Contemporary Art: Rodney Graham @ 303 Gallery New York

(Drivebycuriosity) - Contemporary art is full of surprises. During a recent visit of Manhattan`s art district Chelsea I discovered the art work by Rodney Graham, who was unknown to me. The Canadian artist is known for his "ultra-real works that verge on slapstick" (theguardian). If we believe "The Guardian" Graham is "a product of Vancouver’s then-thriving photo-conceptual scene, making large, backlit, staged tableaux that often referenced classical paintings even as they resembled ultra-real documentary photographs".

Gallery 303 displays some of his recent light boxes and paintings (through February 23 2019  303gallery). The people above are inspecting "Tattooed Man on Balcony" (2018, Two painted aluminum lightboxes with transmounted chromogenic transparencies).

Above you can see "Vacuuming the Gallery, 1949" (2018, Four painted aluminum lightboxes with transmounted chromogenic transparencies; 119 5/8 x 71 5/8 x 7 inches (303.8 x 181.9 x 17.8 cm) each; 119 5/8 x 294 1/2 x 7 inches (303.8 x 748 x 17.8 cm) overall. Edition of 3.

Graham got inspired by " a photograph of New York gallerist Samuel Kootz smoking a pipe in his own gallery during a Picasso exhibition in 1949. On the walls in this image are a series of Graham's own abstract paintings, part of a series of variations based on a single watercolor by Alexander Rodchenko (Abstract Composition, 1941) (pressrelease).

Above the "Remorseful Hunter" (2019, Painted aluminum lightbox with transmounted chromogenic transparency; 89 5/8 x 69 5/8 x 7 inches (227.8 x 176.9 x 17.8 cm) Edition of 5.

I really like the squirrel.

Above "Central Questions of Philosophy" (2018; Two painted aluminum lightboxes with transmounted chromogenic transparencies).

Above Graham`s painting "Untitled" (2019, Oil and sand on canvas; 83 3/4 x 100 1/4 inches (212.6 x 254.6 cm) framed


To be continued