PORTRAITS
Rowley Kennerk Gallery | 119 N. Peoria St. #3C | Chicago, IL 60607 | USA
February 6 - March 21, 2009
Rowley Kennerk Gallery is pleased to present Portraits, a group show including works by Enrico Baj, Matthias Dornfeld, Llyn Foulkes, and Molly Zuckerman-Hartung. While each of these artists is from varying backgrounds and career histories, each addresses the genre of portraiture with incidents of similarity.
Enrico Baj (1924 - 2003) is known as the founder of Movimento d'Arte Nucleare and member of COBRA. His figurative paintings and collages of politicians and atomic explosions were made with belts, string, buttons and other kitsch material. His work was embraced by Marcel Duchamp, Yves Klein, Max Ernst and Man Ray. He was also a cofounder of the Pataphysic Institute of Milan in 1963.
Matthias Dornfeld (b. 1960, Esslingen, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. Dornfeld's paintings use the traditional genres of painting as vehicles for abstractions. His heavily worked landscapes, portraits and still lifes become the foundation for boldly colored compositions. His direct engagement with the materials and surface demonstrates a practice that is at once reflexive and expressionist.
Llyn Foulkes (b. 1934, Yakima) lives and works in Los Angeles. Foulkes is known as a seminal figure in Los Angeles painting not because of his cohorts, but because of his isolation. His work addresses the North American subject matter of roadside attractions, postcards, and TV. His portraits depict anonymous sitters, significant figures in U.S. history and himself, His striking use of material foreign to traditional painting offers a literal play of light and shadow, and often a psychologically disturbing effect. He is the force behind the one man band, The Rubber Band.
Molly Zuckerman-Hartung (b. 1975, Los Gatos) lives and works in Chicago. In a recent review of her work at John Connolly Presents, Michael Newton wrote, "These paintings are small. Small and ugly. Small, ugly, abstract paintings. It would be dishonest to act like there's not a lot of this kind of work floating around these days, but Zuckerman-Hartung's feels stronger or more conductive than most. There's a charge, of relationships between bodies in space and between currents within the paintings. There's even an acknowledgement of the viewer's body, and don't we like having our bodies acknowledged?"
