When I visit Sanford Biggers at his Bronx studio on a recent morning, the foyer resembles a gallery, with enormous quilts mounted on the white walls, tiny sculptures stationed on pillars, and a handful of employees typing away at their computers. Beyond the entryway, a whole team buzzes around, readying for the day; a large 3-D printing machine whirrs in its own room. Biggers—an artist whose mediums span video, music, performance, installation, photography, and more—runs around scooping up scraps of fabric, folding them, and arranging them in plastic tubs.
Biggers calls the fabric bits and paper cutouts taped up all over the room “rough drafts”—evidence of ideas he’s been playing with that weren’t quite developed enough when it came time to put together Back to the Stars, his show at Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago, opening September 14. It is one of several projects coming to fruition this fall; Biggers also has an exhibition at Marianne Boesky, in New York, called Meet Me on the Equinox, up through October 14; and he’s unveiling two marble sculptures at the Newark Museum of Art in New Jersey on October 20.
