RH Gallery is pleased to present "Toxic Land," a presentation inspired by Micah Ganske's current exhibition: Tomorrow Land featuring Walter Mugdan a director from the Environmental Protection Agency and Lydia Xynogala.

137 Duane St
December 8
6-8pm
RSVP to events@rhgallery.com required

View Press Release Here

RH Gallery is proud to announce Micah Ganske has recently been awarded the Canson's & Beautiful/Decay's Wet Paint Grant!

View Article Here

Out of Focus: After Gerhard Richter
On View from February 11 to May 22, 2011

List of Artists:
Pablo Alonso, David Armstrong, Anna und Bernhard Blume, Michael Engler, Wolfgang Ellenrieder, Isca Greenfield-Sanders, Maxine Henryson, Bill Jacobson, Adam Jankowski, Tamara K.E., Wolfgang Kessler, Karin Kneffel, Peter Loewy, Marc Lüders, Ralf Peters, Qiu Shihua, Gerhard Richter, Ugo Rondinone, Johanna Smiatek, Thomas Steffl, Ernst Volland, Franziskus Wendels, Michael Wesely und Paul Winstanley.

Since the 1960s, the art of Gerhard Richter (*1932) has been marked by an out-of-focus appearance. Just as Georg Baselitz has become famous for turning his pictures’ motifs upside down, the blurred and hazy, out-of-focus appearance is seen as typical for Richter’s paintings. This holds true for his representations of figures, landscapes or still-life paintings just as it does for his abstract paintings.

In this way he picks up on a principle that has been introduced into the tradition of European painting since the fifteenth century, like for example in the sfumato-technique of Leonardo da Vinci. Never before however, did the phenomenon of blurred and hazy images take on such a dominant role as in the paintings by Richter. In addition, one major innovation is that even his abstract paintings are blurred and out of focus in certain sections or in overall appearance. Since its first appearance in paintings by Gerhard Richter, the blurred surface has become a central characteristic in both figurative and abstract paintings and photographs by a large number of younger artists. This exhibition for the first time offers a closer, coherent look at this stylistic principle by presenting the paintings and photographic works by twenty-one artists born after 1960 together with around twenty works and an early experimental film by Gerhard Richter. As a part of the language of their images these artists employ the means of blurring consciously and in different combinations. In this they follow Richter who has given shape to the hazy image surface in many guises. There are, for example, the effects of a softened touch, of a veiled surface that render the images romantic or nostalgic or lend them the touch of mystery. The bleary haze of things in motion, by contrast, represents the progress and dynamism of modern life, and draws on entirely opposed sources.

A third aspect is that of different interferences that leave the images and their motifs hardly discernable at all. The pictures’ contours and surfaces appear dissolved unto a point where the represented subjects are no longer identifiable. This kind of painterly rendition, more often than not taking its cue from photographic sources, pulls into question the representational function of photography that is in most instances still taken for granted. At the same time it raises doubts as to whether a painting in question is a painterly and blurred reproduction of a clear photograph or a precisely painted reproduction of a photograph that is out of focus. Moreover, the tendency to dissolve the seen image by means of extreme enlargement, pixelation or its wiping-out raises questions about the truthful representation of the reality we perceive and about the function of the painted image for our apperception. The degrees of blurring in painting and photography define the border between realism and abstraction (clarity and precision) in the representation of reality. They point to the double function of representation between a naturalist reflection and the autonomy in the employment of artistic devices. In its ability to reconcile opposites the blurring of images is at the same time symptomatic for postmodernity, as Wolfgang Ullrich writes in Die Geschichte der Unschärfe (The History of Images out of focus, 2002). As a part of their pictorial language the artists employ different kinds of blurring in various combinations. A real boom of blurred representations can be observed way beyond painting and artistic photography. In popular culture, like the advertising industry’s output, images that appear out of focus have become highly popular. This once more demonstrates how the high and the applied arts exert a profound influence on each other within today’s culture.

(The show will run alongside Gerhard Richter. Bilder einer Epoche that will be on display at the Bucerius Kunstforum from 5 February to 15 May 2011)

South Africa’s history of apartheid, transition to democracy, and post-apartheid concerns have had a palpable corollary effect on artistic production there. Printmaking, with its flexible techniques and formats, has played a vital—if not singular—role during these periods of unprecedented change. From bold black-and-white linoleum cuts made at community art centers, to printed posters disseminated during political resistance, to the variety of approaches embraced by artists and printshops today, this exhibition introduces how printmaking and the communal space of the workshop have been a driving force in contemporary South African artistic expression.

Comprising recent acquisitions to the Museum’s collection, the exhibition will include over 70 works, showcasing some 20 South African artists on view for the first time at MoMA. Among the artists featured are Bittercomix, Norman Catherine, Kudzanai Chiuri, Paul Edmunds, Sandile Goje, William Kentridge, Senzeni Marasela, John Muafangejo, Cameron Platter, Dan Rakgoathe, Joachim Schönfeldt, Claudette Schreuders, Diane Victor, Sue Williamson, and Vuyile Voyiya. All works are in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition is organized by Judith B. Hecker, Assistant Curator, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, The Museum of Modern Art, and will be accompanied by a catalogue.

NY Premiere:
December 10, 2010
7pm

Produced by Robert Adanto, Rebecca Heidenberg and Micah Levin, Pearls On The Ocean Floor is a documentary film exploring the lives and works of Iranian female artists featuring: Shirin Neshat, Parastou Forouhar, and Layla S. Diba among others. The film premiered at the LACMA in Los Angeles and is slated to screen at The Smithsonian as well as the Boston MFA in 2011. Click on the image for an excerpt from the film.

