Hirschl & Adler Modern is thrilled to present an exhibition of sculpture and works on paper by interdisciplinary contemporary sculptor Lily Cox-Richard (b. 1979) for the ADAA’s 2022 edition of The Art Show. In her multifaceted practice, Cox-Richard explores ideas of commodification, reuse, material agency and activism. Our presentation at The Art Show coincides with the artist’s current solo exhibition at MASS MoCA, Weep Holes, on view now through January 2023.
Central to Cox-Richard’s work over the last ten years has been the artist’s need to repair, or in her own words – to mend – and this impulse has manifested both figuratively and literally. Initially focused on highlighting deficiencies in representation in Western Art History and seeking to correct them, Cox-Richard’s activist inclinations have expanded to contemporary culture, specifically how methods of production and commodification create networks which inflict damage on society and the environment. By recycling materials and using found objects in her assemblages and installations, Cox-Richard gives her materials a renewed sense of agency elevating them beyond their initially intended purpose. The artist routinely includes naturally occurring materials, or casts made of them, in her work to offer an alternate idea of “production.” Cox-Richard frequently employs mushrooms or mycelial networks. In their new context as constituent parts to a contemporary artwork these materials are given new meaning. The vast underground extension of mushroom colonies acts as a metaphor for the unseen and often stark realities of consumer culture. More optimistically, that metaphor speaks to the connectedness of individuals in a broader community. Ultimately, Cox-Richard’s work remains hopeful in its intent: there is work to be done to eliminate systems which marginalize, but once broken open mending can begin.
Lily Cox-Richard has been awarded an Artadia grant, a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, a postdoctoral fellowship in the University of Michigan’s Society of Fellows, and residencies at the Core Program, Millay Colony, RAIR Philadelphia, and the MacDowell Colony. Recent solo exhibitions include the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY; Yvonne, Guatemala City, Mexico; Artpace, San Antonio, TX; and Diverseworks, Houston, TX. Her solo exhibition, Weep Holes, is currently on view at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA. This past summer, Cox-Richard was an artist-in-residence in the Arts/Industry program at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, WI. Cox-Richard studies, forages, and practices in Tsenacomoco territory / Richmond, VA, on land that, for thousands of years, has been inhabited and cared for by Indigenous people, including the Pamunkey, Monacan, Chickahominy, and many other tribes untold and forcibly disappeared. Hirschl & Adler Modern is proud to exclusively represent Lily Cox-Richard.