Linn Meyers Creates Site-Specific Work for Inner Circle of the Hirshhorn

February 11, 2016

Photo caption: Linn Meyers, Artist’s rendering of “Our View From Here,” 2016
Courtesy of the artist

On View May 12, 2016–May 14, 2017; Artist Talk May 25, 2016

Linn Meyers (American, b. Washington, D.C., 1968; lives and works in Washington, D.C.) will create her largest work, “Our View From Here,” at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden this spring. The site-specific wall drawing, which stretches the entire circumference of the inner-circle galleries on the museum’s second level, more than 400 linear feet, will be on view May 12, 2016–May 14, 2017. The drawing is temporary and will be painted over at the end of the exhibition’s yearlong run. Meyers will discuss her work in a Meet the Artist talk Wednesday, May 25, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.

“We are rethinking the ways our spaces can be used, throughout the museum,” said Melissa Chiu, the Hirshhorn’s director. “And we will be taking full advantage of the inner-circle galleries as venues for site-specific 360-degree artworks. Linn Meyers’ project will be the first in a series of exhibitions by some of the most exciting artists working today.”

“The Hirshhorn’s unique architecture presents opportunities that simply don’t exist elsewhere,” said Stéphane Aquin, the museum’s chief curator and the curator of the exhibition. “Meyers’ process involves both planning and accident. The interaction between her fluid lines and the building’s rigorous geometries will produce stunning effects.”

Meyers creates her works by hand-drawing thousands of closely spaced, rippling lines, each nested beside the one that came before it. Drawing alone for long hours each day with a type of marker often used by graffiti writers, she welcomes the imperfections that are a natural part of working without templates or taped lines. The resulting patterns flow and pulse with energy.

Meyers has had solo exhibitions at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and the American University Museum at the Katzen Center in Washington, D.C., among other venues. She has participated in group exhibitions at institutions including the Hirshhorn, the Phillips Collection, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, all in Washington, D.C., the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh. Her work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Hirshhorn, the Phillips Collection and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She received a Master of Fine Arts from the California College of the Arts and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Cooper Union.

About the Hirshhorn

Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is the Smithsonian Institution’s museum of international modern and contemporary art. With more than 12,000 paintings, sculptures, photographs, mixed-media installations, works on paper and new media works, its holdings encompass one of the leading collections of postwar American and European art. The Hirshhorn presents diverse exhibitions and offers an array of public programs that explore modern and contemporary art. Located at Independence Avenue and Seventh Street S.W., the museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (closed Dec. 25). Admission to the galleries and special programs is free. For more information about exhibitions and events, visit hirshhorn.si.edu. Follow the Hirshhorn on Facebook at facebook.com/hirshhorn, on Twitter at twitter.com/hirshhorn, on Tumblr at hirshhorn.tumblr.com and on Instagram at instagram.com/hirshhorn. Or sign up for the museum’s eBlasts at hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/social-media. To request accessibility services, contact Amy Bower at bowera@si.edu or (202) 633-0828, preferably two weeks in advance.

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