Ernesto Neto, The Garden, 2003. In collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum. White polyurethane foam, 109 x 281 x 390 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, NY. Photo: Oren Slor

The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) is pleased to present Ernesto Neto's 2003 collaboration with the FWM, a massive room-sized installation of hand-sculpted foam. Ernesto Neto is on view from March 6 through May 29, 2004. An opening reception will be held at the FWM on Friday, March 5, 2004 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. with a lecture by the artist at 6:00 p.m. that evening.

By delicately carving giant blocks of industrial foam, Neto has created a cavernous but highly sensual environment of undulating walls and tactile topographies that beckons visitors into its interior. The enveloping shapes and textures of Neto's installation stand suspended between architectural and bodily space, creating a strong physical relationship with the viewer that must be experienced rather than merely seen.

Through large fabric sculptures and participatory environments, Neto's work often probes the spatial and sensory relations between the viewer's body and the environment in which the work is situated. In his own words, his artworks exist as “a place of sensations, a place of exchange and continuity between people, a skin of existence and relationships.”

	Ernesto Neto, The House, 2003. In collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum White polyurethane foam, 109 x 140 x 141 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, NY. Photo: Oren Slor

This new collaborative work by Ernesto Neto is a participatory environment that extends his earlier artistic experiments with unconventional materials. In a recent solo exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Neto produced an installation of dangling, membrane-like forms of white nylon filled with Styrofoam beads. Measuring 45 by 15 feet, these fabric sculptures nearly filled the entire room, completely transforming the gallery environment. Curator Olga Viso describes Neto's work as that which will “arrest us visually but also make us keenly aware of the spaces inside, around and between our bodies. We become voyagers in sensorial odysseys.” Neto has also used fabric forms filled with spices to incorporate aromatic scents and powder-like textures into his artworks.

Neto also recently created a multiple with the FWM in 2003, Cabeluda, which is available for sale through the FWM Multiples Program. Both Cabeluda and Silent Cliff (also made at the FWM) debuted at the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (New York) in 2003.

Ernesto Neto was born and lives in Rio de Janeiro. He was educated at the Escola de Artes Visuais Pargua Lage, Rio de Janeiro and the Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro. Solo exhibitions include Directions, The Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (2002); 49th Venice Biennalle, Brazilian Pavillion, Venice (2001); Institute of Contemporary Art, London (2000); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (2000); and Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (1999). Neto's work has also been included in group exhibitions such as Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2000); Wonderland, The St. Louis Art Museum (2000), Best of the Season, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield (1999); XXIV Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, São Paulo (1998); Sidney Biennial, Sydney (1998); and Loose Threads, Serpentine Gallery, London (1998).

The Fabric Workshop and Museum is the only contemporary art museum in the United States devoted to creating new work in fabric and other materials in collaboration with emerging and established artists from around the world. Founded in 1977, The Fabric Workshop and Museum has developed from an ambitious experiment to a renowned institution with a widely recognized residency program, an extensive collection of work by resident artists, in-house and touring exhibitions, and comprehensive educational programming that includes lectures, tours, in-school presentations, and student apprenticeships. All FWM exhibitions and programs are free and open to the public. Hours: Mon. - Fri. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat., 12 noon to 4 p.m.

The exhibition program of The Fabric Workshop and Museum is supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, LLWW Foundation, The Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Independence Foundation, The Claneil Foundation, the Miller-Plummer Foundation, The Barra Foundation, and the Board of Directors and members of The Fabric Workshop and Museum.

For more information, please contact the PR Coordinator at 215-561-8888, pr@fabricworkshopandmuseum.org. For general information, call 215-561-8888.

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