Press Release Ed and Nancy Kienholz 4 October – 10 November Haunch of Venison are delighted to present an exhibition of later works from legendary US artists Ed and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, alongside a series of new lenticular works from Nancy Kienholz. (click here to view lenticular works) From the late 1950s, Ed Kienholz started to produce numerous installations before they became a feature of contemporary art, and conceptual works before the term became a movement. After meeting Nancy in the early 70s, Ed made a statement that all works from 1972 onwards would bear the signature of both artists, and they worked on numerous sculptures and installations until 1994, the year of Ed’s death.

200776 J.C.s Led the Big Charade, 1993-4

These works will be featured at Nancy Reddin Kienholz next Solo Exhibition, Haunch of Venison Zurich. The exhibition The Exhibition runs from
4 October - 10 November  200776 J.C.s Led the Big Charade, 1993-4 Haunch of Venison are delighted to present an exhibition of later works from
legendary US artists Ed and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, alongside a series of new lenticular works from Nancy Kienholz.
 

From the late 1950s, Ed Kienholz started to produce numerous installations before they became a feature of contemporary art, and conceptual works
before the term became a movement. After meeting Nancy in the early 70s, Ed made a statement that all works from 1972 onwards would bear the
signature of both artists, and they worked on numerous sculptures and installations until 1994, the year of Ed’s death.
 

No line existed between life and art for the Kienholz’s and they spent their time foraging for materials and objects through which they could express
themselves, with a disregard for the division between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art. Ed and Nancy Kienholz have had a huge influence on future generations of
artists, and their work can be read in relation to much of the theatricality and grubby hand-made seediness of the YBA installation artists.

The exhibition will include the installation 76 J.C.s Led the Big Charade, 1993-4, a religion-inspired wall installation-work comprising of 76 popular
images of Jesus Christ, all mounted on cross-shaped wagon tongues. The exhibition will also include several large-scale lenticular works– a printed
image that switches between two images as the viewing angle changes – produced in the last 12 months by Nancy Reddin Kienholz. The works switch between varied provocative images such as Christ on the cross and Father Christmas to ten-pin bowls to women wearing burqa.
 

The exhibition will be accompanied by a new publication focusing on 76 J.C.s Led the Big Charade, 1993-4, with a text from writer Jessica Lack.
For further information and images please contact: Claire Walsh Call +44 (0) 20 7495 5050 or email claire.walsh@haunchofvenison.com
 

Editors’ Notes - Biography:
Edward Ralph Kienholz (1927- 1994), and Nancy Reddin Kienholz (b 1943) first met in Los Angeles in 1972. Ed bought and sold used cars and traded handy work for a living until 1951, when he began work as an artist, using brooms instead of paintbrushes. 

Ed Kienholz lived in Los Angeles from 1953-1973 with his first solo exhibition in 1955. In 1966, the Los Angeles County Museum hosted his first retrospective. Prestigious group exhibitions include: Documenta 4 + 5, Kassel, Germany (1968 & 1973), Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, New York (1981), the Biennale of Sydney, Australia (1988), and the Biennale di Venezia, Italy (1990). The artists' first joint retrospective was
organised in 1996 by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and it travelled to the MOCA, LA and Berlinsche Galerie, Berlin.

In 2005 Nancy collaborated with Haunch of Venison in organising a major retrospective exhibition that would travel from the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. The Kienholz’s work can be found in collections worldwide including Centre Pompidou, Paris; LA County Museum of Art; The Menil Collection, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Stedelijk Amsterdam, the Whitney Museum and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Ed Kienholz, larger than life, even in death, went to his grave in June 1994, sitting upright in his1940 Packard, his late dog Smash’s cremated remains in the back seat, with a bottle of Chianti in hand, a dollar bill in his pocket, and a deck of cards. Surviving her husband, Nancy Reddin Kienholz lives and works in Hope, Idaho, Houston, Texas and Berlin, Germany.