The Menil Collection has invited American artist Roni Horn (b. 1955) to install her recent wall drawing, Wits’ End Sampler, 2018, in the central gathering space of the Menil Drawing Institute. Horn’s work consists of hundreds of hand-written idioms and clichés that the artist has collected over the years. “Elvis has left the building,” “it takes two to tango,” and “happy as a clam” are among the arcane and familiar phrases silkscreened onto a thirty-foot wall in the naturally lit space.
The Menil Drawing Institute actively seeks new approaches to the form and language of drawing. This particular piece specifically addresses the mutability of language and meaning.
The Menil Drawing Institute presented the first American museum exhibition devoted to Roni Horn’s drawings, Roni Horn: When I Breathe, I Draw, from February 15 to September 1, 2019. The two-part show showcased Horn’s commitment to the medium in works ranging from monumental pigment and cut paper drawings that take language as their subject to photographic works that reassemble image.
About Roni Horn
Roni Horn lives and works in New York and Reykjavik, Iceland. Her work has been the subject of major exhibitions including Roni Horn at the Foundation Beyeler, Basel, (2016); Roni Horn a.k.a Roni Horn at the Tate Modern, London, (2009-2010); and Some Thames at the Art Institute of Chicago (2004). Her work is held in major collections across the world.
Lead funding for the Wits’ End Sampler installation in Houston is provided by Scott and Judy Nyquist with additional funding from Michael Zilkha.
