Destiny, 2014, glass, cement, polyurethane foam, tint, tape, pen, aluminum, marker, glue stick, and pretzel. Courtesy the artist and Regina Rex, New York.
Dave Hardy creates assemblages from everyday materials, from sheets of glass salvaged from city streets to cement, cushion foam, writing instruments, and even pretzels. At first glance, his large-scale work Destiny appears to teeter on the edge of stability, but the sculpture is actually carefully positioned to resist the forces of gravity. The large-scale work seems to lean casually against the gallery wall, a lumbering figure waiting to perform. Physical comedy is a key part of Hardy’s abstract vocabulary, and his works can be read as bodies in an abject and absurd struggle with physical restraints and the effects of time.
Dave Hardy earned an MFA from Yale University (2004), attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2004), and received a BA from Brown University (1992). He has had solo shows at Galerie Jeanroch Dard, Brussels, Belgium (2016), Wentrup Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2014), Churner and Churner, New York (2014), and Regina Rex, New York (2013). Recent group shows include Invisible Exports, New York (2015), Bortolami, New York (2014), and Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York (2014). His awards include Teaching Excellence Award from the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University (2013), Outstanding Faculty Award, presented by Steinhardt Undergraduate Student Government, New York University (2012), New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Crafts/Sculpture (2011), and Emerging Artist Fellowship, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, New York (2005).