CHRISTOPHER BEANE: Baroquecoco
Christopher Beane Baroquecoco Jim Kempner Fine Art is pleased to announce Baroquecoco, a show of recent photographs and a site specific installation by Christopher Beane. The exhibition will be on view from September 26th - November 3rd, with an opening reception on September 26th from 6 - 8pm. Baroquecoco is the next phase of Beane’s decades-long career of photographing the botanical. Beane’s extensive understanding of flowers fused with his unique approach towards the use of mixed media transforms how we see wonder in the natural. Acclaimed for his large-format intimate floral portraits, Baroquecoco is a departure from the singular Ranunculus Studies, erotic Floral Orgies, and Camouflaged Orchids of past bodies of work, and adventures into much more complex, sensuous, detailed, and layered compositions. Recontextualized floral bouquets of texture and color, floating within unique painted or collaged backdrops, create optical illusions of patterned, controlled chaos. Beane’s images call to mind the over-the-top decadence of the Baroque/Rococo era of Europe, reinterpreted for the 21st century. These urban bouquets, set amidst graffiti-like gardens, explode ina celebration of beauty and vitality right before the viewer. Beane’s backgrounds have taken on a fresh, stylized boldness which imbue his large-scale photographs with a contemporary painterly quality. In August Zinnias Color Study 1 (Baroquecoco 2019), Beane’s layered collage swatches frame the floral focal point and are equally as satisfying and as lush as the organic forms of the zinnias and dahlias. The flowers within each image become unique marks, as if painted within the space to compliment and contrast their vibrant surroundings. The compositions dance, seductively luring the viewer into a perishable, yet immortalized world, as seen through Beane’s eyes. Beane’s work has been shown at the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the Museum Modern, Salzburg, Austria; the Maison Européeane de la Photographie, Paris, France; and is in the collection of Beth Rudin Dewoody, Virginia Dwan, and Art of the US consulate, Monterrey, Mexico. Beane is the author of Beane Flower, a monograph of his work created from 1994 - 2005, published by Artisan in 2008. For more information, please contact director Sarah Browne at sarah@jimkempner.com.
August Zinnias Color Study I (Baroquecoco Series), 2019. Flex chromogenic print. 45 x 36�. Edition 3.
Peaches and Cream (Baroquecoco Series), 2018. Flex chromogenic print. 45 x 36 1/4�. Edition 3.
Cafe au Lait with Crimson Dahlias (Baroquecoco Series), 2018. Flex chromogenic print. 23 x 18�. Edition 3.
Suki’s Caladium (Baroquecoco Series), 2019. Flex chromogenic print. 35 x 28 1/4”. Edition 3.
Sprayed Deco Black and White (Baroquecoco Series), 2018. Flex chromogenic print. 23 x 18�. Edition 3.
Chocolate Sunflowers Color Study II (Baroquecoco Series), 2019. Flex chromogenic print. 35 x 28 1/4�. Edition 3.
Ranunculus with Blue Spots (Baroquecoco Series), 2019. Flex chromogenic print. 23 x 18�. Edition 3.
Yellow Tree Peony (Baroquecoco Series), 2019. Flex chromogenic print. 35 x 28 1/4�. Edition 3.
Five Charms (Baroquecoco Series), 2019. Flex chromogenic print. 35 x 28 1/4�. Edition 3.
Butterfly Ranunculus Macaroons (Baroquecoco Series), 2019. Flex chromogenic print. 50 x 40�. Edition 3.
Baroquecoco 2018 29, 2018. Flex chromogenic print. 45 x 36 1/4�. Edition 3.
Sprayed Mum Decoupage (Baroquecoco Series), 2018. Flex chromogenic print. 45 x 36 1/4�. Edition 3.
Two Tone Summer Flowers (Baroquecoco Series), 2019. Flex chromogenic print. 45 x 36�. Edition 3.
JIM KEMPNER FINE ART
Jim Kempner Fine Art specializes in contemporary paintings, sculpture, photography, and works on paper, with a special emphasis on contemporary master prints and outdoor sculpture. Our inventory appeals to the established as well as beginning collector. We work closely with art advisors, designers, corporations and museums to expand and enrich their varied collections. Located in the heart of Chelsea, the gallery’s three story modernist-inspired structure designed by architects Smith & Thompson boasts one of the few outdoor sculpture gardens in New York City, and is included in a number of books about contemporary architecture. Our inventory includes work by Donald Baechler, John Baldessari, Louise Bourgeois, Christo, Chuck Close, Richard Diebenkorn, Jim Dine, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Spencer Finch, Jane Hammond, David Hockney, Howard Hodgkin, Jasper Johns, Deborah Kass, Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, William Kentridge, Jeff Koons, Robert Mangold, Robert Motherwell (Jim Kempner Fine Art represents the Dedalus Foundation, Robert Motherwell’s print archive, in New York), Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Longo, Elizabeth Peyton, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Ed Ruscha, Paula Scher, Sean Scully, Frank Stella, Donald Sultan, Wayne Thiebaud, Andy Warhol and others. Among the contemporary artists whose work we represent are Robert Attanasio, Christopher Beane, Stanley Casselman, Long Bin Chen, Eduardo del Valle and Mirta Gómez, Rinaldo Frattolillo, Gianfranco Gorgoni, John Grande, John Henry, Charlie Hewitt, Jay Kelly, Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, Jerry Mischak, David Mitchell, Craig Norton, Greg Parker, Robert Petersen, Randy Regier, Tom Slaughter, Pal Svensson and Boaz Vaadia. Formerly a private dealer, Jim Kempner opened his gallery, Jim Kempner Fine Art, at its present location in the fall of 1997. Sarah Browne has been the associate director since 2011 and the gallery director since October 2018. Jim Kempner has published prints by Rinaldo Frattolillo, Charlie Hewitt, Robert Indiana, Paula Scher, Bernar Venet, in addition to Gianfranco Gorgoni’s photographs of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. Other publications include Ligorano/Reese’s Line Up portfolio, Untitled 2001 silkscreen, and the DEMOCRACY lightbox, made in collaboration with former gallery director Dru Arstark, under the name Madness of Art Editions. Additionally, he has published his first editioned print, Apocryphal Now, in 2014.
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