Downtown, Los Angeles
Rita Ackermann
Jezebels
FaragoFarago is pleased to present Jezebels, an exhibition of three new works by Rita Ackermann. Ackermann's archival print series, Jezebels,, involves the manipulation of photography on multiple levels. Before being printed onto canvas, each of the three images were subject to a systematic process consisting of photography, photocopying and painting. Although they appear to be appropriated images, the origins of Ackermann's works derive from a photo shoot directed by the artist, photographed by Richard Kern, where models were staged in the foreground of existing paintings. Ackermann's use of overprinting extends the ritualistic function of the hijab as a means of occlusion by obstructing one's formal line of sight. Here, the hijab at once sexualizes and desexualizes the subjects: heightening the erotic significance of the body as much as it conceals it. A mirroring device that may be interpreted as both propaganda and anti propaganda, the works carry a contradictory message positioned between nascent life and the repressive structures that bind quotidian violence. Rita Ackermann was born in 1968 in Budapest, Hungary. She currently lives and works in New York NY. Ackermann’s solo exhibitions include ‘Chalkboard Paintings’, Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Switzerland (2015); ‘MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE-HAIRWASH’ at Sammlung Friedrichshof, Burgenland, Austria and Sammlung Friedrichshof Stadtraum, Vienna, Austria (2014); ‘Negative Muscle’, Hauser & Wirth New York, 69th Street (2013); ‘Fire by Days’, Hauser & Wirth London, Piccadilly (2012); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami FL (2012); ‘Bakos’, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary (2011) and ‘Rita Ackermann and Harmony Korine: Shadow Fux’, Swiss Institute, New York NY (2010). Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions including ‘ART STRIKES BACK’, Fundació Gaspar, Barcelona, Spain; ‘Extreme Drawing: Ballpoint Pen Drawing Since 1950’, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield CT, (2013); ‘Pivot Points: 15 Years and Counting’, MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami FL (2013); ‘Looking at Music: 3.0’, Museum of Modern Art, New York NY (2011); ‘Inaugural Exhibition’, New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art, New York NY (2010); ‘Street and Studio’, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria (2010) and ‘Whitney Biennial’, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (2008).