Channa Horwitz: To the Top

François 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; a project by Haroon Mirza, titled A Chamber for Horwitz; Sonakinatography Transcriptions in Surround Sound is presented concurrently with the exhibition.

Beginning in 1964, Horwitz directed her practice through the exploration of limitation and rules as a means to experience greater freedom and depth of exploration within her work. After setting her framework and developing a primary language stemming from the boundaries of the grid, she developed a notation system to track movement and time visually; she named this series Sonakinatography. Through different permutations of a count of eight she created unique compositions, conceptually and visually consummate in their two dimensional graphic form, while also open to performative or installational interpretation. Each number was given an associated path within eight beats, and sometimes also a corollary color or symbol, which, when plotted according to their rules, would create her composition. The eight numbers could be expressed in countless forms such as colors, lights, persons, dancers, or instruments. The beats dictated their various sounds, pitches and movements. Through this system of eight, Horwitz developed a new language that could be applied universally, and the ability to track the ‘fourth dimension’ two dimensionally.

While Sonakinatography was most often transcribed by the plotting of points or marks on a grid, the works exhibited stem from this seminal series and are all linked by their use of lines and systematic angles to chart their compositional sequence. The exhibition focuses on Horwitz’ play of 8 angles as a means to a rhythmic system of drawing. All bodies of work in the exhibition can be traced back to Sonakinatography through the continued exploration of systematic notation, and forward through deconstructing permutations informed by her creative inquiry, “What would happen if I …?”

The exhibition begins with a progression of eight works from the Rhythm of Lines series. This body of work explores eight different angles of two different intersecting lines, each assigned a specific color for the angle, borrowed from the color and number vernacular of Sonakinatography. The variance of intersecting angles determines what is being plotted and the subtle diversity of the resulting moiré patterns and compositions.

Works such as Slices and Four Levels, To the Top (the namesake of the exhibition) are situated together, each tracking movement across the page through careful linear processions. To the Top progresses the compositional structure of Sonakinatography from a square that grows into a cube and then back down to a square moving along the page while each in the sequence of eight play their part. Slices further reduces the progression of To the Top into eight continuous lines that intersect with the others in the sequence. This drawing is then reimagined as a three dimensional object, that can be sliced through like a loaf of bread, to reveal fragile cross-sections of the linear points that dictate its form.

The exhibition finishes with a space to better understand the prominence of the number ‘eight’ and the works surrounding the sequence that was seminal to Horwitz’ practice. The Book of 8 centers the room with an expansive view at the relationship between her drawings and the number sequences that they illustrate. Other works surrounding this piece expand on this relationship of numerical sequence, line and systems that were fundamental to Horwitz’ practice.

Channa Horwitz will be the subject of a solo exhibition at Raven Row, London, opening March 2016 she will also be included in a group show at the The Drawing Center, New York. Recent solo exhibitions include those at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Air de Paris, Paris; Francois Ghebaly, Los Angeles; Aanant & Zoo, Hamburg; Solway Jones, Los Angeles, among others. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2013 and her work has been exhibited in numerous institutions and group shows including Museum Tinguely, Basel; Centro de Arte Contemporânea Inhotim, Brazil; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the 2014 Whitney Biennial; the 55th Venice Biennale curated by Massimiliano Gioni; Made In LA : 2012 at the Hammer Museum; Pacific Standard Time : 2012, Los Angeles; Ghosts in the Machine at the New Museum; and in A Void: Guy de Cointet, Channa Horwitz and Henri Chopin at Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, among others.