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29/1/2011

New Portraiture Exhibitions

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is pleased to announce the implementation of a new curatorial programming schedule that will exclusively present seasons of simultaneous solo artist exhibitions, all linked by one common theme. This new program will debut with Portraiture at The Aldrich—six new solo projects that each deal with the topic of portraiture in a unique way, reflecting the contemporary relevance of this venerable genre—at an exhibition reception on Sunday, January 30, 2011, from 3:30 to 5:30 pm.

The Portraiture exhibitions:

Shimon Attie: MetroPAL.IS.
Shimon Attie’s high-definition video work will re-imagine the seemingly intractable Middle East conflict by focusing on New York City’s Israeli and Palestinian communities, engaging their shared secondary hybrid identity, that of being New Yorkers. Attie has filmed members of each community one at a time in a darkened studio setting, performing from a seamless document that the artist created which combines the Israeli and Palestinian Declarations of Independence. The piece, commissioned for The Aldrich, will be edited so that, like a Greek chorus, at times only one individual speaks, at others two, or eight, or none. Eight 65-inch flat screens, mounted vertically in a freestanding circle, will surround the viewer with life-size figures. Ultimately MetroPAL.IS. is a layered artwork that resists easy interpretation and defies preconceived notions of what it means to be an Israeli, a Palestinian—and a New Yorker, or by extension, an American.

Jenny Dubnau: Head On
This series of realist portrait paintings, including images of fellow Aldrich exhibiting artists, functions as a mirror that reflects back upon those whose artistic practice focuses on portraiture.

James Esber: Your Name Here
James Esber will present two recent bodies of work that continue his preoccupation with distorting the familiar. This is not a portrait project—started in 2010 and named for Magritte’s painting Ceci n’est pas une pipe—will feature over one hundred drawings made by people the artist invited to translate his drawing of Osama bin Laden into a work resembling the original, but revealing each participant’s hand. Both participants and viewers are induced to momentarily forget the familiar original image, questioning the concept of artistic authorship. The exhibition will also include new portrait-based works that utilize Esber’s technique of “painting” with colored Plasticine clay, blurring the boundaries between painting and sculpture. Focused on individuals who attained momentary fame, such as “Balloon Boy” Falcon Heene and heroic pilot “Sully” Sullenberger, they push representation to the breaking point with turbulent, psychedelic distortion that subverts our memory of each subject’s identity as furnished by the media.

Hope Gangloff: Love Letters
The first solo museum exhibition of this New York-based artist features sensual portrait paintings of the artist's friends, offering her personal vision of contemporary American life.

Thilo Hoffmann: High School Portraits
A series of photographic "self-portraits" produced by the Swiss artist in collaboration with his subjects—fourteen local students who were the creative guiding force behind the works.

Timothy White: Portraits
Beyond his mastery of technique, trust is at the core of Timothy White’s unexpected photographs of celebrities, which go beyond the veneer of fame to reveal just who his subjects really are. White’s photographic practice involves an unrivaled rapport with the Hollywood rock/movie stars with whom he has cultivated close personal relationships. White’s exhibition at The Aldrich will present approximately thirty large-scale digital prints, taken over the last two decades, capturing surprising and revealing sides of recognizable individuals, including Liz Taylor, Harrison Ford, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Whoopi Goldberg, Brad Pitt, Nicolas Cage, Will Smith, Queen Latifah, Julia Roberts, Eric Clapton, Outkast, and Keith Richards.

Also on view:

KAWS: Companion (Passing Through)
Back by popular demand, the artist who blurs the boundaries between art, design, and street culture will unveil his largest work to date in the sculpture garden—a sixteen-foot Companion!

Robert Taplin: Selections from the Punch Series, 2005-10
The fictional character Punch and his misadventures in the contemporary art world are the subject of an ongoing project, displayed in the galleries and, larger than life, on Main Street.

Contact: Pamela Ruggio, pruggio@aldrichart.org, 203.438.4519

Image: Timothy White

Opening Sunday, January, 30, 2011, 3:30 to 5:30 pm

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT 06877
Regular Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 12 noon to 5 pm.

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