Memphis Does Hanukkah showcases Los Angeles-based designer and artist Peter Shire’s Menorah #7 (1986), and is part of a series of exhibitions focused on individual works in the Jewish Museum’s world-renowned collection.
Menorah #7 is composed as a set of oddly shaped and balanced geometries, fabricated with industrial materials, bright colors, and “finish-fetish” detailing, it recalls the pop, car, and surf cultures of the artist’s hometown, and its style also speaks to Shire’s knowledge of artistic movements such as Russian Constructivism and the Bauhaus, as well as the radical, irreverent, and often humorous history and style of West Coast art. Known for a confluence of the natural, artificial, commercial, and spiritual, Los Angeles is a place where light and space are as central as neon, billboards, and plastic.
