Exhibition Reception at The Aldrich
Sunday, June 22, 2008; 3 to 5 pm
Round-Trip Transportation from NYC Available
258 Main Street
Ridgefield, CT 06877
ELIZABETH PEYTON AND SERGE SPITZER AT THE ALDRICH
FIRST PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION
Elizabeth Peyton: Portrait of an Artist
Larry Aldrich Award Exhibition
June 22 to November 16, 2008
On June 22, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum will mount the first exhibition of Elizabeth Peyton’s photographs. Known for her intimate paintings of both friends and celebrities, she has offered few opportunities to view her photographic work. Photography is a significant part of Peyton’s practice, as a tool for gathering imagery for her paintings and drawings, but also as an end in itself. The exhibition will include approximately fifty portraits—including two standout self-portraits—that she has taken of friends and colleagues in the creative arena between 1994 and 2008.
The Larry Aldrich Award honors an American artist whose work has had a significant impact on contemporary visual culture during recent years. Past recipients include: Kara Walker, 2005; Catherine Opie, 2004; David Hammons, 2003; Fred Wilson, 2002; Mark Dion, 2001; Doug Aitken, 2000; Janine Antoni, 1999; Ann Hamilton, 1998; Charles Ray, 1997; Robert Gober, 1996; Bruce Nauman, 1995; Cindy Sherman, 1994; and Elizabeth Murray, 1993.
MAJOR OUTDOOR SCULPTURE INSTALLATION
Serge Spitzer: Still Life
April 29 to July 13, 2008
A consistent thread in Serge Spitzer’s 35-year career as an artist has been the concept of “hiding things in plain sight.” Spitzer’s major new installation at The Aldrich, Still Life, continues this concern via the deceptively simple gesture of placing tens of thousands of custom-made tennis balls in a grid over the Museum’s two-acre sculpture garden. The balls are printed with a military-inspired, pixilated camouflage pattern that closely matches the color of the Museum’s lawn. Traditionally a still life is a composition of inanimate objects. The tennis balls in Spitzer’s Still Life, however, animate both space and meaning as circumstances cause them to move inexorably through the world like a virus, claiming their role (in the words of the artist) as “reality models.” Although simple in plan and execution, Spitzer’s project has subtle social and political overtones. Inferences can be drawn about “taking over” a fraction of Connecticut’s genteel landscape with objects that imply both leisure, play, and military occupation, while the project’s material component has been manufactured overseas, adding to the United States’s huge trade imbalance.
ALSO ON VIEW:
Painting the Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture; Halsey Burgund: ROUND; Gary Panter: Daydream Trap; and Ester Partegàs: The Invisible
Aldrich exhibitions are made possible with the support of the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Aldrich is proud to be a WNYC Cultural Arts Partner. Additional support for Painting the Glass House is provided by a generous grant from the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism. Funding for ROUND provided, in part, by the LEF Foundation’s Contemporary Work Fund and Nokia. Elizabeth Peyton’s exhibition has been made possible, in part, by a generous grant from The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. Serge Spitzer’s exhibition has been generously underwritten by Jody and Peter Robbins, and Ellen and Jerome Stern.
The Aldrich is one of the few non-collecting contemporary art museums in the United States. Founded on Ridgefield’s historic Main Street in 1964, the Museum enjoys the curatorial independence of an alternative space while maintaining the registrarial and art-handling standards of a national institution. Exhibitions feature work by emerging and mid-career artists, and education programs help adults and children to connect to today’s world through contemporary art. The Museum is located at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT 06877. All exhibitions and programs are handicapped accessible. Regular Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 12:00 noon to 5:00 pm. For more information call 203.438.4519.
Contact: Pamela Ruggio
Phone: 203.438.4519
Email: pruggio@aldrichart.org
Press Room: www.aldrichart.org/news/press.php
