Relax Into the Invisible
06.02 / 08.10.19
Barbara Stauffacher
Solomon
Based in San Francisco
b.1928
LAXART is pleased to present Relax Into the Invisible, an exhibition by Barbara Stauffacher Solomon comprising works on paper, artist books, a new body of sculpture, and site-specific Supergraphics. These works build upon the artist's signature design sensibility while cleverly playing with language, feminism, symbolism, technology, mass media, politics, and personal narrative.
Barbara Stauffacher Solomon is a San Francisco-based artist, graphic designer, landscape architect, and writer. Born in 1928, Solomon first worked as a dancer before studying painting and sculpture at the San Francisco Art Institute. In 1956, after the death of her husband, Solomon moved with her young daughter to Basel, Switzerland to study graphic design at the Basel Art Institute with acclaimed designer Armin Hoffman. Following her studies, she returned to San Francisco--bringing with her a modernist design approach wholly new to the West Coast--and established a successful one-woman graphic design office. She later studied Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley.
Best known for her Supergraphics of the 1960s--bold, hard-edge, painted wall graphics that respond to architectural space--Solomon designed the logo and much of the interior look and feel of the Sea Ranch, a unique planned community on the California coast north of the Bay Area. In this and other public projects, Solomon's iconic style of Swiss Modernism mixed with West Coast Pop helped pioneer the look of "California Cool" design.
Now in her 90s and still voraciously working on her craft, Solomon has turned her attention to paper, namely drawing, collage, and publishing artist books. Solomon has exhibited around the world and was recently the subject of a solo exhibition at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where her work is also in the permanent collection. A forthcoming solo exhibition is currently being planned by the Palm Springs Art Museum.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Additional support is provided by the Pasadena Art Alliance. Curated by Catherine Taft and Hamza Walker.
Related Programs
07.13.19 / 1pm
Walkthrough
Please join us for a curatorial walkthrough of Barbara Stauffacher Solomon’s Relax Into the Invisible led by LAXART Director, Hamza Walker.
08.10.19 / 3pm
Closing Event
To celebrate the closing of Barbara Stauffacher Solomon’s exhibition Relax Into the Invisible, L.A.-based artists Emily Mast and Barnett Cohen present an afternoon of dance and theater inspired by Solomon’s unmatched sensibility.