Abstract
ANDREW RAFACZ is pleased to announce Lake Effect / Nor’easter: Part I, an exhibition in two parts in collaboration with LAMONTAGNE (Boston) in Gallery One. Each gallery will feature works by artists represented by the other. Part One takes place at ANDREW RAFACZ, opening November 3, 2012. Part Two will take place at LAMONTAGNE, opening December 15, 2012. Chicago, IL, November 3, 2012- ANDREW RAFACZ continues the fall 2012 season with Lake Effect / Nor’easter: Part I, a collaboration with Lamontagne Gallery, Boston, featuring new works by Tory Fair, Jeff Perrott, Daniela Rivera, and Joe Wardwell. The exhibition aims to give Chicago a unique glimpse of the vitality of work being created by artists currently living and working in the Bay State. It continues through Saturday, December 22, 2012.
Referring to Tory Fair’s recent work, Dina Deitsch, curator at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, writes, “In all, they stand out as overtly human-made objects that ultimately argue for the power of the human mind to create and connect to this world.”
Jeff Perrott’s abstract, chance-based painting explores the contingent nature of existence, drawing attention to the fragile and unknowable quality of everyday life, while offering a critique of painting’s will to power and knowledge.
Daniela Rivera’s paintings are often site-specific and react to the spaces of exhibition. Recreating utilitarian uses of painting and altering representational and perceptual planes, Rivera makes the painting perform as the space and asks the body to assume the role of the figure of the painting. Rivera simultaneously manipulates the process of baroque painting techniques, representational strategies, minimalism, and the legacy of Arte Povera.
Joe Wardwell is interested in the historic link between landscape painting and the shaping of national identity, a lineage that can be traced back to the early imperial advocates of Manifest Destiny and the Hudson River School. Today, this sentiment is seen in advertisements where rugged terrain is a stand-in for American-ness. By conflating a 19th century painting style-made famous by landscape painters Thomas Cole, Frederic Erwin Church, and Albert Bierstadt-with the lyrics of American music, Wardwell creates a singular vision of contemporary America.