Art & Art History
Depiction
Artists: Angela Altenhofen, Ben Butler, Pablo Vargas Lugo, Wilhelm Sasnal, and Rosy Winterer
Exploring what art objects do in the world today, Depiction emphasizes the direct experience of objects in response to the spin, doublespeak, and blind rhetoric that are the norm not only in American politics, but also in artistic discourse. As an answer to the question of what can be found in an object, the exhibition isolates current works that re-focus on the necessity of the art experience—that is, making and seeing in form. Extending beyond formal play, the physical phenomena of making and seeing in these paintings, sculptures, and drawings point toward the relationship between art and the world.
Has the influence of conceptualism run amuck? How far can interpretation be extended? What makes meaning in artwork? In response to the practice of attaching any number of meanings to the simplest artistic gestures, Depiction proposes that meaning resides in art objects. The exhibition does not propose a reversion to the days of high Greenbergian formalism, but a necessary correction in a world ruled by rhetoric. In response to “the rhetorical,” the paintings, drawings, and sculptures in Depiction allegorize in their formal structures seeing, making, and conceptualizing.
related:
- Ben Butler website
- Rosy Keyser on Peter Blum website
- Wilhelm Sasnal on Saatchi website
- Pablo Vargas Lugo website
PRESS RELEASE
Angela Altenhofen, Ben Butler, Wilhelm Sasnal, Pablo Vargas Lugo, Rosy Winterer
Depiction
Gallery 400
Chicago, IL
July 8–August 9, 2003
Opening Reception: Wednesday, July 9, 2003, 5-8 pm
Exploring what art objects do in the world today, Depiction re-emphasizes the direct experience of art objects. What can be found in them? As a response, the exhibition isolates current works that re-focus on the necessity of the art experience as making and seeing in form. Using formal play as a tool rather than an end, the phenomena in these paintings, sculptures, and drawings point toward the relationship between art and the world.
Depiction is generously supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; and the College of Architecture and the Arts of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
EXHIBITION SUPPORT
Depiction is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the College of Architecture and the Arts, University of Illinois at Chicago; and a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST
Angela Altenhofen
First Little Pig, 2003
Fabric, foam, and thread
Second Little Pig, 2002
Fabric, foam, and thread
Third Little Pig, 2002
Fabric, foam, and thread
Ben Butler
Scatter (I, II & III), 2003
Carpet, 72 x 72 in. each, 72 x 228 in. total
Wilhelm Sasnal
Beach, 2002
Oil on canvas, 9 1/2 x 11 7/8 in.
Grave, 2002
Oil on canvas, 43 3/8 x 51 1/8 in.
Untitled (Saturn), 2002
Oil on canvas, 19 5/8 x 19 5/8 in.
Pablo Vargas Lugo
Cross Eyed View, 2002
Paper cut-out, 29 x 29 in.
Cross Eyed View, 2002
Paper cut-out, 29 x 29 in.
Rosy Winterer
Untitled
Plywood with eyecatcher in lunar phases, 80 x 80 in.
Untitled
Blue painting with matte and gloss and boxes and mylar, 70 x 40 in.
Your Breasts are like Melons in the Tuscan Sun, 2003
Mixed media on canvas, 60 x 60 in.
CURATOR BIOGRAPHY
Lorelei Stewart, Director of Gallery 400 since 2000, has organized over 40 exhibitions, including the Joyce Award-winning exhibition Edgar Arceneaux: The Alchemy of Comedy…Stupid (2006). In 2002, she initiated the acclaimed At the Edge: Innovative Art in Chicago series, a commissioning program that encourages Chicago area artists’ experimental practices. Stewart currently serves as Interim Director of the Master of Arts in Museum and Exhibition Studies program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She holds a BA from Smith College, a BFA from Corcoran College of Art and Design, and an MA in Curatorial Studies from Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College.