Genevieve Gaignard is the latest artist to participate in the Rockefeller Center and Art Production Fund Art in Focus program. On view September 8 in New York is work by the multidisciplinary artist, taking over Rock Center’s public spaces and campus, filling its indoor vitrines and outdoor vinyl mural spaces with explorations of femininity, class, and race.
For the site-specific project, the artist looks at ideas of representation, media aesthetics, and domesticity in collage works made of vintage wallpaper and magazine clippings—like one reading “We Are More Than a Moment” in neon, and another featuring cutouts of women, flowers, and logos from an old issue of Life. Within the vitrines, visitors will find elements of photography and everyday objects like sunscreen, garden hoses, and flip-flops make up 3D installations that encouraging a closer look into Gaignard’s universe.
Genevieve Gaignard, “Muscle Beach,” 2016; courtesy of the Artist and Art Production Fund
“To have the opportunity to share this work on such an iconic platform as Rockefeller Center, and to collaborate with Art Production Fund to bring this vision to life, is truly humbling,” said Gaignard. “My hope is that folks can see a reflection of themselves in the work and that it sparks productive conversations around race and identity in America.”
Using her body as her main subject, Gaignard places her viewers face-to-face with the dichotomy of intersectional identity. The Los Angeles-based artist employs sculpture, installation, and photography to look at topics surrounding and related to her life as a biracial woman in America.
Genevieve Gaignard, “Trailblazer (A Dream Deferred),” 2017; courtesy of the Artist and Art Production Fund
