Blanket of Branches

Susan Inglett Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Maren Hassinger, Blanket of Branches. Blanket of Branches resurrects the titular, archival work that blurs the binary of interior and exterior space. Originally created for the Contemporary Arts Forum in Santa Barbara, CA, the work has taken on various forms, including versions shown in exhibitions at the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, and most recently in Groundswell: Women of Land Art at the Nasher Sculpture Center. The exhibition assembled female artists who were pioneers in artistic engagements with landscape-centric, experiential work. Hassinger’s Blanket of Branches introduces nature into the traditional gallery setting by suspending a web of branches from the gallery ceiling, creating a tranquil woodland within the white box. Echoes of Hassinger’s seminal 1981 installation for LACMA, On Dangerous Ground, can be seen here, an installation that will find new life at the Gallery’s presentation at The ADAA Fair in November 2026. Hassinger’s use of wire rope to imitate nature crowded the small gallery with over a dozen wire bushes and wall works, articulating her uncertain experience of the institutional setting as a woman of color. The work’s barren branches carry a similar tenuousness, but the warm wood tones and the quality of dappled light thrown onto the floor and walls temper this uncertainty, instead conjuring the peaceful reveries associated with sunlit forest clearings or trellised pavilions. Blanket of Branches is complemented by a series of Hassinger’s signature Vessels, positioned below the natural canopy. Iterations of the vessel have appeared in her work since 2021, leaning into the vessel's common use as a proxy for the body. Here, vessels are formed using strands of wire rope that mimic the branches overhead, woven and interlaced as though they are objects not made, but grown. The works are made in tribute to nature’s wild beauty, simultaneously acknowledging the respite and contemplation one achieves when in communion with nature, and its unpredictable volatility. Across Hassinger’s practice, the artist seeks to remind the viewer of humanity’s enduring connection to the natural world, and the necessary symbiosis we share. Her materials suggest industry’s ever-present impact on our world, but the bare wood and steel wire converse harmoniously, reaffirming Hassinger’s core tenets of synergy and oneness. 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, which will travel to The Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, MO; the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX; and the California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA. 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.

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