Daniel Raedeke: Magasin by Bruno David Gallery

DANIEL RAEDEKE MAGASIN

DANIEL RAEDEKE: MAGASIN October 13 - November 11, 2006 Bruno David Gallery 3721 Washington Boulevard Saint Louis, 63108 Missouri, U.S.A. info@brunodavidgallery.com www.brunodavidgallery.com Director: Bruno L. David This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition DANIEL RAEDEKE: MAGASIN Editor: Bruno L. David Catalog Designer: Yoko Kiyoi Design Assistants: Sage A. David and Claudia R. David Printed in USA All works courtesy of Bruno David Gallery and Daniel Raedeke Artwork photos by Bruno David Gallery staff Cover Image: Daniel Raedeke: Ultra Bump (Pink Edition), 2006. Installation View (Detail) Glazed ceramic, 10-1/2 x 7 x 5 inches (26.67 x 17.78 x 12.7 cm), edition of 20 Copyright ÂŠ 2006 Bruno David Gallery, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of Bruno David Gallery, Inc.

Contents

Essay by Matthew Strauss Afterword by Bruno L. David Checklist of the Exhibition Biography

DANIEL RAEDEKE: Art for Sale By Matthew Strauss 2

Daniel Raedeke wants his art to be as slick as the store displays and magazines he alludes to in the title of his exhibition “Magasin”. That is not to say that the cheap disposability of the consumer culture Raedeke approximates is his end. His artistic strategy embraces the inherent appeal of various advertising’s quick communication, amplified images, and other good-looking lies. And like magazines and merchandise, Raedeke’s imagery does not bear the burden of needing to embody any great meaning or message beyond its “look”. Raedeke, complete with his own logo, needs his forms to do little more than convincingly represent the Raedeke brand. Just like the end-of-season sale rack or last week’s copy of whatever, Raedeke embraces the short shelf life of any particular idea. Each thought for a work becomes nearly obsolete as the next idea comes along; Raedeke’s painted circles replacing his earlier latex bumps, July’s issue replacing June’s. When Raedeke speaks about his art he refers to Pixar animation and Toys’R’Us as often as his more traditionally artistic forebears. He is as deeply interested in low forms of design as he is in high art. Department stores, airbrushed t-shirts and puffy corporate logos hold a place in the artist’s imagination not too far from medieval altarpieces and Jean Arp. The key question is how exactly does Raedeke’s art making and his eye for tomorrow’s trash combine to result in anything more meaningful than arty trash? In order to understand Raedeke’s work it is essential to recognize the lengths he goes to in order to achieve the appearance of something mass-produced. His art is fueled by the ironic tension in how difficult it is to make it all look so simple. The key to Raedeke is in his studied contradictions of high and low, simple and complex, hard and easy. Raedeke attacks painting’s conventions from within what amounts to a smiling, candy colored blob of a Trojan Horse. It may be that the cleverest aspect of Raedeke’s strategy is that by the time a viewer notices all of his art’s funky subversion they have already let it in the door. There is an additional conflict being cultivated within Raedeke’s tiles and ceramic sculpture. In my view utility is the death of art, and Raedke’s cast objects purposefully flirt with a suggestion of functionality, approaching the line more perilously than his paintings do, and still never quite drifting away into mere design. Within the confines of gallery walls, there is very little as tense as bearing witness to art in the act of intentionally trying to destroy itself, and that is exactly the stage that Raedeke has set.

Very often an artist with sympathies similar to Raedeke’s will rely heavily on the context of having their work placed within a museum or gallery to emphasize the distinction between the object of art and the object of origin. Something like Warhol’s Brillo Box sculptures or Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain needed to be in a gallery for the viewer to notice that something was amiss. Raedeke’s approach is less extreme than either Duchamp’s or Warhol’s, the requisite tension in Raedeke’s art being largely self-contained within the individual work’s surface, rather than in the expectations the viewer arrives with. Like a good joke, Raedeke’s art succeeds because it is true. But of course Raedeke’s art is not a joke, is not parody, and ultimately it is not quite a critique either. What makes his art meaningful is that it bravely luxuriates in its own potential meaninglessness. Raedeke’s art is a knowing acknowledgement of what art today really is, for good or bad: branded, marketed, and ultimately just another thing for sale.

