Tara Donovan, Untitled (Styrofoam Cups), 2008, Styrofoam cups, hot glue, dimensions variable. Artwork © Tara Donovan, Courtesy of the Artist and PaceWildenstein. Photo by Dennis Cowley.

Tara Donovan:

A Materialistic Splendor

By GENEVA GÁMEZ- VALLEJO | October 2009

I remember the first time I experienced Tara Donovan's work back in 2006 at the Pace Wildenstein's gallery on West 22nd Street in New York. The “Untitled” installation –as many of them are- consisted of 3 million white plastic cups, resembling a topographical landscape. The piece valued at $350,000. I was mesmerized, not by the zeros tagging along the dollar sign, but by the intensity of the mountain of cups measuring approximately 5’x 50’x 60’ occupying the center of the gallery. To think of the time, the labor and thought behind it was fabulously conceptual. Needless to say, when I found out she’d be in San Diego, my heart yearned for a moment like back in 2006, when all was white and surreal in a room full of roaming art driven goers.

Tara Donovan, Untitled 2008. Transparent polyester film Artwork. © Tara Donovan, Courtesy Pace Wildenstein, New York. Photo by Dennis Cowley/ Courtesy Pace Wildenstein, New York.

Awarded the 2008 MacArthur “Genius Grant”, the MacArthur foundation described Donovan as “…an inventive young sculptor whose installations bring wonder to the most common objects of everyday life” adding on that “Donovan’s site-specific, sculptural works transform ordinary accumulated materials into intriguing visual and physical installations.”

Donovan’s work can be perceived as intricate as having to count the grains of salt that fill a cup. She doesn’t start working on a piece, without first deciding what kinds of materials she’s going to use. Due to the site-specific process of her installations, her work usually needs to be reassembled from scratch per exhibit –an art form in itself. Entitled simply "Tara Donovan" and organized by the Institute of Art/Boston, the exhibition is one you cannot let pass without appreciating.

Not too often does our city have the pleasure of experiencing the work of one-of-a-kind artists as such -which is why it is nearly an honor to know that Tara Donovan's work has taken over some of the space at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. In this show, the piece showcased features mounts of styrofoam cups curving on and about the ceiling like a dimensional illusion of a photograph you’re more than likely to experience in a biology book.

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Tara Donovan” is a nationally touring exhibition that surveys the artist’s work in a museum-like environment for the first time in San Diego. The exhibition runs from Oct. 25, 2009 – Feb. 28, 2010 at the Jacobs Building at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Downtown San Diego. www.mcasd.com.