Installation view, Lawrence Weiner: OUT OF SIGHT at Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco (October 16, 2021 – January 22, 2022). Courtesy of the artist and McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco / © Lawrence Weiner. Photo: Henrik Kam Photography.

Installation view, Lawrence Weiner: OUT OF SIGHT at Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco (October 16, 2021 – January 22, 2022). Courtesy of the artist and McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco / © Lawrence Weiner. Photo: Henrik Kam Photography.

Offsite Exhibition

Lawrence Weiner: OUT OF SIGHT

A participatory social sculpture by Lawrence Weiner highlights the playful themes in Next to You.

Lawrence Weiner: OUT OF SIGHT is a participatory artwork and experience that blends hopscotch and word play for a joyful connection of mind and body that speaks to all ages and walks of life. Through January 2022, curious explorers can find three marelles (French for hopscotch) in San Francisco made possible through an innovative partnership initiated by the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture with McEvoy Arts and the Exploratorium. McEvoy Arts’ off-site presentation of OUT OF SIGHT at 1275 Minnesota Street is organized with Next to You, a visual art exhibition that celebrates the healing power of the performing arts.

Known for text-based works that recall visual poetry, literary aphorisms, or Zen koans, American conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner frequently transforms gallery walls into artistic messaging boards. In his ground-based mural OUT OF SIGHT, he creates a pathway to be viewed and navigated, both physically and intellectually. OUT OF SIGHT combines wit and whimsy in a game-like format, encouraging learning and self-actualization from the viewer through the use of graphical phrases embedded throughout the work. By being able to stand, walk, or jump from one position to the next, OUT OF SIGHT taps into the dynamic “gamification” of learning and self-discovery. The viewer navigates the creation as they see fit—interpreting the work while interacting with it.

“A person coming in with whatever situation they find it, young, old or indifferent, the minute they have any thoughts about themselves going FROM HERE TO THERE, will be able to stand still and realize they first have to imagine themselves doing it, that’s assuming a position.” – Lawrence Weiner

Like McEvoy Arts’ exhibition Next to You, OUT OF SIGHT reminds us of the connections we make within ourselves and with each other through the shared experience of performance and the arts. Admission is free. 

Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture: September 17, 2021 – January 30, 2022
McEvoy Arts at Minnesota Street Project: October 16, 2021 – January 22, 2022
The Exploratorium: October 10, 2021 – January 9, 2022

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Lawrence Weiner is considered a central figure in the development of conceptual art during the 1960s and is renowned for his predominantly language-based artworks, which he presents as sculpture. He attended the New York public school system and spent the late 1950s and early 1960s venturing across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at Museo Nivola, Orani, Italy; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria; Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA; Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others. He participated in documenta 5, 6, 7, and 13; the 36th, 41st, 50th, and 55th Venice Biennales; and the 27th Biennale de Sao Paulo. He has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts; a Guggenheim Fellowship; the Wolfgang Hahn Prize; a Skowhegan Medal for Painting/Conceptual Art; and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Weiner divides his time between his studio in New York City and his boat in Amsterdam.

PARTNERS

Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (FMCAC), a decommissioned military installation converted into a nonprofit cultural center, hosts a lively mix of arts, educational, and cultural programming. Each year FMCAC provides more than $2 million in support to local arts organizations, enabling groups to produce diverse and innovative artworks at the historic waterfront campus. With a nearly four-decade history as an arts and culture destination, FMCAC is now focused on reinvigorating its programming and amenities to better engage the evolving Bay Area creative community. Central to this new vision is the commissioning and presentation of adventurous and unconventional artworks best realized in nontraditional or historic settings. For more information, visit fortmason.org.

Minnesota Street Project, located in San Francisco’s historic Dogpatch district, offers economically sustainable spaces for art galleries, artists, and related nonprofits. Inhabiting three warehouses, the Project seeks to retain and strengthen San Francisco’s contemporary art community in the short term, while developing an internationally recognized arts destination in the long term. Founded by entrepreneurs and collectors Deborah and Andy Rappaport, Minnesota Street Project was inspired by the couple’s belief that philanthropic support for the arts today requires an alternate model – one suited to the innovative nature of Silicon Valley and the region as a whole. For more information, visit minnesotastreetproject.com.

OUT OF SIGHT is presented in San Francisco by the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, in partnership with McEvoy Arts and the Exploratorium. The McEvoy Arts presentation is made possible with additional support from Minnesota Street Project. San Francisco editions feature a new color suite of marelles in English, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish languages and an engagement guide for families with young children created by the San Francisco Children’s Art Center.