James Fuentes is pleased to announce Noam Rappaport’s third solo exhibition at the gallery, Cusp, opening May 31st.
Residing in the territory between painting and sculpture, Noam Rappaport’s wall-based works on shaped canvases and panels display his continued engagement with process and composition, as well as a deepening consideration of psychological and symbolic themes. Though remaining in dialogue with its historical precedents, Rappaport’s work is underscored by distinctly hybrid sensibilities. The work manifests an elusive lyric ism, a chimerical quality resting in the space between intention and possibility.
Consisting of interlocking panels of varied depths, marked with color fields and winding, embossed lines, the works on display tread the line between image and object. Although they are seemingly concrete and self-contained, the works are suggestive of elements beyond their materiality. Three dimensional lines may suggest body parts, figures, serpents, horizons, and at times appear as a type of text to be read. Intersections, both painted and constructed, recur throughout and allude to concepts of connection, transition, ambiguity and hybridity. Yet despite its evocative nature, Rappaport’s work remains grounded in process and subtle, studied modulations of shape, line, and color.
Shape takes on an unfixed quality in Rappaport’s work, challenging the certainty of form. The painted reliefs suggest a slippage between image and object, requiring multiple vantage points when viewing the work. Rappaport neither conceals his artistic process nor wholly reveals it, and through this suspension of total understanding, encourages the viewer’s interactive relationship with the work.
Noam Rappaport (b. 1974) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. His recent solo exhibitions
include Dogleg, Ratio 3, San Francisco (2016); James Fuentes, New York (2014); and White Columns, New York (2010). Recent group exhibitions include Walk Artisanal, Los Angeles (2016); A Peg to Hang It On, White Flag Projects, St. Louis (2015); From Here, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas (2015); Supports/Surfaces is Alive and Well, Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles (2014); and DNA: Strands of Abstraction, Loretta Howard Gallery, New York (2013). His work has been featured in ArtForum, The New York Times, and Artcritical, among other publications. Public Collections include LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), Berkeley Art Museum, and Rubell Family Collection.
