Exhibition - Geoffrey Hendricks: Land, Sky, and Dreams

Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of works by the late artist Geoffrey Hendricks (b. 1931, d. 2018), opening on October 25 and running through December 14, 2024. This is the gallery’s third collaboration with the artist’s estate, focusing on three significant works from the 1970s. The exhibition highlights connections between Hendricks’s studio-based practice, performance art, and his exploration of dreams.

Untitled (Sky Painting) is a large-scale piece created in Hendricks’s New York studio in the mid-1970s. During this period, Hendricks was covering canvases and everyday objects—such as work boots, shovels, window shades, and packages—with acrylic depictions of clouds. Hendricks’s master’s thesis on Renaissance ceiling painting sparked his lifelong fascination with the sky, which he observed and documented almost daily in his sketchbooks, watercolors, painted objects, and larger canvases. The artist Dick Higgins gave him the nickname “Cloudsmith” due to this sky-focused practice. This newly restored, five-canvas work will be shown in New York for the first time since 1976. Spanning an entire gallery wall, it offers a panoramic view of the sky, creating a space for reflection and awe.

Between Two Points presents three performance pieces from 1974, followed by a book and boxed edition published in 1975. This year marks the 50th anniversary of this important work in Hendricks’s career. Following his 1971 performances Body Hair, Ring Piece, and Dream Event – Between Two Points represents a transitional moment in Hendricks’s life and practice. As a newly out gay man, he began focusing on ephemeral rituals. Hendricks made a pilgrimage to his ancestral homeland in Norway with his father, siblings and young children. Then he traveled alone to Northern Italy, where he stayed with Francesco Conz, an early supporter and patron of the Fluxus artists. In Norway, on a mountaintop, and in Italy, in an olive grove and then on a beach, Hendricks enacted three performances, each documented by a photographer. These performances involved wrapping sawed tree limbs with his own hair (trimmed during the trip), painting his body blue, and depositing rocks and soil from New York at each site. The exhibition will feature photo documentation of these performances, as well as the edition produced by Francesco Conz, which includes performance relics and clothbound folios of photographs.

Write a Dream is an interactive piece from 1975 in which Hendricks invited participants to sit at a wooden desk and record their dreams on paper. These written dreams were then rolled up and tied with string to the chair, forming what Hendricks called a “dream object.” As an avid dream recorder with a deep interest in others’ dreams, Hendricks designed Write a Dream to capture the dreams of its participants. The original desk, featuring a plaque instructing participants to “Write a Dream,” and the accompanying chair will be on display. Visitors are invited to sit and write their dreams, which will then be placed in the desk drawer, contributing to the ongoing collection of dreams as instructed by the artwork.

On two Saturdays in November (the 16th and 23rd), invited guests will read from Between Two Points, the book published by Edizioni Pari & Dispari, Reggio Emilia, in 1975. The book reproduces Hendricks’s journal entries from his time in Europe, along with dreams recorded during that period. A brief panel discussion will follow each reading.