Chinati Special Edition: Mark Grotjahn, Untitled (Snake), 2019

As a special benefit edition for the Chinati Foundation, Mark Grotjahn has created a work modeled from the head of a rattlesnake and cast in sterling silver. This work is available exclusively through the Chinati Foundation. Of the work, the artist writes:

In 2012, my brother, who was living at our old house, called and said that the gardener had found and killed a rattlesnake in the backyard. I asked him what had been done with the snake and he said it had been thrown in the garbage. I asked him if he could put it in a bag and give it to me. He went through the garbage and found the snake. He said that the body was a mess but that the head had been decapitated and was in pretty good condition. I asked him if he would bring it in and after I took a look I decided I would cast it. I cast it in bronze and for a while we did some experimentation with oxidation. But I never showed or really shared the works. It wasn’t until the Chinati Foundation asked me to do an edition of sorts that I realized they needed to be cast in American sterling silver and brought to Texas.

Mark Grotjahn received an MFA from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Grotjahn’s work is featured in museum collections worldwide.
His solo exhibitions include “Mark Grotjahn: Drawings,” Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2005); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2006); Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland (2007); Portland Art Museum, Oregon (2010); Aspen Museum of Art, Colorado (2012); “Mark Grotjahn: Sculpture,” Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2014); and “Circus, Circus,” Kunstverein Freiburg, Germany (2014). Grotjahn’s work was included in the 2006 Whitney Biennial and the 54th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, in 2004. Grotjahn currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

This work, in a limited edition of 20, is available exclusively through the Chinati Foundation. For more information on cost and availability, please call or email Sandra Hinojos at (432) 729-4362, ext. 240 or shinojos@chinati.org.