Huma Bhabha
Drawings
November 17, 2010 – January 15, 2011
Opening:
Wednesday, November 17, 5-7 PM
David Rabinowitch
Birth of Romanticism
November 20, 2010 – January 22, 2011
Opening:
Saturday November 20, 5-7 PM
Huma Bhabha
Drawings
November 17, 2010 – January 15, 2011
Opening:
Wednesday, November 17, 5-7 PM
Peter Blum Chelsea
526 West 29th Street
New York, NY 10001
T 212 244 6055
F 212 244 6054
chelsea [at] peterblumgallery.com
Tues-Sat: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Peter Blum is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new over-painted and collaged photographs by Huma Bhabha opening on Wednesday, November 17th at Peter Blum Chelsea, 526 West 29th Street, New York. This will be her first solo exhibition at Peter Blum.
A monograph of Huma Bhabha’s work published by Peter Blum and Salon 94 will be released on the occasion of the exhibition. The 140 page monograph includes 91 full color reproductions with a text by Thomas McEvilley and an interview with Huma Bhabha by Julie Mehretu. This will be the first complete monograph of her work.
Bhabha continues the tradition of using photographs as the basis of drawings begun in the early 20th century, but through a prism of post 2001: A Space Odyssey special effects. Using photos of seemingly empty landscapes that the artist has taken primarily in Karachi, Pakistan and also in Carrara, Italy, Bhabha creates a stage or location for the application of paint, ink and collaged elements. The main players in these narrative drenched pictures are a crew of character actors inspired by the history of expressionistic portraiture ranging from Kirchner to Basquiat. Sometime the effects are achieved through the simple act of turning a horizon on its side or creating an upside down smile in the form of a contrail. Other times the drawings are multi-layered with the original photo functioning like an armature with various forms of information applied to it. The marble mountains of Carrara are transformed into the skull of a giant mask-like head, which is decorated with collage and rough expressionistic mark making. Bhabha takes advantage of the photographs’ materiality (which is also enhanced by their large scale) by using the borders, out of focus areas, dents, the imperfections become opportunities.
The work is full of ghostly monuments, which seem to bear witness to human construction and activity, but with no comment. The atmospheres created through erasures, smudged and accidents recalls the drawings of Victor Hugo as do the gothic and romantic elements, but with Bhabha’s work the world depicted is ultimately not a world of the past or some nostalgia for the ancient but a world very much of the present where living ruins are being born with every click of the camera.
David Rabinowitch
Birth of Romanticism
November 20, 2010 – January 22, 2011
Opening:
Saturday November 20, 5-7 PM
Peter Blum Soho
99 Wooster Street
New York, NY 10012
T 212 343 0441
F 212 343 0523
soho [at] peterblumgallery.com
Tues-Fri:10:00 AM – 6:00PM
Sat: 11:00 AM– 6:00PM
Peter Blum is pleased to announce, Birth of Romanticism, a solo exhibition of mixed medium drawings by David Rabinowitch opening on Saturday, November 20th at Peter Blum Soho, 99 Wooster Street, New York. A book published by Peter Blum, Annemarie Verna Edition Zürich and Richter Verlag Düsseldorf will be released on occasion of the exhibition. The 80 page book features a text by Erich Franz.
The Birth of Romanticism series, begun in 2008, marks a new direction for the artist. The origin of the series began in the 1970s with a series of lithographs exploring the fluidity of form using subtle variations of tone. Rabinowitch named these print series after figures from the late eighteenth century Romanticism movement. Like the period after which they are named, the drawings contain a vitality and emotional quality not usually present in Rabinowitch’s sculpture or drawings. However, the series continues his investigation of space and perception.
Rabinowitch builds up the works through layering of surfaces and mediums. Linen is collaged with paper of different thicknesses and textures over which pencil, ink, pastel and gouache are applied with varying intensities. The lines are completed with a rapidity that belies the deliberateness with which the linear forms are constructed.
*Images above:
Courtesy Peter Blum Gallery, New York.
