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Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals
Installation view 1
2016

Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals
Installation view 2
2016

Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals
Installation view 3
2016

Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals
Installation view 4
2016

Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals
Installation view 5
2016

Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals
Installation view 6
2016

Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals
Installation view 7
2016

Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals
Installation view 8
2016

Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals
Installation view 9
2016

Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals
Installation view 10
2016

Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals
Installation view 11
2016

Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals
Installation view 12
2016

Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals
Installation view 13
2016

Fine Young Cannibals

Fine Young Cannibals
Installation view 14
2016

Michael Krebber MK.164

Michael Krebber
MK.164
2011
Acrylic on canvas
14 x 18 inches

Michael Krebber MK.325

Michael Krebber
MK.325
2011
Acrylic on canvas
86.625 x 59.125 inches

Seth Price Street Style Print Test

Seth Price
Street Style Print Test
2015
Oil paint print, screen printing, acrylic paint, gel polymer, and pigmented acrylic polymers on wood
56 x 41 inches

Jacqueline Humphries :):(

Jacqueline Humphries
:):(
2016
Oil on linen
72 x 76 inches

Walead Beshty Marginalis (Los Angeles, California, August 1-30, 2014)

Walead Beshty
Marginalis (Los Angeles, California, August 1-30, 2014)
2014
Cyanotype chemistry on canvas
92.5 x 55 inches

Josh Smith Untitled

Josh Smith
Untitled
2008
Mixed media on panel
60 x 48 inches

Christopher Wool Untitled

Christopher Wool
Untitled
2002
Enamel and silkscreen ink on linen
108 x 72 inches

Martin Kippenberger Ohne Titel

Martin Kippenberger
Ohne Titel
1991
Foil, latex, acrylic, pigment, gauze on canvas
70.9 x 59.1 inches

Jorge Pardo Untitled

Jorge Pardo
Untitled
2015
Wood dust, resin, acrylic, iPad on wood panel
60 x 40 inches

Kelley Walker Untitled

Kelley Walker
Untitled
2014
Four-color process silkscreen with acrylic ink and magazine collage on canvas; Domus November 2012
100 x 58 inches

Rudolf Stingel Untitled

Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
2012
Oil and enamel on canvas
95 x 76 inches

Albert Oehlen Conduction 11

Albert Oehlen
Conduction 11
2011
Charcoal and acrylic on canvas
82.75 x 106.25 inches

Laura Owens Untitled

Laura Owens
Untitled
2016
Flashe, oil, and screenprinting ink on linen
69.25 x 60 inches

Heimo Zobernig Untitled

Heimo Zobernig
Untitled
2013
Acrylic on canvas
78.75 x 78.75 inches

Seth Price TBD

Seth Price
TBD
2016
Oil paint print, screen printing, acrylic paint, gel polymer, and pigmented acrylic polymers on wood
57.25 x 48 inches

Cheyney Thompson StochasticProcessPainting (30000 steps):FunctionalPath (BoundryCondition:AggregateDeadThing(RedBlueYellow) (300meters)): //Hamiltonian path through three lattice spaces with color localization effects approaching an even distribution of three primaries. Homeorhesis, perhaps.

Cheyney Thompson
StochasticProcessPainting (30000 steps):FunctionalPath (BoundryCondition:AggregateDeadThing(RedBlueYellow) (300meters)): //Hamiltonian path through three lattice spaces with color localization effects approaching an even distribution of three primaries. Homeorhesis, perhaps.
2016; Oil on canvas; 39.375 x 118.125 inches

Wade Guyton Untitled

Wade Guyton
Untitled
2016
Epson UltraChrome HDR on linen
128 x 108.25 inches

Pieter Schoolwerth Purple Model of a Couple Arguing about their Abysmal Financial Situation #2

Pieter Schoolwerth
Purple Model of a Couple Arguing about their Abysmal Financial Situation #2
2016
Oil, acrylic, and giclée print on canvas
90 x 120 inches

Press Release

Petzel Gallery is pleased to announce Fine Young Cannibals, a summer group exhibition, running parallel to Wade Guyton and Stephen Prina’s annual collaboration. The show opens Friday, June 24th and will remain on view until Friday, August 5th.

Discourse on contemporary painting has recently taken a turn toward technological properties, neoliberal politics, and ‘market flipping’. The term “Zombie Formalism” was coined as a comment on “process fetish” and the state of a perceived art market deemed cynical in nature. However, could this be a misconception? Are painters indeed trying to impress an audience with their market savvy and skill in manipulating media? Achim Hochdörfer, director of the Brandhorst Museum, Munich, writes in his essay, “How the World Came in”:

"The essence of painting is no longer defined by the manual application of paint onto canvas or some other support; rather it manifests itself in the fact that paintings are no longer understood as self-contained, hermetically sealed objects but are instead hubs of much larger referential networks." (2016)

Robert Rauschenberg’s work might be the matrix for Hochdörfer’s assessment; his influence is certainly ubiquitous in contemporary art. Nonetheless, consideration can also be placed on the self-referential nature of paintings—whether or not they attempt to articulate their own constructedness as motif and motivation. Art historian David Joselit, co-curator of Painting 2.0, writes in an essay on Jacqueline Humphries that her affective gesture is a “picture”, a representation of itself. Fine Young Cannibals comprises a group of artists who further this discussion: Christopher Wool’s painting (2007) derives from various technical maneuvers to re-stage (or blow-up) an earlier drawing; Rudolf Stingel’s do-it-yourself painting (2015) demystifies the creative act altogether, while Martin Kippenberger’s rubber paintings include cast protrusions of earlier painting motives (a revamping in 3D from 1991). Wade Guyton’s inkjet printer is no more a sophisticated tool than Laura Owens’ silkscreen, but it allows him to cannibalize images from earlier installations and re-charge (or empty out) their now legendary status. Laura Owens intersects newspaper clippings with heavy brush marks, too disproportionally large to be mistaken for subjective expressivity; Pieter Schoolwerth’s elaborate process of making paintings incorporates studio photography, digital printing on canvas (with heavy distortions) and oil paint, almost like a ‘corrective’ gesture—the artist’s hand; Albert Oehlen’s computer pictures follow a similar logic—hybrids all in print and paint.

It would be as problematic to reduce these artists to mere agents in some conspiracy, as it would be ridiculous to blame de Kooning for generic abstract paintings in the 1950s and 1960s. Furthermore, abstraction in Cheyney Thompson’s work is not a genre in or for itself; his paintings address divisions of labor, time and the body as much as the fundamentally opposite, Heimo Zobernig, identifies the inherent theatricality of making paintings. Jorge Pardo takes his self-referential play to another extreme by attaching an iPad onto the surface that connects the viewer with his studio in Merida, Mexico.

As divergent as these artists are (rarely exhibiting together), they engage the artifice of their paintings—all mechanisms, tools and attributes are laid bare in order to open up a relevant discourse on painting, abstract or representational, analog or digitally processed: what constitutes a painting today and how vital is that ‘painting-body’?

Petzel Gallery is located at 456 West 18th Street. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM. After July 4th weekend, gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM.

For press inquiries, please contact Janine Latham at janine@petzel.com, or call (212) 680-9467.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Walead Beshty
Wade Guyton
Jacqueline Humphries
Martin Kippenberger
Michael Krebber
Albert Oehlen
Laura Owens
Jorge Pardo
Seth Price
Pieter Schoolwerth
Josh Smith
Rudolf Stingel
Cheyney Thompson
Kelley Walker
Christopher Wool
Heimo Zobernig