FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Opening reception: Friday, April 18, 6-8 pm

Friedrich Petzel Gallery is pleased to announce ALLAN McCOLLUM'S exhibition "Natural Copies & Visible Markers". The opening reception is scheduled for Saturday, April 18 between 6 - 8 pm and the show continues through May 16, 1998. McCOLLUM is presenting eight copies of recast dinosaur tracks and 80 individual drawings.

McCOLLUM'S project "Natural Copies from the Coal Mines of Central Utah" was developed from dinosaur tracks that were discovered by local coal miners in the 1920s. They were carefully excavated and later sold to a prehistoric museum in a small town called Price. McCOLLUM made rubber molds from the "original" tracks (or better "natural casts"), recast them in polymer-reinforced hydrocal, and painted them in different colors. This group of eight tracks is presented for the first time.

The "Visible Markers" are an extension of a project that McCOLLUM started in 1997 with an exhibition at Susan Inglett Editions in which he cast concrete bars (8 x 2 x 2") in various colors. The markers have the word 'thanks' imprinted on their face. Similar to that edition, the pencil drawings, which are 5 x 7 inches, have the word "thanks" drawn in various typefaces. The drawings are hung on the wall in a single line that leads the eye across the space horizontally.

ALLAN McCOLLUM'S retrospective at the Musee d'Art Moderne de Lille Metropole, France is still on view through June 29.

For further information, please contact the gallery at info@petzel.com, or call (212) 680-9467.