Max Rippon Katalog 2015 by Beat Schöneck

MAX RIPPON Next in Line

12 September – 31 October 2015

Next in Line Characteristics that stay stubbornly present as we age and those that are discarded, substance and its absence, are tied to our identity and yet not necessarily to each other. This is something Max Rippon approaches from both conceptual and formal stances in the exhibition “Next in Line.” His latest works seem to deal with the process of maturity. Gone is the street pseudonym he carried for over a decade. It was a decade that begun with disillusionment and idealistic romance. Upon finishing his studies, the artist moved to Europe and became part of the flourishing street art scene. He brought with him his background in printmaking, painting, calligraphy and a deep-rooted sense of social concerns. During this period his work moved from projecting messages to questioning how messages are received, from making signs, to exploring the sign language of physical and digital public space. His focus became the city as storyteller, an ever-growing organism manifested by a multiplicity of diverse visual languages in the flux of time and space. As a painter, Rippon is aware of the misinformation, misinterpretations and conscious attempts to confuse or manipulate our perceptions of reality as well as the nuanced way all of this shapes our lives. In 2009, the work “10 Days” represented a shift in his practice when he painted BBC headlines from 10 consecutive days on top of each other, taping off and protecting slivers of each before the next rendered it out of sight. It was a work that dealt with the increasing speed of information and how it’s processed via collective memory. When the painting was complete, none of the headlines were visible and a fragmented narrative in the form of calculated abstraction remained. Works in this exhibition build on that project. In the painting, “R: RE: Call Me,” Rippon moves from message to media. Headlines are replaced with traces of intimate communication and memories, with questions geared towards personal identity and self-reflection instead of political events and civil concerns. As research for this painting he combed through his email archive looking for the phrase “Call me” to reflect on what circumstances meant that an email or an SMS wasn’t enough. When is a voice required?

The tape that gets stained and removed from works like this, becomes the material for new works in the “Involved with Origins” series, where stretcher bars support only the void as their function is transformed to that of almost ornamental objects decorated with waste, or new forms in their own right like in the series of works titled “Refuse Repurposed”. This “reusing” of material continues the act of material narration started in the completed process, which creates a fluent discourse on mechanical forgetfulness. It has no more bearing to its prior signification. It becomes flesh instead of filter. Conceptually, this is an approach that mirrors how memory can fade and even vanish in patterns over extended periods of times or through traumatic events. At the same time, it places a real “red thread” through over a decade of Rippon’s work by binding personal understanding and perceptions of reality to universal phenomena. Separated pieces of previous labor represent autonomous bodies and a unified being simultaneously. Tape on tape, layer to layer - the world becomes more bizarrely intertwined through the multiplicity of messages flying off the walls, screens and bodies. What will stay and what will be forgotten? What’s left between the bars? In a pair of paintings he calls a “separated diptych,” this rather formalist play is filtered into family affairs and his role as a twin brother. It’s lighter, playful and unmistakably sentimental as Rippon continues his conversation about words, sentences, ideas, objects and people living apart together, in the most personal type of vernacular. Harlan Levey

A Line As A Border and Also a Line Acrylic on canvas | 90 x 90 cm | 2015

R: Re: Call Me Acrylic on canvas | 90 x 90 cm | 2015

Those things presented as eternal must change as their foundations change (Zwei) Acrylic on linen | 190 x 110 cm | 2015

Those things presented as eternal must change as their foundations change (Ei) Acrylic on linen | 190 x 110 cm | 2015

Surreal Consciousness Real Desire Acrylic and Ink on canvas | 100 cm | 2015

A well with no water. A bird that canâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t fly. An alley with no exit. Acrylic on linen | 155 x 135 cm | 2015

A well without water. A bird that canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fly. An alley with no exit. Gdynia | Poland | 2015

Involved with Origins # 1 Masking tape Acrylic and Spraypaint on wooden stretcher bars | 45 x 45 cm | 2015

Involved with Origins # 2 Masking tape Acrylic and Spraypaint on wooden stretcher bars | 45 x 45 cm | 2015

Involved with Origins # 3 Masking tape Acrylic and Spraypaint on wooden stretcher bars | 45 x 45 cm | 2015

Involved with Origins # 4 Masking tape Acrylic and Spraypaint on wooden stretcher bars | 45 x 45 cm | 2015

Involved with Origins # 5 Masking tape Acrylic and Spraypaint on wooden stretcher bars | 80 x 80 cm | 2015

Involved with Origins # 6 Masking tape Acrylic and Spraypaint on wooden stretcher bars | 80 x 80 cm | 2015

Involved with Origins # 7 Masking tape Acrylic and Spraypaint on wooden stretcher bars | 80 x 80 cm | 2015

