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28/3/2007

Two exhibitions

Christine Koenig Galerie, Wien

Stanley Whitney / Skip Arnold

Stanley Whitney was born in Philadelphia in 1946, lives and works in New York and Rome. Attended courses at Yale University, at Kansas City Art Institute and at Columbus College in Ohio. Numerous exhibits since the 70s, including the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, The Studio Museum Harlem, Jack Tilton Gallery New York, Magazzino d´Arte Moderna Rome, Zerynthia Rome, Esso Gallery New York, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. We first displayed Whitney‘s art in the exhibit Quiet As It’s Kept curated by David Hammons in 2002 and together with the Austrian painter Andreas Reiter Raabe in 2003. Catalogues with texts by Geoffrey Jacques and Raphael Rubinstein were published by the gallery for both shows.

Whitney´s works can be thought in relation to Donald Judd, Philip Guston and African esthetics. It is based on the idea of multiple horizon lines and relates to such basic human activities as textile making and architecture. The structure of the paintings by Stanley Whitney is radical through its simplicity: rectangular blocks of color are layered on top of oneanother in rows and separated by horizontal ribbons of color. This structure purely serves the purpose of painting, yet at the same time representing communication on a metabolical level. Whitney‘s art is sumptuous and laconic, its efficiency strangely correlates to the city in which he lives: New York. Not mistakenly, the arrangement and the effect of the many color applications in various shades of green, orange, red, blue, etc. have been compared to the rhythm of jazz, a visual polyrhythm. What remains fundamental is the playful approach to color, the dynamic tension that is introduced between the colors, the formal complexity, and the apparent nonchalance with which he attains it.

Third Room: Skip Arnold video films 1983 - 2007

was born in Binghamton, New York in 1957, lives and works in Los Angeles. Numerous solo performances, exhibitions and lecturers since the early 80s, including Frédéric Giroux Paris, Kunsthalle Wien, Union London, ACE Gallery New York, Nové Zamky Slovakia, Roberts & Tilton Los Angeles, Galerie MXM Prague, Shoshana Wayne Gallery Santa Monica. Born in New York in 1957, but a long-time resident of California, Skip Arnold works within the tradition of Body Art and Actionism. In his performance art, the artist seeks out extremes and intensities, testing the limits of physical endurance. Arnold isolates and alienates everyday and functionalised series of movement and behaviour mechanisms. If one wants to locate Arnold in other contexts, one can also find in his art a crossing of borders, as in the work of Chris Burden, or a certain masochism, as in the case of Bob Flanagan, aggressive and disturbing aspects, as with Bruce Nauman, as well as the exhibitionism to be found in the work of Carolee Schneeman.

He usually documents his art by means of a video camera or photography, and although his work is connected with temporal sequences, he makes intensive use of ‘catch phrases’, compressing them into memorable images: in one case, Skip Arnold’s body mutates into the root of a tree, in another Skip presents himself as Leonardo’s "vitruvian human being", naked and with extended limbs, clamped into the façade of a building (in some cases, such an action has even resulted in the arrest of the gallery owners!). Alternatively, in line with the motto ‘No risk, no fun’ and possibly intended as a homage to his teacher Chris Burden, Skip walks around the most dangerous streets of Los Angeles wearing a T-shirt displaying the letters ‘Shoot me’. Amusing or just tired of life? An enhancement of life through the ultimate kick.

(Angela Stief, 2007) Opening: March 29, 2007, 7 – 9 pm

Christine Koenig Galerie
Schleifmuehlgasse 1A - Vien
Free admission

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