2026 ADAA FAIR: Maren Hassinger: On Dangerous Ground | Booth C13

12 November - 16 November 2026

Maren Hassinger: On Dangerous Ground
2026 ADAA Fair | Booth C13
Park Avenue Armory

643 Park Ave, New York, NY 10065

Preview Gala:

Thursday, 12 November, 4:30–9:30 pm

VIP Preview:

Friday, 13 November, 10:00 am–12:00 pm

Public:

Friday, 13 November, 12:00–7:00 pm

Saturday, 14 November, 11:00 am–7:00 pm

Sunday, 15 November, 11:00 am–6:00 pm

Monday, 16 November, 11:00 am–5:00 pm
MAREN HASSINGER, On Dangerous Ground (artist in studio), April 1981 Photo: © Museum Associates/LACMA

In 1981 Maren Hassinger was invited by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to make work for a solo exhibition in Gallery Six, a small windowless space tucked away on the third floor. Hassinger, the first Black artist to have a solo presentation at the institution, approached the opportunity with some skepticism. At this early stage in her career, she found the Museum context problematic as an artist whose practice championed the ephemeral in order to challenge societal values.
Her response to the invitation was a modular installation titled On Dangerous Ground. Modular, understood as a single motif repeated to fill space but also temporary. Bristling sheaves of wire ropes were tightly clustered in the gallery space and scattered along the wall, creating a palpable tension. In the original museum text, Katherine Hart recounts that “while appearing ‘natural,’ on a closer inspection- (the elements) exist in a separate plane, still shadows of a living form.” Nested in a long narrow hallway with hauntingly high ceilings, the installation evoked an eerie sense of the decline of order and balance in nature.
MAREN HASSINGER, On Dangerous Ground, 1981
I wanted the character of whatever I placed in the room to intimidate, to infringe, to threaten. I began to think of a nature gone mad. It seemed that spiky, briar-like vegetation might be the answer. The setting had to appear dense, dark, eerie, shadowy. There had to be a sense of things seen, unseen, half-seen. I decided on frenetic bushes as a device to develop this theme.

- Maren Hassinger (1981)
Installation portrait by Adam Avila
Growing up in Los Angeles during a period of rapid development, Hassinger felt as though the “contemporary urban reality” lacked a centeredness, stating “There’s a lot of diversity but no divinity. An absence of freedom—only a kind of madness and anger.” Throughout Hassinger’s career she has referenced nature as a means to unite the collective and inspire equality. The artist's use of wire rope began when she unearthed the material in a junkyard on Alameda Street during her student days in the Seventies. Turned away from the MFA program for Sculpture, she was encouraged to join the nascent Fiber Arts program, inspiring the artist to manipulate wire rope to bridge the gap between her practice in sculpture and fiber art. Reminiscent of dry grass, or ripples on the surface of a pond, Hassinger used the material to mimic nature, a place where she found peace. Ultimately it served to distinguish her from other environmental artists by using industrial materials to create natural forms.
MAREN HASSINGER, Splintered Starburst (On Dangerous Ground), 1981/2023
MAREN HASSINGER On Dangerous Ground (studio), April 1981. Photo: © Museum Associates/LACMA

Any ground can be dangerous if you're going to put yourself at risk. For me to have a show in a museum as an artist, I was very aware that I was on dangerous ground. I was at risk of not being accepted, turned away, or just ignored.

When I was starting out, I did not fit into the artworld, but one has to challenge the prevailing aesthetic in order to make meaningful art. On Dangerous Ground was a new environment where I could exist. The material evokes my feeling of anxiety of being a newcomer—my trepidation towards a solo museum show. On Dangerous Ground means, I’m on Dangerous Ground, and by extension so are you.

- Maren Hassinger
Artworks
MAREN HASSINGER
Splintering (On Dangerous Ground), 1981/2023
Wire rope
15 x 60 x 12 in. each (Variation 5/10)
Dimensions vary slightly per unit
While Hassinger’s wire bushes are initially identified as “natural,” on closer inspection they exist on a separate plane, stiff shadows of a living form. But Hassinger does share with these artist what Kirk Varnedoe has described as a shift in the attitude of artists from less monumental earth projects and impositions upon the environment toward work on a less aggrandizing and more humble scale. It is art that also reflects an interest in creating a collaborative relationship between artist and nature.

- Katharine Hart
MAREN HASSINGER, Bush (On Dangerous Ground), 1981/2023
Original museum text from "On Dangerous Ground" at LACMA, 1981

As much of Hassinger’s work to date had been temporary, freeing her from the constraints of the art market so that she might effectively challenge social values, placing the work in an institutional context was fraught. The title of the work conveys at once the threatening physicality of the work as well as the artist’s own relationship to the museum setting as a conceptual artist, woman, and artist of color.

For the 2026 ADAA Fair, the Gallery revisits and recreates elements of the installation, reexamining what it means to be On Dangerous Ground.
1981 Q & A with Maren Hassinger for On Dangerous Ground at LACMA: Listen Here.
Portrait of Maren Hassinger. Photo: Grace Roselli

MAREN HASSINGER (b. 1947) has built an interdisciplinary practice that articulates the relationship between nature and humanity. Carefully choosing materials for their innate characteristics, Hassinger has explored the subject of movement, family, love, nature, environment, consumerism, identity, and race. The artist uses her materials to mimic nature, whether bundling it to resemble a monolithic sheaf of wheat or planting it in cement to create an industrial garden. The Berkeley Art Museum is hosting a major career retrospective with a monograph slated to travel to three additional venues through 2029. Within the past five years, Hassinger has been commissioned to make work for Sculpture Milwaukee (curated by Ugo Rondinone); The Art Institute of Chicago; Dia Bridgehampton; Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Rockefeller Foundation, Tarrytown; and the Aspen Art Museum. Hassinger was recently honored with an exhibition focused on her collaborative performance work with Senga Nengudi at the Cooley Gallery, Reed College, Portland, OR, traveling to the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (2024), as well as a two-person survey alongside Nengudi at the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia (2025). Hassinger is the recipient of the Women’s Caucus for the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; the Guggenheim Museum, NYC; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art, NYC; the San Francisco Museum of Art; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, among others.

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies

Reject non essential

Viewing Room

Please provide your contact information to view this page.

Email address *

Receive newsletters *

Yes No

Enter

Back to homepage

* denotes required fields

Susan Inglett Gallery is committed to data security and to protecting your privacy. The gallery is in full compliance with requirements as stipulated by the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Should you wish to change, update or delete any of your details, please contact us.

2026 ADAA FAIR: Maren Hassinger: On Dangerous Ground | Booth C13

Maren Hassinger: On Dangerous Ground

MAREN HASSINGER

1981 Q & A with Maren Hassinger for On Dangerous Ground at LACMA: Listen Here.

Cookie preferences

Join our mailing list

Viewing Room

Please check your email