Involved with Origins # 8 Masking tape Acrylic and Spraypaint on wooden stretcher bars | 80 x 80 cm | 2015

Involved with Origins # 9 Masking tape Acrylic and Spraypaint on wooden stretcher bars | 90 x 90 cm | 2015

Involved with Origins # 10 Masking tape Acrylic and Spraypaint on wooden stretcher bars | 97 x 195 cm | 2015

1) Refuse Repurposed # 4 Masking tape acylic spraypaint and wax crayon on wood | 28 x 99 cm | 2015 2) Refuse Repurposed # 2 Masking tape acylic spraypaint and wax crayon on wood | 20 x 73 cm | 2015 3) Refuse Repurposed # 5 Masking tape acylic spraypaint and wax crayon on wood | 49 x 24 cm | 2015

7 4) Refuse Repurposed # 3 Masking tape acylic spraypaint and wax crayon on wood 5) Refuse Repurposed # 1 Masking tape acylic spraypaint and wax crayon on wood 6) Refuse Repurposed # 6 Masking tape acylic spraypaint and wax crayon on wood 7) Refuse Repurposed # 7 Masking tape acylic spraypaint and wax crayon on wood

| 23 x 72 cm | 2015 | 13 x 27 cm | 2015 | 48 x 33 cm | 2015 | 100 x 28 cm | 2015

MAX RIPPON b. 1983, New York City Currently based in Barcelona, Spain Selected Solo shows 2015, Sept 2014, June 2014, Feb 2013, March 2012, Aug 2011, Jan 2009, Nov 2009, Mar

„Next in Line“, Galerie Schöneck, Riehen / Basel, Switzerland „Pentimento“, StolenSpace Gallery, London, UK “W.O.W. (What Once Was)”, AF Gallery, Cologne, Germany “Cut From The Chase”, White Walls Gallery, San Francisco, USA “Signs, Fines, and Cheap Wines”, White Walls Gallery, San Francisco, USA “Don’t Get Me Wrong”, Galeria Cosmo, Barcelona, Spain “10 Days”, MuseumsQuartier Residency, Vienna, Austria “…is what I meant to say.”, No New Enemies artspace, Brussels, Belgium

Selected Group Exhibitions 2015, June „Chained“, Wunderkammern Gallery, Milan, Italy 2015, May „Manifest: Justice“, Los Angeles, USA 2015, Mar-Nov „Urban Art Biennale 2015“, Völklinger Hütte, Volklingen, Germany 2015, Jan „The Lost Mitten Society“, Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York City, USA 2014, Oct. „Shooting Star CHASE Exhibition“, Henry Moore Galleries at the Royal College of Art, London, UK 2014, Sept „Extracts“, No Romance Gallery, New York City, USA 2013, Oct “Avant Garde Urbano”, Museo Muñoz Sola de Arte Moderno, Tudela, Spain 2013, Sept “Hypergraphia”, BC Gallery, Berlin, Germany 2013, Jan “Exposition d’Hiver”, Helene Bailly Gallery, Paris, France 2012, Dec “Young Collectors Exhibition”, Leila Heller Gallery, New York City, USA 2012, Sept “Insiders”, N2 Galeria, Barcelona, Spain 2012, Aug “Detournement”, Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York City, USA 2012, Mar-June “Del Mural’ Art”, Espai Mercé Sala, Barcelona, Spain 2011-12, Dec-Apr “Wallflowers”, Carhartt Gallery, Weil Am Rhein, Germany 2011, Oct “On Every Street”, Samuel Owen Gallery, Greenwich, CT, USA 2011, July – Aug “In Black & White”, Two Window Project, Berlin, Germany 2010, Dec Impressions Visuelles & Sonores 7th annual Film Festival, Marseille, France 2010, Sept “Art You”, The Satisfactory, Basel, Switzerland 2009, May “Caligrafia,” Choque Cultural, Sao Paulo, Brazil 2008, Apr “Tres Puntos de Vista”, Border, Mexico City, Mexico 2008, Dec “The Piece Process”, Anonymous Gallery, NYC 2008, Apr Santa Monica Women’s Prison, Mexico City, Mexico (Mural project) 2007, July “Common Playground”, Centrul National al Dansului (The National Theater), Bucharest, Romania 2007, June “Ne Placa Ce Faci”, Galeria Noua, Bucharest, Romania 2006, Nov “Wooster on Spring”, 11 Spring St, Wooster Collective, NYC

Special thanks to: Beat Schöneck, Harlan Levey, Matt Bovey, Adrian Falkner, Traffic Design Festival, George Rippon, Laurie & Peter Rippon Gloria & Walter Hastreiter and Kim Hastreiter Edition of 100 Galerie Schöneck Burgstrasse 63 CH–4125 Riehen / Basel www.schoeneck.ch