Michael Bauer
Glenn Brown
Rosson Crow
Rezi Van Lankveld
Albert Oehlen
Sigmar Polke
Gerhard Richter
The exhibition strives to create a context for younger artists by contrasting them with more historical figures. The practice of each of the included artists is emphasized; their investigation into painting's failures or limitations have paradoxically resulted in a new way to look at the medium.
Michael Bauer
Glenn Brown
Rosson Crow
Rezi Van Lankveld
Albert Oehlen
Sigmar Polke
Gerhard Richter
Based on the notion of
“accidental painting”, the exhibition strives to create a
context for younger artists by contrasting them with more
historical figures in order to generate a dialogue and, in
turn, elevate the artist in a framework where they belong.
The practice of each of the included artists is
emphasized; their investigation into painting’s failures or
limitations have paradoxically resulted in a new way to
look at the medium.
The exhibition will focus on the intrinsically embedded
physical properties of the included works with the way
this group of artists underline the importance of mistakes
and chance. The varied processes or treatments of material will be emphasized. The
aesthetic and conceptual relationship and the exploration and challenging of the
tropes and expectations of traditional abstract painting are highlighted.
Richter’s fundamental motivation throughout his long career has been to question
and challenge the perceived abilities of painting. Oehlen combines photographic
elements with the painted canvas by attaching them directly to its surface in order to
break down the notion of “pure painting.” Much like Polke and Oehlen before him,
Glenn Brown embraces the contentious traditions of painting with a sophistication
that comes from his ability to produce a stunning canvas by working through his
conflicted notion of painting. Polke’s irreverence for conventional techniques and
materials and his lack of allegiance to any one mode of representation is emphasized,
as is the implications of a complicated narrative that come through in his multi-layers.
Bauer uses attenuate mark making as a departure point for invention: shapes suggest themselves through impulsive drips and washes resulting in something intuitively
spontaneous yet carefully contrived. Rosson Crow’s slick and vibrant paintings of
proverbial environments pulse with saturated tension. Crow uses lustrous paint and
leaching marks to illustrate a referential dissolution of historical interiors and cultural
allusions and render luxuriant spaces that appear to collapse in upon themselves.
Whether working from an image and builds on top of it in order to pervert it or
subverting the image by pulling figures out of abstraction as is Van Lankveld’s
method, theses artists are defenders of painting’s relevance while also recognizing its
redundancies.
Image: Rosson Crow, Untitled (Moosehead) *detail, 2006. Oil on canvas. 84 x 84 inches (213.4 x 213.4 cm)
Perry Rubenstein Gallery
527 West 23rd Street
526 West 24th Street
534 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.