Press release⬅︎
VITAL SIGNS exhibition AT CHARLIE JAMES GALLERY, LOS ANGELES
FEBRUARY 18 - MARCH 25 2023
Charlie James Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Erika Rothenberg, her second at the gallery. Vital Signs presents a new series of works on the main floor and a selection of early works in the lower gallery. The opening is February 18 with a reception for the artist from 6-9 PM.
On the main floor, Rothenberg has created a new body of work that pairs provocative statistics with painted images, exploring the rampant use of data to legitimize one's own objectives, nefarious or not. Rothenberg says, "I decided to collect a bunch of statistics and create a poetic, satirical portrait of America. The stats I use are 'real'. Juxtaposing unrelated statistics with semi-related images turned out to be fascinating: Aliens and Comfort Objects, Tornadoes and Billionaires, The 1st Amendment and Snakes, etc. Also included in the exhibition are works about our Divided Country, new lyrics for the Star-Spangled Banner, and in the downstairs gallery, a selection of works from 1982-2005. The issues Rothenberg has explored throughout her career are the same challenges we still face today.
Erika Rothenberg was born in New York and lives in Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited at major art institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Hirshhorn Museum, DC; Documenta IX, Kassel, Germany. Rothenberg is also recognized for her public art installations, including Freedom of Expression National Monument, commissioned by Creative Time, and The Road to Hollywood in Los Angeles. She is a founding member of the Guerrilla Girls collective. She attended the University of Chicago until she was kicked out for participating in a student protest. Before becoming a full-time artist, she was the first woman art director at McCann-Erickson ad agency in New York, working on award-winning campaigns for Coca-Cola and the New York Times, among other clients.
RECENT EXHIBITIONS
2019-20 EXHIBITIONS: MOCA LOS ANGELES, THE FOUNDATION OF THE MUSEUM, May 2019-Jan 2020 | SMART MUSEUM, CHICAGO | RESPECT SPACE, GLENDALE LIBRARY | TANG MUSEUM, SKIDMORE | KOPEIKIN GALLERY LOS ANGELES, VISION BOARD JUNE 29-AUG 24 2019 | WE RISE LOS ANGELES MAY 2019
2018 EXHIBITIONS: HIRSHHORN MUSEUM, WASHINGTON DC, BRAND NEW: ART AND COMMODITY IN THE 1980s | INTO-ACTION, LOS ANGELES 2018 | MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, ART IN THE OPEN: 50 YEARS OF PUBLIC ART IN NY NOV 10 2017-SEPT 28 2018 | SAN DIEGO INSTITUTE OF ART, BEYOND THE AGE OF REASON | SUSAN INGLETT GALLERY NEW YORK
ARTSY: ERIKA ROTHENBERG, THE AD EXEC WHO TURNED HER TALENTS TOWARD SUBVERSIVE ART
SUSAN INGLETT GALLERY PRESS RELEASE: ERIKA ROTHENBERG MAKES SATIRICAL AND POLITICAL ART EXPOSING AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM AND ITS HUBRIS, CORRUPTION, PRIVILEGE AND PREJUDICE. HER WORK PUSHES THE ENVELOPE OF ACCEPTABILITY AND TASTE…
HOUSE OF CARDS, SUSAN INGLETT GALLERY 2018
hOUSE OF CARDS AND OTHER GREETING CARD WORKS
HOUSE OF CARDS CREATED FOR MY MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NY EXHIBIT 1992, Reinstalled 2015-2018:
SUSAN INGLETT GALLERY NY
CHARLIE JAMES GALLERY LA
ZOLLA LIEBERMAN GALLERY CHICAGO
LA TIMES REVIEW NOV 28 2016
ARTFORUM REVIEW 2015: "... She is a harsh social critic with a facility for image-making, language and design. Far from its comfortable home on Comedy Central … irony in Rothenberg’s hands is a barbed political weapon, and she wields it to underscore the very real injustices she observes in daily life."
AMERICA A SHINING BEACON TO THE WORLD
SIGNBOARD EDITIONS
I have always been fascinated by the directories on the facades of religious institutions, so I decided to start making my own versions. Above is America A Shining Beacon to the Word, 2018.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION NATIONAL MONUMENT
OUTDOOR PROJECTS
Freedom of Expression National Monument, commissioned by Creative Time in 1984 and 2004 -- and other public artworks, permanent and temporary
early works and MORALLY SUPERIOR PRODUCTS 1980-1990
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION NATIONAL MONUMENT 1984/2004/2017
AMERICA THE PERFECT COUNTRY 1980-1990
Freedom of Expression products 1989-PRESENT
ArtNet News 2020: The New Museum, founded by Marcia Tucker, a radically progressive Whitney renegade, has its own notorious history with glazed storefronts. While located in SoHo (from 1979 to 2004), the museum’s “Window on Broadway” program exhibited site-specific work in its street-level windows. This free offering of art was an innovation in museum practice and allowed for critical and polemical messaging in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. The best-known contribution to this series might be the “Silence=Death” neon sign, designed to raise AIDS awareness. But perhaps the most provocative, and relevant today, was Erika Rothenberg’s show “Have You Attacked America Today?” The installation—a critique of America’s political and social agenda, complete with DIY flag-burning kits and a satirically rewritten national anthem—caused such contention in 1989 that decriers smashed the windows with garbage cans three times."
