Open: Tue-Sun 11am-6pm

901 East 3rd Street, CA 90013, Los Angeles, United States
Open: Tue-Sun 11am-6pm


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Rita Ackermann. Vertical Vanish

Hauser & Wirth Downtown, Los Angeles

Thu 2 Feb 2023 to Sun 30 Apr 2023

901 East 3rd Street, CA 90013 Rita Ackermann. Vertical Vanish

Tue-Sun 11am-6pm

Artist: Rita Ackermann

Hauser & Wirth presents ‘Vertical Vanish,’ an exhibition of recent paintings by Hungarian-born artist Rita Ackermann. This is Ackermann’s first West Coast exhibition with the gallery.


Artworks

Vertical Vanish

Rita Ackermann

Vertical Vanish, 2022

Oil and acrylic on canvas

1676 × 1956 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Touch Down

Rita Ackermann

Touch Down, 2022

Oil and acrylic on canvas

1702 × 1880 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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32 Paths

Rita Ackermann

32 Paths, 2022

Oil and china marker on canvas

1651 × 1981 × 1930 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Apples with Honey

Rita Ackermann

Apples with Honey, 2022

Acrylic, oil and china marker on canvas

1829 × 1880 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Blood on the Dance Floor

Rita Ackermann

Blood on the Dance Floor, 2022

Acrylic, oil and china marker on canvas

1829 × 1880 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Home Run

Rita Ackermann

Home Run, 2022

Acrylic and oil on canvas

1702 × 1930 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Black Diamond Bay

Rita Ackermann

Black Diamond Bay, 2022

Acrylic, oil, pigment and china marker on linen

1600 × 1829 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Michael Sails the Red Sea

Rita Ackermann

Michael Sails the Red Sea, 2022

Acrylic, oil, pigment and china marker on linen

1803 × 1930 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Royal Exit

Rita Ackermann

Royal Exit, 2022

Acrylic, oil and china marker

1930 × 2134 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Van Gogh is Her Boy

Rita Ackermann

Van Gogh is Her Boy, 2022

Acrylic, china marker and oil on canvas

1930 × 2134 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Golden Hour

Rita Ackermann

Golden Hour, 2022

Acrylic, oil and china marker on canvas

1930 × 2134 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Hidden

Rita Ackermann

Hidden, 2022

Acrylic, oil and china marker on canvas

2134 × 1930 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Heavy Waves

Rita Ackermann

Heavy Waves, 2022

Oil on monotype print

762 × 559 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Sailing in the Dark

Rita Ackermann

Sailing in the Dark, 2022

Oil on monotype print

762 × 559 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Sandman's Dust I

Rita Ackermann

Sandman's Dust I, 2022

Oil on unique monotype print

572 × 762 × 762 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Sandman's Dust II

Rita Ackermann

Sandman's Dust II, 2022

Oil and pigment on unique monotype print

572 × 762 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Sandman's Dust III

Rita Ackermann

Sandman's Dust III, 2022

Oil on unique monotype print

572 × 762 mm

© Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas Barratt

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Installation Views

Composed primarily of large-scale oil paintings that intuitively recast the interplay of line, color and form, ‘Vertical Vanish’ makes a game of repeated gestures, figures and motifs. Pre-drawn scenes obscurely emerge from the background, only to disappear into impasto fields of imbricated color. Through a series of gestural interventions guided by the artist’s hand – an admixture of drawing, painting and erasure – oil paints, China markers and acrylics are heavily worked onto surfaces of canvas or raw linen. The lines constituting Ackermann’s figures are lost to near total abstraction; thickly applied washes of paint are scraped away at, giving rise to revelatory compositions. In addition to the larger works, a selection of small, overpainted monotype prints on paper (all dating from 2022) will also be on view. These small paintings occupy a middle distance between the mindful reworking of available materials at hand and the unveiling of hidden motifs.

In works such as ‘Vertical Vanish’ (2022), the painting from which the exhibition’s name derives, underlying figures are overlaid with vivid detonations of color. The materialized afterimage of these colored saturations acts like a veil which seems to environ the viewer while falling just shy of articulating any precise narrative. The measured intensity by which pigments are worked over communicates the purposeful energy of a spatial calligraphy. Relative to the three erased figures at the foreground of the canvas, the ascending vertical spiral becomes the centerpiece of the painting, preserving the harmony of opposing rhythms.

The kind of dynamism Ackermann’s paintings communicate at least partially derives from the sense of urgency that goes into making them. Working on a particular picture may very well involve entering into the uncertain arena of various rescue operations: unforeseeable problems or intended accidents that the artist has to work around or assimilate. As they move toward their final composition, Ackermann’s paintings reflect the perpetual motion of these various survival missions. In this, her layered surfaces are haloed with the aura of many residual, activating gestures.

– Jeffrey Grunthaner

About the artist
Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1968, Ackermann currently lives and works in New York. Ackermann’s practice manifests in paintings and works on paper that propose a continuous shift between representation and abstraction. Employing a range of media, including oil and acrylic paint, pastel, wax pencil and raw pigment, her expression hinges on automatic gestures and opposing impulses of creation and destruction.

‘Hidden,’ a forthcoming solo exhibition of Ackermann’s work will open at MASI Lugano, Switzerland on 12 March. Recent solo exhibitions include: ‘Mama ‘19,’ Hauser & Wirth New York, 22nd Street (2020), ‘Brother Sister,’ Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Switzerland (2019), ‘Movements as Monuments,’ La Triennale di Milano, Italy (2018); ‘Turning Air Blue,’ Hauser & Wirth Somerset, England (2017); ‘KLINE RAPE,’ Hauser & Wirth New York, 22nd Street (2016); ‘The Aesthetic of Disappearance,’ Malmö Konsthall, Malmo, Sweden (2016); ‘Chalkboard Paintings,’ Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Switzerland (2015); ‘MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE-HAIR WASH,’ Sammlung Friedrichshof, Burgenland, Austria and Sammlung Friedrichshof Stadtraum, Vienna, Austria (2014); ‘Negative Muscle,’ Hauser & Wirth New York, 69th Street (2013); ‘Fire by Days,’ Hauser & Wirth London, Piccadilly (2012); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami FL (2012); ‘Bakos,’ Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary (2011); and ‘Rita Ackermann and Harmony Korine: ShadowFux,’ Swiss Institute, New York NY (2010).

Installation view, ‘Rita Ackermann. Vertical Vanish,’ Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles, 2023, 2 February – 30 April 2023 © Rita Ackermann. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Keith Lubow

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