— Matthew Strauss Matthew Strauss is an artist. His work was recently on view at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. His next exhibition is scheduled with the Bruno David Gallery during the 2006-2007 season. This essay is one in a series of the gallery’s exhibitions written by fellow gallery artists and friends.

Afterwords by Bruno L. David

I am pleased to exhibit a new series of work by Daniel Raedeke. This is the first solo exhibition in St. Louis for Raedeke since his wellreceived “Always Almost New” at Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, in 2004. Raedeke’s work explores the synergy between contemporary art and commercial culture. Combining his remarkable range of skills in painting, design, animation and fabrication. He painstakingly creates handmade objects from his digital sources. In the latest incarnation of his designs, he introduces new patterns and textures influenced by natural forms. He works in a wide array of formats, resulting in a colorful showroom of images and objects realized in both paint and porcelain. Raedeke’s tongue-in-cheek slogan is, “painting a better future for you,” and Magasin is a wonderfully inventive continuation of his investigations into the ever-expanding possibilities of painting. Daniel Raedeke lives and works in St. Louis. He received his MFA from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville in 2000, and has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Chicago and St. Louis.

Checklist of the exhibition and Images

OUTSIDE, 2006

Enamel on panel, 64 x 44 inches (162.56 x 111.76 cm)

TRYING AND NOT CARING, 2006

Enamel on panel, 64 x 44 inches (162.56 x 111.76 cm)

FEELD, 2006 Enamel on panel, 36 x 44 inches (91.44 x 111.76 cm)

SKETCH_CELL_SHADE, 2006

Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30 inches (60.96 x 76.20 cm)

NATURE_CELL_SHADE, 2006

Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30 inches (60.96 x 76.20 cm)

FlowRs_DESIGN SHADE, 2006

Acrylics on canvas, 24 x 24 inches (60.96 x 60.96 cm)

BUBBLES_CELL_SHADE, 2006

Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches (60.96 x 60.96 cm)

Fur Tile, 2006

Glazed ceramic, 17 x 17 inches (43.18 x 43.18 cm), edition of 10

FlowRs, 2006

Enamel on panel, 44 x 48 inches (111.76 x 121.92 cm)

NATURE, 2006

Enamel on panel, 36 inch (91.44 cm) circle

ULTRA BUMP (PINK EDITION), 2006

Glazed ceramic, 10-1/2 x 7 x 5 inches (26.67 x 17.78 x 12.7 cm), edition of 20

ULTRA FUR, 2006

Glazed ceramic, 10-1/2 x 7 x 5 inches (26.67 x 17.78 x 12.7 cm), edition of 10

ULTRA BUMP (WHITE EDITION), 2006

Glazed ceramic, 10-1/2 x 7 x 5 inches (26.67 x 17.78 x 12.7 cm), edition of 20

Daniel Raedeke: Magasin at Bruno David Gallery, 2006. (Installation View - detail)

DANIEL RAEDEKE Lives and works in St. Louis, Missouri

EDUCATION M.F.A

2000. Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Illinois

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2006 2004 2003 2001 2000

Bruno David Gallery, Magasin, Saint Louis, Missouri. Laumeier Sculpture Park: The Kranzberg Exhibition Series, Always Almost New, St. Louis, Missouri Byron Roche Gallery, Painting a Better Future for You, Chicago, Illinois Kroma, Painting a Better Future for You, St. Louis, Missouri Kroma, PAINT_INGS, St. Louis, Missouri New Wagner Gallery, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Edwardsville, Illinois The Gallery, Analog B-Sides, University City Library, Missouri

