Petah Coyne: How Much A Heart Can Hold: Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Galerie Lelong & Co., New York is pleased to announce that Petah Coyne: How Much A Heart Can Hold is on view at Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison through December 23, 2024. Featuring more than a dozen works, several on display for the first time, the exhibition serves as both a multi-decade exploration of the contemporary American sculptor’s career and an ode to women’s complexity and creativity.

Coyne often celebrates under-recognized female authors and Eastern literary figures. Her works showcase the authors and characters; dissect their complex stories; and examine how relationships, social constructs and self-image can shape how women — real and fictional — experience and navigate the world. She reads two to three books per week, most of them by women writers. As she sews, she often imagines characters from different books in dialogue with one another. The exhibition’s three sections — “Women’s Work,” “Women Obscured and Transformed” and “Women’s Relationships” — present a view of Coyne’s artistic practice while honoring the literary contributors she loves.

A quote by Zelda Fitzgerald inspired the exhibition title. “Nobody has ever measured,  even the poets, how much a heart can hold,” the American writer, dancer and painter once said. Coyne’s Zelda, a sculpture named in Fitzgerald’s honor, anchors the exhibition.

“We looked across Coyne’s long career and were inspired to focus on the creative work of women as interpreted through Coyne’s artistic process,” said Amy Gilman, director of the Chazen Museum of Art and exhibition curator. “Coyne looks at the woman as a heroine, cultural leader, dissident and activist and as a fellow creative who seeks to transform the deep aspects of consciousness and societal awareness.”