FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Curated by Andrea Teschke
Opening reception: May 7, 6-8 pm

Friedrich Petzel Galley is pleased to announce the first New York solo exhibition by Düsseldorf-based artist Dirk Skreber. The exhibition will feature four large-scale paintings and one sculpture.

In his figurative paintings, Skreber uses heroic scale to express sublimity, whether it is found in the calamity of a flood or train crash or the awe- inspiring beauty of an atoll in the South Pacific. The paintings exude a cool detachment; this is especially evident in his landscapes, which use aerial perspective to heighten the pervasiveness of an uncanny silence.

Through his paintings Dirk Skreber challenges seemingly contradictory ideas in contemporary painting such as abstraction and figuration, color and line, beauty and catastrophe. The content is a vehicle for an exploration of formal issues.

In 2000, Dirk Skreber was awarded the inaugural young artist prize by the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the most prestigious prize for young artists in Germany. He has exhibited in museums all over Europe including the Kunstverein Freiburg and the Kunsthaus Zurich.

The exhibition will open on May 7, with an opening reception from 6-8 pm, and will be on view through June 5, 2004. For further information, please contact the gallery at info@petzel.com, or call (212) 680-9467. Friedrich Petzel Gallery is located at 535 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011.