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    Ross Bleckner

    New York • 1949
    Ross Bleckner © Ross Bleckner
    Ross Bleckner studied at New York University together with Sol Lewitt and Chuck Close, and after graduation he continued his studies at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia (CA), where he met David Salle.
    He became part of the New York art community in the 1980s, as one of its outstanding figures. His first works, called Stripes and based on the Op Art approach, are composed of a series of vertical lines of different colors that alternate, exploiting the laws of optics. Towards the end of the 1980s he made a series of works with a more symbolic character, entitled Memorials, focusing on the theme of illness and death, especially in relation to the AIDS epidemic which devastated the American art community. These are canvases where everyday objects like vases and flowers stand out against a dark background like ghostly presences. Starting in 1987 he made the series Constellations and Nocturnal Architectures, a succession of starry skies with a lyrical, poetic nature, composed of pure forms of light that vibrate on the surface of the painting. In that same period, due to the illness of his father caused by a tumor, he became interested in the theme of anatomy, especially the image of DNA and cells seen through a microscope. This observation revealed a microcosm of unusual elements, simultaneously repugnant and fascinating, like tumor cells and sarcomas, which he depicted in his famous Cell Paintings, through circular forms of color, light and semi-transparent spheres. In the 1990s he did the Birds series, painting colored silhouettes of birds that seem to have been captured and imprinted on the dark canvas precisely in the act of flight, the symbol of maximum freedom. Starting in the early 2000s he shifted towards sublimated, almost abstract floral images, in the so-called Flower Paintings. Flowers, in fact, represent a fundamental and recurring feature in all his work. According to Bleckner, more than any other images that of flowers is able to embody the relationship between mortality and the human condition, darkness and light, abstraction and representation, while reflecting on the connection between man and nature. In his Flower Paintings we can glimpse the pursuit of a balance between the inner world of dreams and the outer world of facts, that which by appearance is considered indubitably real and rational. In this way Bleckner attempts to transform momentaneous being in time into an infinite artistic moment, without every denying or suppressing the transient nature of life.
    Bleckner is a board member of AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA), a non-profit center for research and health education, of which he is one of the founders. In 2009 he was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations, the first artist to hold this position.
    Bleckner was also honored by the Parrish Art Museum of Southampton, New York, for his outstanding contribution to humanitarian and cultural causes all over the world.
    His works are included in the collections of the most important international art museums, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the MOCA in Los Angeles, the Jewish Museum and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Tate Britain in London and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid.

    Lives and works in New York

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    SOLO EXHIBITIONS - Selection

    2019

    Pharmaceutria, Petzel, new York

    2018

    New Paintings, Mazzoli Gallery, Modena, Italy

    2017

    Dallas Contemporary, Dallas (TX), USA

    2016

    Bohm Chapel, Cologne, Germany
    Leila Heller Gallery, Dubai (UAE), USA

    2015

    Baldwin Gallery, Aspen (CO), USA

    2014

    Maruani & Mercier Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
    Mary Boone Gallery, New York (NY), USA

    2012

    Jablonka Galerie, Cologne, Germany

    2011

    Maruani & Noirhomme Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
    Scott White Fine Art, San Diego (CA), USA

    2010

    Mary Boone Gallery, New York (NY), USA
    Meditation & Time, Mazzoli gallery, Modena, Italy
    Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland

    2009

    Baldwin Gallery, Aspen (CO), USA

    2008

    Imago Galleries, Palm Springs (CA), USA

    2007

    Cais Gallery, Seoul, Korea.
    Mary Boone Gallery, New York (NY), USA

    2006

    Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland

    2005

    Ruzicska Gallery, Salzburg, Austria

    2004

    Dialogue with Space, Esbjerg Art Museum, Esbjerg, Denmark

    2003

    Lehman Maupin Gallery, NYC (NY), USA
    Mary Boone Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    2001

    Mary Boone Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    2000

    Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston (MA), USA
    Galerie Ernst Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland
    Maureen Paley/Interim Art, London, England

    1999

    Paintings 1997-1999, Mazzoli gallery, Modena, Italy
    Mary Boone Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    1997

    Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, France
    Bawag Foundation, Vienna, Austria

    1996

    Mary Boone Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    1995

    Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC (NY), USA
    Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo, Norway
    I.Y.A.M.. Centre Julio Gonzalez, Yalencia, Spain

    1994

    Mary Boone Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    1993

    Galerie Max Metzler, Koln, Germany
    Guild Hall, East Hampton (NY), USA

    1991

    Kolnischer Kunstverein, Koln, Germany
    Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
    Mary Boone Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    1990

    Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
    Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    1989

    Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee (WI), USA
    Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (TX), USA
    Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (PA), USA

    1988

    San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (CA), USA
    Mary Boone Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    1987

    Mary Boone Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    1986

    Mario Diacono Gallery, Boston (MA), USA
    Mary Boone Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    1983

    Mary Boone Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    1975

    Cunningham Ward Gallery in New York (NY), USA




    GROUP EXHIBITIONS - Selection

    2019

    SummerPleasures at Meyerovich, Group Show by Charles Arnoldi, Ross Bleckner, Carlos Cruz- Diez, Deborah Kass, Alex Katz and Bernar Venet, Meyerovich Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
    Over the rainbow, Mirat, Madrid, Spain

