Painting, Photography, Drawing

Opening Thursday, May 22, Anton Kern Gallery will show paintings, photographs and drawings by a selection of gallery and non-gallery artists.

The exhibition will offer a very personal view of tendencies in contemporary art. The idea is to also demonstrate the discourse offered in various media. Work that has been shown in the gallery this past season will be contextualized with other contemporary artists, some of whom are older and defined by the vocabulary of their art. Gallery artists such as Kai Althoff, Saul Fletcher, Lothar Hempel, Michael Joo, Sarah Morris, Marcel Odenbach, and Lara Schnitger will be contrasted with Jack Pierson, Wolfgang Tillmans, Richard Prince, Christopher Wool, Rosemarie Trockel and others.

Whether it is the playful investigations offered for example by Lara Schnitger in her photo-collages, the quirky characters in Lothar Hempel´s drawings, each artist clearly... Whether established photographers or painters who show with galleries or younger contemporary artists,  explores ways to discover new expressions of art.Beyond the legitimate boundaries imposed by either the canvas or the sheet size, each artist pushes from the realism associated with the surface to access a more investigatory exploration below it. By probing the image the composition naturally takes on a very personal dialogue.

Lara Schnitger offers pin her photo-collages, shown might appear to have little in common with Elizabeth Peyton, Rosemarie Trockel or Christopher Wool. But they do. The further the viewer digs, the more he or she is likely to find. Now more than ever, artists are more frequently working with photography than painting, yet regardless of the medium, they are fighting for the same thing. The image is the first obvious thing seen. But below that motive, demonstrated by the composition, there is something else, something hidden which needs to be be examined. The goal of the show is to demonstrate a relationship or dialogue within this group, and raise new thoughts about it.

The exhibition will run through Friday, June 20, 1997.