Past Exhibitions

Charles LeDray, Sculpture 1989-2002 Documents Northwest: The PONCHO Series Special Exhibition April 25–July 27, 2003 SAM Fourth Floor Galleries

The last stop on the tour, SAM is a particularly special venue since Seattle is LeDray’s hometown, and he worked at SAM in the mid-1980s as a security guard. The exhibition traces the artist's career over the last thirteen years and includes thirty works, which push the boundaries of sculpture by utilizing both traditional and unconventional materials and processes.

Currently living and working in New York City, LeDray, who is largely self-taught, works in a variety of media. His fabric-based works often take the form of clothing, either hung on the wall or supported by metal armatures. The size of these works, which average about two feet in height, takes them out of the realm of their real-world counterparts and allows for a broad range of possible meaning. Russell Ferguson, chief curator at UCLA Hammer Museum, says in the catalogue essay on LeDray’s work, “One of the challenges that LeDray has set for himself is to make work that can carry the same weight as a monumental sculpture, but without using size itself as an implied claim to significance.”

Charles LeDray: Sculpture 1989–2002 is curated in Seattle by Tara Young, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. The Documents Northwest exhibition series is made possible through the ongoing, generous support of PONCHO (Patrons of Northwest Civic, Cultural, and Charitable Organizations).

Charles LeDray
S.A.M., 1994
Fabric, thread, metal, plastic, paint
25 3/4 x 11 x 4 in.
Collection of Merrill Wright