Fiona Rae
03 Nov - 02 Dec 2006
FIONA RAE
You are the Young and the Hopeless
November 3, 2006 — December 2, 2006
PW 545 West 22nd Street
NEW YORK, October 31, 2006—PaceWildenstein is pleased to present You are the Young and the Hopeless, Fiona Rae’s debut solo show with the gallery and her first New York exhibition in seven years, at 545 West 22nd Street, New York City from November 3rd through December 2, 2006. A selection of paintings dating from 2005-2006 will be on view. The works range in size from 23" x 16" to over 7' x 6'. A catalogue with an essay by Dave Hickey accompanies the exhibition. The gallery will host a reception for the artist on Friday, November 3rd from 6-8 p.m.
Of Rae’s paintings, Dave Hickey says in his essay, “The spill, the pour, the gestural swatch and the painterly drawing, the depictions of natural life and mythological animals, the applique and silhouette, the high, the low, the oriental, the Victorian and the late medieval all coexist in a dreamlike, pre-Enlightenment pictorial atmosphere that is less concerned with the differences than with similarities, less concerned with the hierarchal relations than with the lack thereof...Fiona Rae’s new paintings function as palimpsests of her whole persona. The Hong Kong girlhood is there, the childish enthusiasms, the taste for Bosch and Durer, the New York School aspirations....”
Beyond this Hickey examines Fiona Rae's newest work not only in the context of her own painting over the years but in the larger future of the history of art. What will happen, he asks, when "diversity reaches the threshold of entropy, when all the tribes of modernism are, once and forever shattered and dispersed and the covert bond of 'knowing' between artists, dealers, critics and collectors has evanesced into the air?" Hickey continues, "...the sense of community that is asserted by obeying the rules dissolves, and art becomes more wholly visible, more democratic, more inclusive, and more self-evident."
Fiona Rae (b.1963, Hong Kong) received her B.F.A. from Goldsmiths College, London in 1987. One year later, Damien Hirst included Rae in his now legendary group exhibition Freeze. In 1990, she was selected for the 44th Venice Biennale, and nominated for the Turner Prize at the Tate Britain, London in 1991. Soon thereafter, she was short listed for the Eliette von Karajan Prize for Young Painters in Austria.
The Saatchi Gallery exhibited Rae’s work (with Gary Hume) in 1997, and later that year, because of her association with the Young British Artists, Rae was included in the Royal Academy’s notorious 1997 traveling exhibition Sensation: Young British Artists from The Saatchi Collection. She was elected to The Royal Academy in 2002.
In 2002 the Tate Modern commissioned Rae to paint a 10-meter triptych, Shadowland, for the museum’s restaurant. The following year, she received a major commission for the BBC. The result was, Signal, an installation for Art Site, BBC’s Broadcasting House Public Art Program, in London.
The Carre d'Art in Nimes, France mounted a large survey exhibition of her work in 2002. Following this show, Rae joined the Timothy Taylor Gallery in London, and her first solo exhibition, Hong Kong Garden, opened to critical acclaim.
The Tate appointed Rae to its Board of Trustees in 2005.
Fiona Rae’s work can be found in 23 public collections worldwide, including the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, England; Carre d'Art, Musee d'Art Contemporain, Nimes; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum of Contemporary Art, Berlin; Museum of Modern Art, Sintra, Portugal; Tate Collection, London; and Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
Fiona Rae currently lives and works in London.
Additional information is available upon request by contacting Jennifer Benz Joy, Public Relations Associate, at 212.421.3292 or via email at jjoy@pacewildenstein.com.
© Fiona Rae
Cute Motion!! So Lovely!!, 2005
oil, acrylic and gouache on canvas
91" x 75" (231.1 cm x 190.5 cm)
You are the Young and the Hopeless
November 3, 2006 — December 2, 2006
PW 545 West 22nd Street
NEW YORK, October 31, 2006—PaceWildenstein is pleased to present You are the Young and the Hopeless, Fiona Rae’s debut solo show with the gallery and her first New York exhibition in seven years, at 545 West 22nd Street, New York City from November 3rd through December 2, 2006. A selection of paintings dating from 2005-2006 will be on view. The works range in size from 23" x 16" to over 7' x 6'. A catalogue with an essay by Dave Hickey accompanies the exhibition. The gallery will host a reception for the artist on Friday, November 3rd from 6-8 p.m.
Of Rae’s paintings, Dave Hickey says in his essay, “The spill, the pour, the gestural swatch and the painterly drawing, the depictions of natural life and mythological animals, the applique and silhouette, the high, the low, the oriental, the Victorian and the late medieval all coexist in a dreamlike, pre-Enlightenment pictorial atmosphere that is less concerned with the differences than with similarities, less concerned with the hierarchal relations than with the lack thereof...Fiona Rae’s new paintings function as palimpsests of her whole persona. The Hong Kong girlhood is there, the childish enthusiasms, the taste for Bosch and Durer, the New York School aspirations....”
Beyond this Hickey examines Fiona Rae's newest work not only in the context of her own painting over the years but in the larger future of the history of art. What will happen, he asks, when "diversity reaches the threshold of entropy, when all the tribes of modernism are, once and forever shattered and dispersed and the covert bond of 'knowing' between artists, dealers, critics and collectors has evanesced into the air?" Hickey continues, "...the sense of community that is asserted by obeying the rules dissolves, and art becomes more wholly visible, more democratic, more inclusive, and more self-evident."
Fiona Rae (b.1963, Hong Kong) received her B.F.A. from Goldsmiths College, London in 1987. One year later, Damien Hirst included Rae in his now legendary group exhibition Freeze. In 1990, she was selected for the 44th Venice Biennale, and nominated for the Turner Prize at the Tate Britain, London in 1991. Soon thereafter, she was short listed for the Eliette von Karajan Prize for Young Painters in Austria.
The Saatchi Gallery exhibited Rae’s work (with Gary Hume) in 1997, and later that year, because of her association with the Young British Artists, Rae was included in the Royal Academy’s notorious 1997 traveling exhibition Sensation: Young British Artists from The Saatchi Collection. She was elected to The Royal Academy in 2002.
In 2002 the Tate Modern commissioned Rae to paint a 10-meter triptych, Shadowland, for the museum’s restaurant. The following year, she received a major commission for the BBC. The result was, Signal, an installation for Art Site, BBC’s Broadcasting House Public Art Program, in London.
The Carre d'Art in Nimes, France mounted a large survey exhibition of her work in 2002. Following this show, Rae joined the Timothy Taylor Gallery in London, and her first solo exhibition, Hong Kong Garden, opened to critical acclaim.
The Tate appointed Rae to its Board of Trustees in 2005.
Fiona Rae’s work can be found in 23 public collections worldwide, including the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, England; Carre d'Art, Musee d'Art Contemporain, Nimes; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum of Contemporary Art, Berlin; Museum of Modern Art, Sintra, Portugal; Tate Collection, London; and Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
Fiona Rae currently lives and works in London.
Additional information is available upon request by contacting Jennifer Benz Joy, Public Relations Associate, at 212.421.3292 or via email at jjoy@pacewildenstein.com.
© Fiona Rae
Cute Motion!! So Lovely!!, 2005
oil, acrylic and gouache on canvas
91" x 75" (231.1 cm x 190.5 cm)