Midcity, Los Angeles
John Riepenhoff
A More Distant Present
Tanya LeightonTanya Leighton, Los Angeles, is delighted to present A More Distant Present, a solo exhibition of new works by John Riepenhoff. Riepenhoff's Night Sky paintings begin as a way to distill ego out of authorship. For over a decade, he paints solely in the dark of night, letting the experience of seeing – not his hand – guide the work. The paintings are emergent, existing in the space between abstraction and realism, where perception blurs into sensation. The only realism that can exist is the present; the moment it slips into the past, it becomes abstract. Painting is the present suspended. Rooted in observation yet open to improvisation, Riepenhoff's process draws from the natural and social landscapes that surround him. The newest works, all painted in Milwaukee, deepen the sense of atmosphere and interiority, shifting from the outward searching of earlier iterations to a more layered and ambient experience. Multiple passes build up over time, reframing and reforming the layers below, much like the night sky itself – a shifting, recursive continuum. John Riepenhoff (b. 1977, Milwaukee, WI) lives and works in Milwaukee. Riepenhoff's artistic production spans a collaborative, community-based praxis to a studio practice focused on painting and ceramic sculpture. Recent solo exhibitions include Broadway, New York in 2024; Various Small Fires, Dallas in 2023; Broadway Gallery, New York in 2022; Artbeat, Tbilisi, Georgia in 2021; Center for Contemporary Art and Culture, Portland and Night Gallery, Los Angeles in 2018; Green Tea Gallery, Fukushima, Japan in 2017; Marlborough Gallery, New York in 2016; Atlanta Contemporary Art Center and Misako & Rosen Gallery, Tokyo in 2015, among many others.