Exhibition Dates: October 4 – October 25, 2014
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 4 from 6–9 pm, in conjunction with Art for Arts’ Sake
Gallery Location: 434 Julia Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 am–5 pm
Contact Info: 504.522.1999; www.arthurrogergallery.com
The Arthur Roger Gallery is pleased to present Deborah Kass: feel good paintings for feel bad times. The exhibition will be on view at Arthur Roger@434, located at 434 Julia Street, from October 4 – October 25, 2014. The gallery will host an opening reception, with the artist in attendance, on Saturday, October 4 from 6-9 pm in conjunction with Art for Arts’ Sake.
Enough Already, 2012. Neon, transformers. 14 x 18 1/2 inches.
“These are feel good paintings for feel bad times. Redolent, nostalgic, longing for post war high times, when anything was possible. Hollywood, Broadway, even art was democratic.” – Deborah Kass
This exhibition of neon works and large-scale paintings on canvas is Deborah Kass’ second with the gallery. Drawing from contemporary society, Broadway musicals, Yiddish and prominent art figures, she continues to incorporate lyrics and vernacular, melding art history and pop culture in vibrant, resonating compositions reminiscent of Frank Stella and Ellsworth Kelly. The work is depictive of the current posture of popular and political culture and the ensuing dysphoria, especially in contrast to the optimism of the postwar era.
Deborah Kass is revered for her articulation of the female voice in a male dominated art world. A spiraling neon work titled, “After Louise Bourgeois” reads, “A woman has no place in the art world unless she proves over and over again that she won’t be eliminated.” Eric Shiner, director of the Andy Warhol Museum, describes, “Deb is an expert at putting a smile on her viewers’ faces, but she packs a wallop behind those smiles.”
Deborah Kass received her B.F.A. in Painting from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA in 1974. Prior to that she attended the Whitney Museum Independent Studies Program in New York. She has been the subject of numerous one-person exhibitions, including an exhibition originating at Tulane University Art Gallery that traveled the U.S. in 1999-2001. In the fall of 2012, The Andy Warhol Foundation presented her mid-career retrospective, accompanied by the publication of her monograph, “Deborah Kass: Before and Happily Ever After.” She is the recipient of several awards, including an NEA fellowship in painting in 1987. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Jewish Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Harvard Art Museums/ Fogg Museum. She is a Senior Critic in the Yale University Painting M.F.A. Program and currently lives and works in New York.