of the artist’s exuberant abstract paintings translated into an immersive digital print. According to Takenaga, her work “depicts possibilities that are both abstract and narrative.” These include, “imagined landscapes, microscopic views, stylized architecture, mathematical diagrams, and ‘spacescapes.’” In Takenaga’s work, there is often a sense of waiting, anticipation, or dread, as big shapes loom on the horizon, float overhead, fold or explode. Throughout, natural phenomena are often used as metaphors for the comic, cosmic, or catastrophic.

Barbara Takenaga, Nebraska

Barbara Takenaga

Nebraska

Barbara Takenaga has created a new work of an unprecedented scale for a 100 foot wall in the Hunter Center lobby at MASS MoCA. The mural features a new image from her series, Nebraska Paintings, a body of work that moves closer to the representational imagery only implied in earlier pieces, but which captures the wide open spaces and big sky of the artist’s native state. On view beginning July 12, 2015.

 

 

Barbara Takenaga, Nebraska

Barbara Takenaga

Nebraska

Barbara Takenaga has created a new work of an unprecedented scale for a 100 foot wall in the Hunter Center lobby at MASS MoCA. The mural features a new image from her series, Nebraska Paintings, a body of work that moves closer to the representational imagery only implied in earlier pieces, but which captures the wide open spaces and big sky of the artist’s native state. On view beginning July 12, 2015.
 

Works on Paper

Wheel (nimbus), 2009

Wheel (nimbus), 2009
24 x 20 1/4 inches

Color lithograph with metallic and pearlescent powders
 

Day for Night State II, 2012

Day for Night State II, 2012
19 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches (image); 27 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches (paper)

Color lithograph with metallic and pearlescent powders on paper
 

Day for Night State I, 2012

Day for Night State I, 2012
19 3/4 x 16 inches (image); 27 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches (paper)

Color lithograph with metallic and pearlescent powders on paper
 

Untitled, 2014 11 1/2 x 10 1/4 inches

Untitled, 2014
11 1/2 x 10 1/4 inches

Graphite and acrylic wash on paper
 

Untitled, 2014 12 x 11 1/2 inches

Untitled, 2014
12 x 11 1/2 inches

Graphite, acrylic wash, and gouache on paper
 

Wheel (corona), 2009

Wheel (corona), 2009
24 x 20 1/4 inches

Color lithograph with metallic and pearlescent powders
 

Biography

Barbara Takenaga

Barbara Takenaga arranges the simple components of her dense, abstract paintings into stunningly detailed compositions that undulate, radiate, and recede in seemingly infinite space. Her dazzling repetition of forms suggests the inherent yet sometimes incomprehensible logic of both the cosmic and the cellular, while spontaneous twists and puckers preserve the elements of wonder and surprise. Crisp, saturated color defines each discrete element in the tightly woven, tessellated work.

Barbara Takenaga was the Mary A. and William Wirt Warren Professor of Art at Williams College, a position she held from 1985 to 2018. She divides her time between Williamstown, MA, and New York City, where she maintains a studio. Her work has been widely exhibited at institutions including Mass MOCA, North Adams, MA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO; National Academy Museum, New York; Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia, PA; and International Print Center, New York.

Takenaga’s most recent awards include the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in the field of Fine Arts, the Wauson Fellowship from the FOR-SITE Foundation, and the Eric Isenburger Annual Art Award from the National Academy Museum. She is represented in the permanent collections of The Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; The DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA; Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney; and Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, among others. She was born in North Platte, Nebraska.

For the complete biography, please download the PDF.

Download PDF

Video

Artist Talk: Barbara Takenaga in Conversation with Elle Pérez

November 18 at 4:30pm EDT via Zoom

Barbara Takenaga — Final from DC Moore Gallery on Vimeo.

September 20th, 2018: Barbara Takenaga in Conversation with Helaine Posner, Chief Curator at the Neuberger Museum of Art

20130928 OUTSIDE THE FRAME from DC Moore Gallery on Vimeo.

Outside the Frame: Karen Shepard, Jim Shepard and Barbara Takenaga
September 28, 2013 at DC Moore Gallery
 

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