    2018

    The Shadow of the Sun, Ross Bleckner and Zachary Logan, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada 2017
    Blue Black, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, MI, USA

    2016

    Phantom Bodies: The Human Aura in Art, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville (TN), USA
    Art Aids America, The Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma (WA), USA

    2015

    Ross Bleckner and Volker Eichelmann, Sargent's Daughters, NYC (NY), USA

    2014

    In the Beginning/End States, Sgorbati Projects, NYC (NY), USA
    Repetitive Motion, SHFAP at Projector Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    2013

    Paint Hotel, Joe Sheftel Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    2012

    Conceptual Abstraction, Hunter College Time Square Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    2011

    Surrounding Bacon and Warhol: Selections from the Astrup Fearnley Collection, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway
    Pop Art 1960's-2000's From Misumi Collection, Kawaguchiko Museum of Art, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan
    Magic Hand, ARTBLOGARTBLOG, NYC (NY), USA
    An Instance of Vibration, Anonymous Gallery, NYC (NY)

    2010

    Your History is not Our History, Haunch of Venison, NYC (NY), USA
    Selections, LA Art House, West Hollywood, (CA), USA
    Other as Animal, Danese Gallery, New York (NY), USA
    America: Here and Now, traveling exhibition
    Stream of the Unknown: Selections from the Collection, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, (NY), USA
    In Dialogue, Anonymous Gallery, NYC (NY), USA.

    2009

    A Tribute to Ron Warren, Mary Boone Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    2008

    Genesis- The Art of Creation, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland
    Empires and Environments, The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham (MA), USA

    2007

    Time .01: I Love My Scene/Scene 3, Mary Boone Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    2006

    View Nine: I Love My Scene/Scene 3, Mary Boone Gallery, NYC (NY), USA

    2005

    Picturing America: Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art, Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, Nagasaki, Japan.
    Zoo Story, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, New York (NY), USA

    2004

    Flowers, Mary Boone Gallery, NYC (NY), USA
    Flowers Observed, Flowers Transformed, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (PA), USA
    A Celebration of the Guild Hall Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Honorees in the Visual Arts, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York (NY), USA
    North Fork/South Fork: East End Art Now/Part ll, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York (NY), USA

    2003

    Me & More, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland.

    2002

    Art Downtown: New York Painting and Sculpture, 48 Wall Street, NYC (NY), USA

    2001

    Mythic Proportions: Painting in the 1980s, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Florida (FL), USA

    Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons: Four Decades of Art from the Broad Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (CA), USA

    2000

    In the Power of Painting, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden.
    On Canvas: Contemporary Painting, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC (NY), USA
    In the Power of Painting, Alesco, Zurich, Switzerland.

    1999

    The American Century: Art and Culture 1950-2000, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC (NY), USA

    1997

    Birth of the Cool: Amerikanische Malerei, Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

    1996

    Nuevas Abstracciones, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain.

    1995

    Passions Privees, Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France.

    1994

    Painting and Sculpture: Recent Acquisitions, The Museum of Modern Art, NYC (NY), USA

    1992

    Slow Art: Painting in New York Now, P.S. 1 Museum, Long Island City (NY), USA

    1991

    Mito y Magia en America: Los Ochenta, Museo de arte contemporaneo de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
    Metropolis, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany.
    Devil on the Stairs: Looking Back on the Eighties, Institute of Contemporary Art,Philadelphia (PA), USA

    1989

    1989 Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC (NY), USA
    Prospect 89, Frankfurt Kunstverein and Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany

    1988

    Biennial of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
    The Image of Abstraction, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (CA), USA
    The Binational/Die Binationale, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, (MA), USA
    Art at the End of the Social, The Rooseum, Malmo, Sweden
    Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

    1987

    1987 Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC (NY), USA

    1985

    Currents, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (MA), USA

    1984

    The Meditative Surface, The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago (ILL), USA

    1981

    New York in Black and White, The Museum of Modern Art/Penthouse, New York (NY), USA

    1979

    New Painting/New York, Hayward Gallery, London, England




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    SELECTED WORKS
    Ross Bleckner
  • Untitled, 2018
    Oil on Linen, 76,2 x 76,2 cm
  • Ross Bleckner
  • Untitled, 2018
    Oil on Linen, 76,2 x 76,2 cm
  • Ross Bleckner
  • Untitled, 2018
    Oil on Linen, 76,2 x 76,2 cm
  • Ross Bleckner
  • Doppelgänger I, 2017
    Oil on Linen, 181,6 x 167,6 cm
  • Ross Bleckner
  • Doppelgänger III, 2017
    Oil on Linen, 181,6 x 167,6 cm
  • Ross Bleckner
  • Untitled, 2017
    Oil on Linen, 181,6 x 167,6 cm
  • Ross Bleckner
  • Untitled, 2018
    Oil on Linen, 182,9 x 244 cm
  • Ross Bleckner
  • Untitled, 2018
    Oil on Linen, 181,6 x 167,6 cm
  • Ross Bleckner
  • Double Section, 2002
    Oil on Linen, 243,8 X 243,8 cm
  • Ross Bleckner
  • Untitled (Faces and Stars), 2002
    Oil on Linen, 274 x 274 cm
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