White Room: Adrianne Rubenstein

June 4–July 16, 2016 320 West 13th Street
Two works installed on adjacent walls: Hollywood on the left and Honeybees in Corn Flowers on the right. Both are semi-abstract paintings utilizing similar red and blue tones.

Adrianne Rubenstein, installation view, 2016

Three works installed on two adjacent walls: Honeybees in Corn Flowers and Kitchen Counter Conversation on the left, and “B” Painting on the right.

Adrianne Rubenstein, installation view, 2016

Two works installed on adjacent walls: Family Crest on the left and Broccoli Tree House on the right. Both are semi-abstract paintings featuring vegetal imagery.

Adrianne Rubenstein, installation view, 2016

An abstract painting composed of brushy areas of orange, blue, green and yellow, with floating black marks and mushroom or tree-like vegetal shapes.

Adrianne Rubenstein

“B” Painting, 2016

Oil on panel

38 × 26 in.

A semi-abstract painting depicting a central diamond shape flanked by four trees, one to each corner of the painting, against a swirling green background.

Adrianne Rubenstein

Family Crest, 2016

Oil on panel

38 × 26 in.

A painting depicting a green and red house inside a green tree that resembles broccoli. A red ladder leans against the tree, and the scene is depicted against a swirling red background.

Adrianne Rubenstein

Broccoli Tree House, 2016

Oil on panel

33 × 24 in.

Press Release

White Columns is proud to present a solo exhibition by the New York-based Canadian artist Adrianne Rubenstein. Rubenstein’s exhibition comprises of a group of six recent paintings that expand upon her interest in painting as an open-ended narrative form. (For the press release for a previous exhibition, Rubenstein eschewed any didactic texts, presenting instead a prose-poem that functioned as a literary coda to her motives and intent.) Rubenstein’s recent paintings, which oscillate freely between ideologically opposed poles of illustration and abstraction, invariably focus on the natural world – their subjects include plant life, honeybees, and abundant spears of broccoli. Visual humor, or something like it, is a recurring presence in Rubenstein’s work: a self-conscious yet deceptive aesthetic strategy that serves to disrupt and mask the work’s evident serious intent.

Adrianne Rubenstein was born in Montreal, Canada. She received a BFA from NSCAD in 2006, and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2011. Her work has been exhibited at David Petersen Gallery, Minneapolis (solo); and in group exhibitions at Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Luxembourg; and CANADA, New York, among others.

Checklist

Related Press

Two works installed on adjacent walls: Hollywood on the left and Honeybees in Corn Flowers on the right. Both are semi-abstract paintings utilizing similar red and blue tones.
Three works installed on two adjacent walls: Honeybees in Corn Flowers and Kitchen Counter Conversation on the left, and “B” Painting on the right.
Two works installed on adjacent walls: Family Crest on the left and Broccoli Tree House on the right. Both are semi-abstract paintings featuring vegetal imagery.
An abstract painting composed of brushy areas of orange, blue, green and yellow, with floating black marks and mushroom or tree-like vegetal shapes.
A semi-abstract painting depicting a central diamond shape flanked by four trees, one to each corner of the painting, against a swirling green background.
A painting depicting a green and red house inside a green tree that resembles broccoli. A red ladder leans against the tree, and the scene is depicted against a swirling red background.

Adrianne Rubenstein, installation view, 2016 (Two works installed on adjacent walls: Hollywood on the left and Honeybees in Corn Flowers on the right. Both are semi-abstract paintings utilizing similar red and blue tones.)

Adrianne Rubenstein, installation view, 2016 (Three works installed on two adjacent walls: Honeybees in Corn Flowers and Kitchen Counter Conversation on the left, and “B” Painting on the right.)

Adrianne Rubenstein, installation view, 2016 (Two works installed on adjacent walls: Family Crest on the left and Broccoli Tree House on the right. Both are semi-abstract paintings featuring vegetal imagery.)

Adrianne Rubenstein “B” Painting, 2016 Oil on panel 38 × 26 in. (An abstract painting composed of brushy areas of orange, blue, green and yellow, with floating black marks and mushroom or tree-like vegetal shapes.)

Adrianne Rubenstein Family Crest, 2016 Oil on panel 38 × 26 in. (A semi-abstract painting depicting a central diamond shape flanked by four trees, one to each corner of the painting, against a swirling green background.)

Adrianne Rubenstein Broccoli Tree House, 2016 Oil on panel 33 × 24 in. (A painting depicting a green and red house inside a green tree that resembles broccoli. A red ladder leans against the tree, and the scene is depicted against a swirling red background.)