Rudolf Stingel
16 Oct - 22 Dec 2012
© Rudolf Stingel
Untitled, 2012
Galvanized cast copper
94 1/2 x 189 x 1 1/2 inches (240 x 480.1 x 3.8 cm)
Photo by Alessandro Zambianchi
Untitled, 2012
Galvanized cast copper
94 1/2 x 189 x 1 1/2 inches (240 x 480.1 x 3.8 cm)
Photo by Alessandro Zambianchi
RUDOLF STINGEL
16 October – 22 December 2012
Gagosian Paris is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Rudolf Stingel.
Casting and plating large sections of graffiti-covered Celotex insulation panels, Stingel has produced opulent paintings that both celebrate and memorialize the passage of time. The original panels for these paintings come from the environmental installations of his mid-career retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Whitney Museum in New York in 2007. In each of these renowned participatory works, Stingel transformed the exhibition space by covering the walls in a layer of reflective aluminum-faced insulation material. Viewers were free to further transform the spaces by scratching, writing, and marking the pristine yet vulnerable material with whatever was at hand, leaving individual traces that were soon subsumed into the accumulated mass of marks that the space became. The new works are selected fragments of those inscribed walls cast in copper via a process that captures even the most delicate surface detail. The cast base is then electroplated with gold, transforming the random inscriptions alchemically and permanently into something new and shamelessly beautiful.
Central to Stingel's oeuvre is the passage of time rendered palpable, together with the expansion of the vocabulary of painting and its perception: from the abstract tulle silver paintings of the 1990s to the carpet installations that aestheticized both the surface of spaces and visitors' traces; from the series of melancholic self-portraits to the latest gold studio-floor paintings. Stingel's artistic output is prolific and visually diverse, yet meticulous and generous in its offering. The new panel paintings are no exception—a new form of luxurious abstraction born of humble materials and mundane gestures.
Rudolf Stingel was born in 1956 in Merano, Italy. Recent solo exhibitions include Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Trento, Italy (2001); Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2004); Inverleith House, Edinburgh (2006); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2007, traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York); Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2010) and Wiener Secession (2012). His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including the Biennale di Venezia (1993, 2003); "Day for Night: Whitney Biennial," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2006); "Life on Mars: 55th Carnegie International," Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA (2008); and "Mapping the Studio: Artists from the François Pinault Collection," Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2009).
Stingel lives and works in New York and Merano, Italy.
16 October – 22 December 2012
Gagosian Paris is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Rudolf Stingel.
Casting and plating large sections of graffiti-covered Celotex insulation panels, Stingel has produced opulent paintings that both celebrate and memorialize the passage of time. The original panels for these paintings come from the environmental installations of his mid-career retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the Whitney Museum in New York in 2007. In each of these renowned participatory works, Stingel transformed the exhibition space by covering the walls in a layer of reflective aluminum-faced insulation material. Viewers were free to further transform the spaces by scratching, writing, and marking the pristine yet vulnerable material with whatever was at hand, leaving individual traces that were soon subsumed into the accumulated mass of marks that the space became. The new works are selected fragments of those inscribed walls cast in copper via a process that captures even the most delicate surface detail. The cast base is then electroplated with gold, transforming the random inscriptions alchemically and permanently into something new and shamelessly beautiful.
Central to Stingel's oeuvre is the passage of time rendered palpable, together with the expansion of the vocabulary of painting and its perception: from the abstract tulle silver paintings of the 1990s to the carpet installations that aestheticized both the surface of spaces and visitors' traces; from the series of melancholic self-portraits to the latest gold studio-floor paintings. Stingel's artistic output is prolific and visually diverse, yet meticulous and generous in its offering. The new panel paintings are no exception—a new form of luxurious abstraction born of humble materials and mundane gestures.
Rudolf Stingel was born in 1956 in Merano, Italy. Recent solo exhibitions include Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Trento, Italy (2001); Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2004); Inverleith House, Edinburgh (2006); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2007, traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York); Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2010) and Wiener Secession (2012). His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including the Biennale di Venezia (1993, 2003); "Day for Night: Whitney Biennial," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2006); "Life on Mars: 55th Carnegie International," Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA (2008); and "Mapping the Studio: Artists from the François Pinault Collection," Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2009).
Stingel lives and works in New York and Merano, Italy.