The Directors of Marlborough are pleased to announce the group exhibition Look Again, curated by Casey Fremont and Karline Moeller, will open at Marlborough Chelsea on January 13, 2010. Focusing on re-appropriation, subversion and trompe l’oeil devices employed by a diverse group of international artists, the exhibition was conceived not as an exhaustive survey but rather an editorial selection that juxtaposes established artists with emerging voices. The artists included in the exhibition challenge the viewer to re-consider an artwork based on its immediate context.
Through the reconstruction of images referenced from art history or trompe l’oeil devices employed to fool the eye, the artists included in Look Again aim to disrupt the viewer’s expectations and to question the significance of art withdrawn from its original framework. While some artists reinterpret familiar subject matter or reinvent discarded materials, others anachronistically adopt the style of a modern master to purposely mislead the viewer.
The exhibition will feature paintings, sculptures, photographs and installation blanketing both floors of the Chelsea gallery. Highlights of the exhibition include a site specific installation by conceptual artist Tony Feher, a seminal sculpture by Chakaia Booker, new work by Manolo Valdés, and a rare diptych by re-contextualization pioneer Richard Pettibone. Deborah Kass will exhibit her series based on Andy Warhol’s Most Wanted posters for the first time in New York. The series, done in 1998-99 depicts art world figures like Whitney Museum curator Donna DeSalvo and MoCA’s chief curator Paul Schimmel.
Works by emerging artists include Shelter Serra’s 3-D homage to Claudio Bravo’s paintings of crushed paper and Peter Coffin’s silly putty transfers. Exhibited in New York for the first time, Coffin’s transfers represent a mirror image equated with the optics of the human eye burning an image onto the retina. Susan Collis’ examination of household objects, recreated in precious materials, were a highlight of London’s 2009 Frieze art fair. Look Again includes work by Arman, Chakaia Booker, Claudio Bravo, Grisha Bruskin, Peter Coffin, Susan Collis, Patricia Cronin, Tony Feher, Douglas Gordon, Deborah Kass, Louise Lawler, McDermott & McGough, Vik Muniz, Richard Pettibone, Shelter Serra, Hans Silvester, Manolo Valdés and Doug Wada.
Explaining the symbiotic nature of their collaboration with the gallery, Casey Fremont said, “We felt that the very act of engaging young curators (Fremont is 26 and Moeller is 24) within a landmark gallery setting is innovative.
Marlborough’s president Pierre Levai has given us the opportunity to collaborate with their expansive roster of artists and we, in turn, introduce Marlborough to a new generation of artists and fresh, young perspective.” Fremont is the Director of Art Production Fund and spends her days producing complex contemporary art installations with powerful members of the cultural community while Moeller’s recent venture Moeller Snow Gallery was known for an unconventional brand of art that pushed the limits of conceptual theory. A reception for the artists
will be held on January 13, 2010 from 6 to 8 pm. A fully illustrated exhibition catalogue with an essay by Eleanor Heartney will be available at the time of the exhibition.
