David Zwirner announces that it will represent the estate of Ruth Asawa. Jonathan Laib, who has handled the estate in a previous role, joins the gallery as Director:
An influential sculptor, devoted activist, and tireless advocate for arts education, Ruth Asawa is best known for her extensive body of hanging wire sculptures. Intricate, dynamic, and sinuous, these remarkable works, begun in the late 1940s, continue to challenge conventional notions of sculpture through their emphasis on lightness and transparency. Explaining her fascination with wire as a material, Asawa said, “I was interested in it because of the economy of a line, making something in space, enclosing it without blocking it out. It’s still transparent. I realized that if I was going to make these forms, which interlock and interweave, it can only be done with a line because a line can go anywhere.”
The Estate of Ruth Asawa comes to the gallery through Jonathan Laib, who joined the gallery this month as Director. Laib was previously a Senior Vice President, Senior Specialist in Postwar & Contemporary Art at Christie’s auction house, where he worked for 17 years. He was active in pursuing and creating private selling exhibitions at Christie’s before these practices became commonplace at auction houses. In 2013 and 2015, he organized two exhibitions at Christie’s dedicated to the work of Asawa, then under-known, to much critical acclaim. He is regarded as the authority on Asawa and will continue to work with the artist’s estate at David Zwirner. Laib will be based in New York.
THE ESTATE OF RUTH ASAWA IS NOW EXCLUSIVELY REPRESENTED BY DAVID ZWIRNER
