Christoph Ruckhäberle
09 Jun - 21 Jul 2012
CHRISTOPH RUCKHÄBERLE
Die Stadt
9 June – 21 July 2012
Campoli Presti is pleased to present Die Stadt, Christoph Ruckhäberle’s sixth exhibition at the gallery.
The visual world of Ruckhäberle is populated by odd hard-edged figures standing in front of rhythmic backgrounds. Vivid drawings of faces are composed from a rich and playful vocabulary of forms. The seemingly naïve quality of the paintings is subdued by a mysterious, bittersweet tone that gives a disconnecting feeling of timelessness and a sense of alienation in most of his characters.
The successive superposition of elements, selected and rearranged in various configurations gives a quality in Ruckhäberle's work that he describes as “a construction of reality, not a representation or impression.” Rather than depicting reality, he builds scenes of interaction by distributing sharply separated figure fields and individual colour layers. These broken forms reveal the relationship between Ruckhäberle's knowledge of classical painting and his training in film.
This most recent body of paintings reveals his interest in experimental German cinema from the 1920s which explored the use of fast cutting to create rhythm and rapid display of sequences. In Ruckhäberle's series of sequenced portraits, each subject forms a distinct narrative unit yet connected by a certain mechanical rhythm. Just as Fritz Lang Metropolis’ stupefying repetitions of the clock, these reproduced figures end up estranged by automatism. Exploring the boundaries between the individual’s own and forced tempo, cinema’s ability to visualise movement is transferred into painting.
Christoph Ruckhäberle lives and works in Leipzig. His work is part of the permanent collections of MoMA, New York and the Migros Museum, Zurich. Ruckhäberle studied between 1991 and 1992 at the California Institute of Arts Valencia, and graduated in his Master studies in Leipzig under Prof. Arno Rink. His work was recently exhibited at the Museo Nacional de la Estampa, Mexico City as part of the group exhibition LUBOK. Grafica contemporanea y libros de artistas de Leipzig. Past exhibitions include Christoph Ruckhäberle, Migros Museum, Zurich (2009), Manifesta 7 (2008), Life After Death, Frye Art Museum, Seattle (2007) and Triumph of Painting, Saatchi Gallery, London (2006).
Die Stadt
9 June – 21 July 2012
Campoli Presti is pleased to present Die Stadt, Christoph Ruckhäberle’s sixth exhibition at the gallery.
The visual world of Ruckhäberle is populated by odd hard-edged figures standing in front of rhythmic backgrounds. Vivid drawings of faces are composed from a rich and playful vocabulary of forms. The seemingly naïve quality of the paintings is subdued by a mysterious, bittersweet tone that gives a disconnecting feeling of timelessness and a sense of alienation in most of his characters.
The successive superposition of elements, selected and rearranged in various configurations gives a quality in Ruckhäberle's work that he describes as “a construction of reality, not a representation or impression.” Rather than depicting reality, he builds scenes of interaction by distributing sharply separated figure fields and individual colour layers. These broken forms reveal the relationship between Ruckhäberle's knowledge of classical painting and his training in film.
This most recent body of paintings reveals his interest in experimental German cinema from the 1920s which explored the use of fast cutting to create rhythm and rapid display of sequences. In Ruckhäberle's series of sequenced portraits, each subject forms a distinct narrative unit yet connected by a certain mechanical rhythm. Just as Fritz Lang Metropolis’ stupefying repetitions of the clock, these reproduced figures end up estranged by automatism. Exploring the boundaries between the individual’s own and forced tempo, cinema’s ability to visualise movement is transferred into painting.
Christoph Ruckhäberle lives and works in Leipzig. His work is part of the permanent collections of MoMA, New York and the Migros Museum, Zurich. Ruckhäberle studied between 1991 and 1992 at the California Institute of Arts Valencia, and graduated in his Master studies in Leipzig under Prof. Arno Rink. His work was recently exhibited at the Museo Nacional de la Estampa, Mexico City as part of the group exhibition LUBOK. Grafica contemporanea y libros de artistas de Leipzig. Past exhibitions include Christoph Ruckhäberle, Migros Museum, Zurich (2009), Manifesta 7 (2008), Life After Death, Frye Art Museum, Seattle (2007) and Triumph of Painting, Saatchi Gallery, London (2006).