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2006 2005 2003 2002 2001

PERSONAL LOGICS/approaches to the abstract, Curated by Matthew Strauss, White Flag Projects, St. Louis, Missouri. Overview, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri. Selections from the Contemporaryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Flat Files, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Missouri Inaugural Exhibition, Bruno David gallery, St. Louis, Missouri Adaptation Syndrome: Painting in Contemporary Image Culture, Hand Workshop Art Center, Richmond, Virginia Arts Desire, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Missouri Art Chicago, Byron Roche Gallery, Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois Art Cache, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Missouri Museum of Art and Telfair Museum 305.21 Miles: The Distance Between Us, Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts, St. Louis, Missouri Seven Saint Louis Painters, R. Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Sieloff, Alison Beall, Hugh and Griffin, William Strauss, Matthew Cooper, Ivy. Bonetti, David. Krone, Thomas. Beall, Hugh. Miller, Rob. Beall, Hugh and Griffin, William Bonetti, David. Sieloff, Alison. Bonetti, David. Lombardi, Dominick. Murphy, Anne. Watkin, Mel. Cooper, Ivy. Bonetti, David. Friswold, Paul. Cooper, Ivy. Sieloff, Alison. Schroeder, Ivy. Schroeder, Ivy. Keller, Margaret.

“Art Shop”, Riverfront Times, October 12, 2006 “Bruno David Gallery: Daniel Raedeke”, Illusion Junkie, October, 2006. Video Documentary “Daniel Raedeke: Magasin.” Bruno David Gallery Publications (Catalogue), October 2006 “Bruno David Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition”, Riverfront Times, November 9, 2005. “Bruno David Gallery”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, November 9, 2005 “Bruno David Gallery”, 52nd City, October 2005, http://blog.52ndcity.com/archives “The Bruno buzz”, West End Word, October 26, 2005 “Bruno David Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition”, Saintlouisart, October 25, 2005 “Bruno David Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition”, Illusion Junkie, October 25, 2005. Video Documentary “Bruno David Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, October 20, 2005 “Grand Grand Center”, Riverfront Times, October 19, 2005 “Gallery musical chairs”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, October 1, 2005 “Adaptation Syndrome: Painting in Contemporary Image Culture”, NY ARTS, 2005 “Art News”, The Healthy Planet, September 2005, http://www.thehealthyplanet.com/sept05_artfulliving.htm “Daniel Raedeke at Laumeier Sculpture Park”, Art in America, April 2005. “Raedeke: Beta”, Laumeier Sculpture Park Catalog, June 2004 “New Fun by Raedeke”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, June 27, 2004 “Post-Post-Modern Man, The Riverfront Times, June 9, 2004 “Surviving St. Louis”, Art Papers, May/June 2004. “Raedikal”, The Riverfront Times, May 7, 2003 “Painting’s One-Man Show: Daniel Raedeke’s Paintings, Art Papers, May-June 2002 “Daniel Raedeke, New Art Examiner, January/February 2002. “Delicious colors from Raedeke’s Innovative Work, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 21, 2001.

ARTISTS Margaret Adams Ingo Baumgarten Dickson Beall (video) Laura Beard Elaine Blatt Nanette Boileau (video) Martin Brief Lisa K. Blatt Shawn Burkard Bunny Burson Carmon Colangelo Alex Couwenberg Jill Downen Yvette Drury Dubinsky Eleanor Dubinsky (video) Maya Escobar (video) Corey Escoto

Beverly Fishman Damon Freed William Griffin Joan Hall Takashi Horisaki Kim Humphries Kelley Johnson Howard Jones (Estate) Chris Kahler Bill Kohn (Estate) Katharine Kuharic Leslie Laskey Sandra Marchewa Peter Marcus Kathryn Neale Moses Nornberg

Patricia Olynyk Robert Pettus Daniel Raedeke Jessica Rogen (video) Chris Rubin de la Borbolla Cherie Sampson (video) Frank Schwaiger Charles Schwall Christina Shmigel Thomas Sleet Lindsey Stouffer The Fancy Christ Cindy Tower Ian Weaver Brett Williams (video) Ken Worley

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