Nevine Mahmoud
October 14—December 12, 2021

This is a color photograph of an installation view of artworks by Nevine Mahmoud. Pictured left to right are: a sculpture titled HOT TOY STRADDLE, which is a large white boulder with a pink object placed on top and sitting on the floor; a sculpture titled Bust (lagoon) installed on the adjacent wall, which resembles a bare female chest made from hand blown glass and resin in a yellow-green color; a sculpture titled Beach Ball IV in the background, which is a spherical ceramic work, cracked in a few places, painted with pink, yellow, red, and blue glaze made to appear like an inflated beach ball; a sculpture titled Three Components, which is a large white boulder with a light pink object placed on top and sits on top of a wooden crate; a sculpture titled Aileen & Elvis, which resembles a two-stemmed black cherry with blue stem; a sculpture titled Castle component #1, which resembles two, light pink colored puzzle pieces criss-crossed; a sculpture installed on the adjacent wall titled Babette, which resembles a bare female chest in a peach-tan skin color made from hand blown glass, resin, and aluminum; a sculpture titled Sherry which depicts a bright orange-red colored cherry shaped sculpture placed on top of a fuschia colored plexiglass pedestal; and a hung sculpture titled Breast shade, which resembles a bare female breast made from alabaster and pigmented resin.

Nevine Mahmoud installation view, 2021. image courtesy of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. photo: Jeff McLane

 

The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG) presented the first institutional solo exhibition by Los Angeles artist Nevine Mahmoud.

 

For Nevine Mahmoud’s exhibition, several recent sculptures and installations were brought together for the first time alongside a selection of new works created specifically for the gallery. Mahmoud makes provocative sculptures from glass, steel, resin, and precious stones such as onyx, alabaster, and marble. Her work often takes the form of fruits or body parts, from curvaceous busts to voluptuous cherries. The works’ pristine polished surfaces and immaculate pedestals stand in stark contrast to their fleshy volumes and suggest otherworldly, surreal entities. The exhibition also featured a series of works that connote objects of play. Combining elemental compositions and primary colors with cold, fragile materials, these works frustrate our instinct to touch and explore. The contrast between these childish things and Mahmoud’s more sensual objects creates an unsettling effect, inviting us to consider the psychological origins of such bodily impulses as abjection and attraction.

LAMAG Curatorial Walk-Thru
 

 

 

 

Special thank you to the Los Angeles Public Library for their generous support and time in developing this virtual tour.

This is a color photograph of three sculptures by Nevine Mahmoud. Pictured left to right are: a sculpture titled Beach Ball IV, which is a multi-colored spherical ceramic work placed on the floor and resembles an inflatable beach ball; a wall-mounted sculpture titled Abacus arm 1, which features a linear steel bar with a circle and four stone components. Each of these components are wrapped around the steel bar and are different stones, such as onyx, Portuguese marble and Aphrodite marble; and a sculpture titled Three Components, which includes a large white boulder with a small, pink, bulbous glass object that has a red coil placed on top of it. These particular elements sit on top of a large stack of wood pieces on wheels.
Installation View 2021, Nevine Mahmoud, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Photo: Jeff McClane
This is a color photograph of two sculptures by Nevine Mahmoud. The sculpture on the left is Ball Stripped Bare, which is spherical, made of Portuguese pink marble, and resembles an inflated beach ball. To the right of this work is Deflating Beach Ball II, which is slightly smaller in comparison to the other work and is made of ceramic with a multicolored in colors of pink, light blue, yellow and orange glaze mimicking the look of a slightly deflated beach ball. Both sculptures are placed directly on the floor and side-by-side.
Left to right: Ball Stripped Bare, Portuguese pink marble, 18 x 18 x 18 inches, 2018 Deflating Beach Ball II, ceramic and glaze, 13 x 13 x 13 inches, 2016 Photo: Jeff McLane
This is a color photograph of four sculptures by Nevine Mahmoud. Three of the sculptures are in the foreground on pedestals (wood and plexiglass), each one made of orange calcite resembling cut or whole peaches. From top to bottom are: Peach Object, Slick Slice and Miss her (peach). In the background mounted on the wall is a flesh toned sculpture entitled Headless, which depicts a human tongue with the tip slightly upturned.
Installation View, Nevine Mahmoud, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Photo: Jeff McLane
This is a color photograph of three large blown glass sculptures of roughly equal size by Nevine Mahmoud resting on a tiered, wooden three step pedestal. At the top is a sculpture entitled yellow Toy, an amber colored blown glass piece resembling a human leg. On the center tier is a sculpture entitled Leg (Lila), a flesh toned blown glass piece resembling a human leg. Beneath this on the last tier is another leg shaped work called Leg (lilac), made of lilac and green colored blown glass.
Top to bottom: yellow Toy, Blown glass, 32 x 8 x 11 inches, 2020 Leg (Lila) Blown glass, 32 x 7 x 10 inches, 2020 Leg (lilac) Blown glass, 33 x 12 x 10 inches, 2020 Photo: Jeff McClane

Nevine Mahmoud (b. 1988, London, lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) received her BA from Goldsmiths, University of London and MFA from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Her work was recently on view in The Artist is Present, curated by Maurizio Cattelan, at the Yuz Museum in Shanghai. Recent group exhibitions include Dreamers Awake: Women Artists After Surrealism at White Cube, London; The Poet, the Critic and the Missing at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; MADEMOISELLE at the Centre Régional D’art Contemporain Occitanie in Sète; This is Presence at Ballroom Marfa; and The Lasting Concept at the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art. Other thematic exhibitions include I Had the Landscape in My Arms at Josh Lilley, London; An Uncanny Order at Jessica Silverman, San Francisco; Debris at James Fuentes, New York; and Seven Reeds at Overduin & Co., Los Angeles. f o r e p l a y (2017) at M+B was the artist’s debut solo exhibition and was selected as an Artforum Critics’ Pick. Other notable press includes MOUSSE, Art Review, New York Magazine, Los Angeles Times, and Contemporary Art Daily.