Fraenkel Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Christian Marclay featuring prints, collages, and a video. Fascination with vinyl records has long informed Marclay’s artistic practice. In this exhibition, the artist focuses on the recurring motifs found within the familiar square format of LP covers, exploring how music is packaged, distributed, and consumed. Following his inclusion in the 1998 Fraenkel Gallery exhibition Dust Breeding organized by artist and curator Steve Wolf, the exhibition will be Marclay’s sixth solo show with the gallery since 2008. A reception with the artist will take place at the gallery on Saturday, January 17, from 11am to 1pm.
In eleven new works on paper, Marclay inks the sleeves and covers from 7”, 10”, and 12” vinyl records, printing them as monotypes. Unlike etchings or lithographs, the monotype process creates a single unique impression, capturing the folds, creases, and surface wear of these objects and revealing their tactile histories as carriers of both sound and memory. Each work comprises a grid made up of nine or sixteen printed elements, varying in tone from pale gray to deep black. In some, the printing technique reproduces a faint transfer of the album art on the original cover. In others, a round void at the center of the sleeve leaves a white circle where the record’s label would have been visible through the cutout—a feature designed to reveal the label without removing the vinyl. The prints preserve traces of handling and use, transforming everyday cultural artifacts into meditations on materiality, repetition, and the passage of time.
Oculi, a new collage series, also focuses on vintage record sleeves with circular cutouts. Using the circular opening of sleeves to frame LP covers, Marclay turns the functional detail into a compositional device, providing only a glimpse into the full photographic artwork while concealing most of it. The opening acts as a framing device, revealing details such as hands, eyes, or mouths. Through this subtle gesture, Marclay reimagines the record sleeve as both object and image, where absence becomes part of the composition.
Marclay’s single-channel video Bildspiel (after Dieter Roth’s Kugelbild, 1960) features Kugelbild (Bead Picture), a 1960 work by Swiss-German artist Dieter Roth held in the Sohm Archive at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany. Found in the museum’s storage and never heard, the simple mechanical piece sends wooden beads through a matrix of nails arranged on a rotating disk, following a path determined by chance and gravity. In Marclay’s 2015 video activation, his hand moves the wheel, causing the balls to rattle across the circular face. Edited into an unexpected and kaleidoscopic video, Marclay creates a new musical composition. Bildspiel (after Dieter Roth’s Kugelbild, 1960) follows Marclay’s monumental video installation Shake Rattle and Roll (Fluxmix), made using Fluxus objects from the Walker Art Center’s collection to generate music, while artist-in-residence in 2004.
