"Esopus" Exhibition at Nasher Sculpture Center

October 14, 2017

In conjunction with the group exhibition "Paper into Sculpture," organized by curator Catherine Craft, the Nasher Sculpture Center presented "Esopus," the first museum exhibition of works related to Esopus, issues of which were donated to the Nasher by Dallas arts patron Marion Flores in memory of her husband Nash Flores.

From the Nasher press release: "Since 2003, Esopus has published a distinctive cross-section of content from a range of creative disciplines, presented in a striking visual format. Esopus has distinguished itself by its refusal of advertising and its mission to provide an unmediated source of experience with art, photography, literature, music, history, and broader streams of culture. As a physically created object intended to be handled by readers, Esopus takes a decidedly sculptural approach to paper and the magazine as genre and medium. The result has been a publication that The New York Times has called 'a thing of lavish, eccentric beauty.' From the beginning, established and emerging artists alike have contributed and created special projects for the magazine. Artists featured in the first ten years of Esopus have included John Baldessari, Barbara Bloom, Mark Dion, Robert Gober, Kerry James Marshall, Roxy Paine, Judy Pfaff, Allen Ruppersberg, Ed Ruscha, Alyson Shotz, Robert Therrien, and Richard Tuttle, whose projects have taken the form of removable posters, booklets, foldouts, and hand-assembled sculptures, and have often utilized complex printing processes, unique paper stocks, and specially formulated inks. The current issue includes a project by 'Paper into Sculpture' artist Marco Maggi."

The Nasher's Esopus exhibition included contributions from past issues and editions by a range of artists and other creators, including William Villalongo, Robert Gober, William Christenberry, Judy Pfaff, Ray Johnson, Ted Barker, Jane and Louise Wilson, Tony Tasset, and mathematician John Conway, and ran through February 4, 2018.