Last year, art lovers got more than an eyeful of Glenn Ligon’s work when he was the subject of Glenn Ligon: America, a sprawling mid-career retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The exhibit displayed the work that the New Yorker is best known for—works on paper and canvas that cleverly incorporated text from Jean Genet and Zora Neale Hurston, among others—before travelling around the country. (Us Magazine readers might know him for another reason: In September 2011, Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux bought Ligon’s painting Stranger #44 for $450,000—a record-high price for his art—at a charity auction.)
Glenn Ligon, “Impediment” (2006). Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York.
Beginning the evening of Oct. 25, however, a never-before-seen side of Ligon can be seen at Manhattan’s Luhring Augustine gallery when Glenn Ligon: Neon—the first-ever exhibit comprised solely of his work in neon—opens. One piece, “Double America,” was created specifically for the show.
Ligon’s work will be there through Dec. 8. To learn more about the artist, check out the video (below) of Ligon and his Whitney curator discussing last year’s retrospective.
