Gideon Rubin: swing
Galerie Karsten Greve St. Moritz
Monday - Saturday 10 am – 1 pm | 2 pm – 6.30 pm
Opening on Saturday, July 10, 1 pm - 7 pm
The artist is present.
In parallel with NOMAD St. Moritz
Galerie Karsten Greve is delighted to show at St. Moritz the second solo exhibition of Gideon Rubin, in parallel with NOMAD. Presenting approximately thirty paintings created over more than a decade, the exhibition will include Rubin’s most recent compositions, offering a comprehensive insight into the artist’s creative path.
In addition to his characteristic faceless portraits, landscapes also form a significant part of this exhibition: whether devoid of humans or as a surrounding element, nature breaks through and opens up a new perspective. Made in reaction to the confinement and limitations of lockdown, many of the most recent works in the exhibition have an element of escapism and a strong focus on the outdoor. Reevaluating the relationship between figure and landscape in his work, Rubin translated his longing for travel onto the canvas so that he could go to the slopes, play golf and even fly in a little red plane.
Often inspired by photographs from vintage photo albums or by images of celebrities and paintings by the old masters, the artist seeks to present narratives that are open to interpretation. The anonymous protagonists draw from the memories of the beholder, rather than representing the specific identity of the sitter - and great attention is paid to the subtle signs, gestures and postures that hold information about the subject. There is a strong focus on the material qualities of the paint itself, as well as the surface on which the paint is applied. Using canvas, raw linen and roughly-cut cardboard, Rubin often leaves entire areas of the surface untouched as an integral part of the work.
Gideon Rubin was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1973. He studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York and the Slade School of Fine Art in London, graduating in 2002. His very first solo exhibition was held in 1999. Numerous others followed, and his first solo museum exhibition was hosted by the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art in Israel in 2015. His series Black Book featured in exhibitions at the Freud Museum in London (2018) and the Jerusalem Artists’ House in Jerusalem (2020), both sponsored by Galerie Karsten Greve.
Gideon Rubin’s work is regularly exhibited in group exhibitions worldwide, in renowned institutions such as the FLAG Art Foundation in New York, the McEvoy Foundation for the Arts in San Francisco, the Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen in Magdeburg, Germany, the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Gideon Rubin has also participated in several artists’ residencies, including the Outset Contemporary Art Fund in Tel Aviv in 2013, the LA Brea Residency in Los Angeles, in 2018, and the Palazzo Monti Residency Programme in Brescia, Italy, in 2019. His work was rewarded with the Shifting Foundation in the United States in 2014. His works grace major private and public collections in Europe, the United States, Asia and the Middle East. Gideon Rubin lives and works in London.
