Channa Horwitz
Biography
Rhythm of Lines 3-7, 1987
Channa Horwitz (1932-2013) was born in Los Angeles, where she lived and worked. Known for her tightly controlled approach to geometric abstraction, Horwitz devised a conceptual system for drawing called Sonakinatography in which abstract elements (initially sound, motion, and position) are tracked through stepwise transformations and represented graphically on eight-to-the-inch square grids. In each, the numbers one through eight are represented graphically by color or symbol and plotted according to an initiating set of rules that ultimately created her compositions. Sequencing, seriality, and iteration are all key dynamics in her work.
Over time, new series spawned from existing ones like the branching of an evolutionary tree. With each alteration of the starting variables in the system, a new body of work arose. Horwitz built her visual systems with an exacting rigor, yet was consistently guided by an openness to new possibilities embedded within her existing architectures.
In the final years of her life, her extensive practice gained long overdue recognition for its contributions to the development of conceptual art and process-based abstraction. She showed at the 55th Venice Biennale, the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A. Biennial, and the New Museum, and she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship Grant in 2013. In the years that followed, her works were included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial as well as in major group exhibitions at LACMA, MOCA Los Angeles, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Horwitz’s work is now held in numerous public collections across the U.S. and internationally.
More recently, Horwitz’s work was presented in solo exhibitions at the He Museum, Foshan, China; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain; and the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada. Recent prominent group exhibitions include LACMA, the 2023 Seoul Mediacity Biennale, Staatlich Museum, Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Morgan Library, Fundació Joan Miró and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Over time, new series spawned from existing ones like the branching of an evolutionary tree. With each alteration of the starting variables in the system, a new body of work arose. Horwitz built her visual systems with an exacting rigor, yet was consistently guided by an openness to new possibilities embedded within her existing architectures.
In the final years of her life, her extensive practice gained long overdue recognition for its contributions to the development of conceptual art and process-based abstraction. She showed at the 55th Venice Biennale, the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A. Biennial, and the New Museum, and she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship Grant in 2013. In the years that followed, her works were included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial as well as in major group exhibitions at LACMA, MOCA Los Angeles, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Horwitz’s work is now held in numerous public collections across the U.S. and internationally.
More recently, Horwitz’s work was presented in solo exhibitions at the He Museum, Foshan, China; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain; and the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada. Recent prominent group exhibitions include LACMA, the 2023 Seoul Mediacity Biennale, Staatlich Museum, Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Morgan Library, Fundació Joan Miró and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Works
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Language Series 1 of 8, 2004-2005 -
Sonakinatography Composition Number Three Variation Three, 1996
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Sonakinatography Comp #17, 1987-2004
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Canon, 1987
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8 Sets of Moires (Rhythm of Lines Sampler), 1987
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Rhythm of Lines 3-7, 1987
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Cube Inside the Ball (or Ball Inside the Cube), 1986
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Square Moiré (in two sections), 1985
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Noisy, 1985
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8th Level Discovered, 1982
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Canon #8 , 1982
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8 Shapes Explanation for Flowing and Numbers, 1980
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Round in Three Parts, 1977
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Variation and Inversion on a Rhythm IV, 1976
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Sonakinatography I, Movement #II, Sheet C, 2nd Variation, 1969
Installation Views
Installation view, Channa Horwitz, Rhythm Intertwined, 2023
He Art Museum, Foshan, China
He Art Museum, Foshan, China
Exhibitions
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Channa Horwitz
The Language Series July 31 - September 4, 2021 2245 E Washington Blvd., Los AngelesThe Language Series was created one year after I left school in 1964. I was in the process of reducing my choices, because I wanted my work to be simpler...Read more -
Channa Horwitz
Structures September 15 - October 20, 2018 2245 E Washington Blvd., Los AngelesI feel that through chance comes structure, or that if chance plays out long enough it will become structure. That if we cannot see the structure in chance we are...Read more -
Channa Horwitz
To the Top February 13 - March 26, 2016 2245 E Washington Blvd., Los AngelesFrançois Ghebaly is pleased to announce the opening of To the Top , an exhibition by Channa Horwitz (1932 – 2013). This is Horwitz’ second solo exhibition with the gallery;...Read more -
Channa Horwitz
Orange Grid April 13 - June 8, 2013 2600 S La Cienega Blvd., Los AngelesFrançois Ghebaly is pleased to present a site-specific installation by Channa Horwitz. In 1964, Channa Horwitz chose to limit her choices to the orange grid from graph paper. Larger squares,...Read more -
Group Show
Channa Horwitz, Euan Macdonald, Michael Müller, Marcus Civin January 27 - March 14, 2010 510 Bernard St., Los Angeles, CAChanna Horwitz, Euan Macdonald, Michael Müller, and Marcus Civin François Ghebaly is pleased to announce a group exhibition of works by Euan Macdonald, Michael Müller, Channa Horwitz, and Marcus Civin....Read more
Video
Press
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The Only Math That Interests Me: Channa Horwitz at Lisson Gallery
Priva Ghandi, Whitehot Magazine, March 3, 2022 -
Rules of the Game: Reason and Repetition in the Work of Channa Horwitz and Emma Kunz
Harry Thorne, Frieze, May 13, 2019 -
Review: Channa Horwitz’s geometric abstractions show that nothing is truly random
Sharon Mizota, The Los Angeles Times, October 16, 2018 -
How Channa Horwitz Pushed Beyond the Precincts of Minimalism
Daniel Gerwin, Hyperallergic, October 8, 2018 -
Channa Horwitz
at François GhebalyJennifer S. Li, ARTnews, May 16, 2016 -
Passages: Channa Horwitz
Chris Kraus, Artforum, September 1, 2013 -
Haiku Reviews: From Alfred Hitchcock To Asian Fairy Tales
Peter Frank, Huffington Post Arts & Culture, July 9, 2013 -
Channa Horwitz
Andrew Berardini, ArtReview, June 28, 2013 -
In Channa Horwitz’s Orange Grid
Carolina A. Miranda, Hyperallergic, June 4, 2013 -
Enlivening the Grid
Cecilia Alemani, Mousse Magazine, April 13, 2013
Inquiry