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.](https://whitecolumns.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/76285_ca_object_representations_media_9241_original-750x517.jpg)
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.](https://whitecolumns.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/61119_ca_object_representations_media_9242_original-750x500.jpg)
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.](https://whitecolumns.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/11412_ca_object_representations_media_9245_original-750x500.jpg)
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.](https://whitecolumns.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/18406_ca_object_representations_media_9244_original-536x750.jpg)
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.](https://whitecolumns.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/84719_ca_object_representations_media_9243_original-533x750.jpg)
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.](https://whitecolumns.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/exhibitions/white-room-adrianne-rubenstein/ARu003-561x750.jpg)
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.
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.)