ROBERT ADANTO: Pearls on the Ocean Floor is Robert Adanto's second feature-length documentary film on contemporary art. Adanto’s first film, The Rising Tide, documents the lives and works of Chinese contemporary artists.

DR. ROBERT C. MORGAN: internationally renowned art critic, curator and artist, Morgan is perhaps the only American art critic to have been officially invited to Iran in over thirty years where he has spoken about art and participated in several exhibitions. His numerous books and essays have been published around the world.

MARYAM EISLER: An invaluable patron of the arts, Eisler is co-chair of the Tate Middle East North Africa Acquisition Committee and the executive editor of Art & Patronage: The Middle East to be published by Thames and Hudson in December 2010. The book profiles over 100 leading collectors, patrons and institutions shaping the new cultural landscape of the Middle East and includes essays by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Layla S. Diba. (Available For Purchase at RH Gallery)

Sara Rahbar: Featured in Pearls on the Ocean Floor, Rahbar is an artist based in New York and Tehran. Her work explores identity and memory with photography as well as traditional materials transformed into proto-contemporary textiles and textures of national belonging. The flag, a symbol of ideological and nationalistic violence, has been one of the main focuses of her collage works. Rahbar's work has been widely exhibited around the world and is represented in many exclusive collections including Centre Pompidou, Saatchi Collection and Burger Collection.

The first area of emphasis is represented by the Verein für Original-Radierung (Association for Original Etchings) which has become an archive of contemporary art books production. A selection of art books and special editions in the 'temporary reference library' – developed by the Munich sculptor Martin Wohrl specially for the exhibition – gives the visitor direct access to the medium.

The second is represented by four site-specific artistic interventions in antiquarian bookshops and the opening of the archive for art books and more. In addition to the artistic approach of the individual sites, here the central emphasis is on the discussion dealing with the fundamental changes pertaining to all sectors of the book market (such as the manufacture, the distribution of books, the reading of them etc.).

An exhibition of international artists in the Artothek represents the project's third area of emphasis. Here, the imaginary and political areas that open up the medium of the book as an instrument for imparting knowledge are questioned. In the dynamic field situated between power and powerlessness, works by the artists Albert Coers, Jean-Pascal Flavien / Julien Bismuth, Loek Grootjans and Jovana Popic deal with the scenario of the disappearance of the book and the related values and knowledge systems.

The exhibition project 'The Grammar of Books' is positioned at the interface of differing disciplines. It represents the discussion surrounding the book as a theme and its role as an instrument for imparting knowledge, as a commercial object and a subject of artistic communication. Many of the artistic works tackle the theme of structural conditions in knowledge production. Furthermore, the exhibition highlights the increase in production runs of a very small number of copies using classical printing techniques such as woodcuts and etchings. Last but not least the significance of newly introduced technologies is examined as well as the changes they cause. The project 'The grammar of books' aims at reflecting on the origins and historical manifestations of book printing in the context of current issues and social discourse.

Organized and curated by Wolfgang Ellenrieder and Anna Schneider
Curatorial support by Clara Meister (Intervention III) and Heike Ander (Intervention IV)


Temporary Reference Library
Architectural installation by Martin Wohrl (Munich)
Opening day: Thursday, 14.10.2010, 7pm
Exhibition dates: 15.10.10 - 12.11.2010

The exhibition in the Verein für Original-Radierung makes available international art books and editions with a printing run of a very small number of copies, which are at the interface between objects of art and objects of daily use in a temporary library conceived specifically for this purpose.
Location: Verein für Original-Radierung München e.V., Ludwigstrasse 7, 80539 Munich.


Site-specific Interventions in Antiquarian Bookshops
Opening day with tour, Saturday, 16.10.2010, 2-6pm
Artistic interventions are to be found in the windows or on the premises of four antiquarian bookshops within walking distance of each other. Here, the topic for the artists is to accept the individual site, to reflect on its significance as a storehouse of knowledge and as a window to another world, and to set it in a new context.

Locations:
• Intervention I: 'Total Sellout' by Christoph Ruckhäberle (Leipzig) c/o Antiquariat Kitzinger, Schellingstrasse 25, 80799 Munich
• Intervention II: 'Clio' by Florian Schneider (Paris/Berlin) c/o Antiquariat Knobloch, Schellingstrasse 32, 80799 Munich
• Intervention III: 'All the Time' by Julieta Aranda (Berlin), Nico Dockx (Antwerp) and Douglas Gordon (Berlin); curated by Clara Meister c/o Antiquariat Zipprich, Zieblandstrasse 2, 80799 Munich
• Intervention IV: 14th Box-Performance by Olaf Probst (Munich); 5pm curated by Heike Ander c/o Basis bookshop, Adalbertstrasse 41, 80799 Munich
• Archive for art books and more: collector's selection of magazines from art to life style c/o Archive for art books and more, Türkenstrasse 60, 80799 Munich


Final Character
Opening: Tuesday, 19.10.2010, 7pm
Exhibition dates: 20.10.10 - 6.11.2010
Forms of deconstruction of the book. Works by Albert Coers (Berlin), Loek Grootjans (Breda), Jean-Pascal Flavien (Berlin) / Julien Bismuth (New York) and Jovana Popic (Berlin)
Location: Artothek, Bildersaal, Galerie und Kunstverleih der Stadt München, Rosental 16, 80331 Munich


Press contact: Anna Schneider, schneider@radierverein.de, +49-(0)89-280 884

Supported by Kulturreferat München, Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst, Color Gruppe, Stiftung Federkiel.

Dante Horoiwa, Distracted We'll Win, 2009.
Mixed media on canvas. 47" X 59".

Parastou Forouhar, Written Room, 2001. Pigment and gouache. Site specific installation at Frauen Museum, Bonn.