FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
REGEN PROJECTS
629 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Tel. (310) 276-5424
Fax. (310) 276-7430
JOHN CURRIN: New Paintings
January 30 - February 27, 1999
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11:00 AM-5:00 PM
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 30th, 6:00-8:00 PM
Regen Projects is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by John Currin. The current works will focus on the nude. Currin's paintings are lush oils often depicting a solitary female figure, nearly Mannerist in its fantastical proportions, sometimes set against a monochromatic background. As Mark Van der Walle writes, "[Currin's] paintings include offerings in an almost classical vein: portraits of women no one will ever have except on the canvas...with Ingres fingers and Botticelli stances...an impossible figure ...blend[ing] nostalgia and perverse desire into a kind of treacly goo."(Van der Walle. Parkett. No. 50/51)
Currin's paintings deal primarily with the idea of desire, at the same time eluding and embracing the cliché of desire in the form of a woman. Currin's depictions of female subjects range from portraits of teenage girls in yearbook photos, middle-aged woman at once sexual and motherly, seductive seventies starlets, and most recently voluptuous pinup girls whose extraordinary anatomies broach caricature.
There is a decadence in the detail and meticulous brushstroke of these portraits, however there is also an exploration of the notion of "minimal." While within modernism the notion of "minimal" often resulted in painting being broken down into its material components, many contemporary artists such as Currin, are applying the notion of "minimal" to the "picture" and reducing it to its most basic narrative components of subject or object and environment. In Currin's work, the female figure is often both subject and object. However, Currin's fascination with the female subject is more complex than the critique of the dominating male gaze and the objectified female figure. As Laura Hoptman writes, "If Currin's paintings recall the crassness of debased tastes, they look at it not with cruelty but with tenderness and a sense of shared culpability. In the final analysis, Currin's criticism is directed toward himself and, equally importantly, toward us as the viewers for whom these paintings offer the challenge of looking until we see their sincerity. " (Hoptman. MOMA exhibition pamphlet. 1997)
John Currin lives and works in New York. Currin's work has been exhibited throughout Europe and the United States. His work has been featured in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the ICA in London, the FRAC, Limousin in Limoges, France, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
A reception for the artist will take place on Saturday, January 30th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. For further questions please contact Shaun Caley Regen or Lisa Overduin at the gallery at (310)276-5424.
UPCOMING:
Stephan Balkenhol: New Sculpture
March 6 - April 10, 1999
REGEN PROJECTS
629 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Tel. (310) 276-5424
Fax. (310) 276-7430
JOHN CURRIN: New Paintings
January 30 - February 27, 1999
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11:00 AM-5:00 PM
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 30th, 6:00-8:00 PM
Regen Projects is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by John Currin. The current works will focus on the nude. Currin's paintings are lush oils often depicting a solitary female figure, nearly Mannerist in its fantastical proportions, sometimes set against a monochromatic background. As Mark Van der Walle writes, "[Currin's] paintings include offerings in an almost classical vein: portraits of women no one will ever have except on the canvas...with Ingres fingers and Botticelli stances...an impossible figure ...blend[ing] nostalgia and perverse desire into a kind of treacly goo."(Van der Walle. Parkett. No. 50/51)
Currin's paintings deal primarily with the idea of desire, at the same time eluding and embracing the cliché of desire in the form of a woman. Currin's depictions of female subjects range from portraits of teenage girls in yearbook photos, middle-aged woman at once sexual and motherly, seductive seventies starlets, and most recently voluptuous pinup girls whose extraordinary anatomies broach caricature.
There is a decadence in the detail and meticulous brushstroke of these portraits, however there is also an exploration of the notion of "minimal." While within modernism the notion of "minimal" often resulted in painting being broken down into its material components, many contemporary artists such as Currin, are applying the notion of "minimal" to the "picture" and reducing it to its most basic narrative components of subject or object and environment. In Currin's work, the female figure is often both subject and object. However, Currin's fascination with the female subject is more complex than the critique of the dominating male gaze and the objectified female figure. As Laura Hoptman writes, "If Currin's paintings recall the crassness of debased tastes, they look at it not with cruelty but with tenderness and a sense of shared culpability. In the final analysis, Currin's criticism is directed toward himself and, equally importantly, toward us as the viewers for whom these paintings offer the challenge of looking until we see their sincerity. " (Hoptman. MOMA exhibition pamphlet. 1997)
John Currin lives and works in New York. Currin's work has been exhibited throughout Europe and the United States. His work has been featured in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the ICA in London, the FRAC, Limousin in Limoges, France, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
A reception for the artist will take place on Saturday, January 30th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. For further questions please contact Shaun Caley Regen or Lisa Overduin at the gallery at (310)276-5424.
UPCOMING:
Stephan Balkenhol: New Sculpture
March 6 - April 10, 1999