Category Archives: Michael Huey

The Image is Gone >< January – March 2006

The Image is Gone                                             

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 13.03.2006

Marc Bijl, Banks Violette, Paul P., Michael Huey
January 19 –  March 18, 2006

Galerie Lisa Ruyter is pleased to present the group exhibition “The Image is Gone“ with Marc Bijl, Banks Violette, Paul P. and Micheal Huey. The exhibition is on from January 19 until March 18.

Marc Bijl, born 1970, Leerdam NL, takes in his work a good look at social issues and the symboles and norms involved. This results in acts or installations which undermine or emphasize our perception of the world. Thus he entitles his Lara Croft sculpture pured over with bitumen “La rivoluzione siamo noi“, or decorates spontaneous a Berlin garbage truck with the Dutch lion. Last year his works were shown at the Superstars Show at the Kunstforum Wien, in the exhibition ’Populism’ at the Frankfurter Kunstverein, and others. He is represented by the young gallery ’The Breeder“ in Athens, which showed his solo exhibition ‚’Chesed/ Dien’ 2004. ’The Breeder’ gallery has supported us in every way for this project.

Banks Violette, born 1973, Ithaca, New York, USA, lives and works in New York. After a well noticed solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of the American Arts he became a Superstar of the young American art scene. He creates sculptures,graphite drawings and partly huge oil paintings inspired often by bands and record sleeves. 2006 he is going to participate in the most important projects in Europe such as “Die Jugend von heute“ at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (curated by Matthias Ulrich), “DARK“ at the Museum Boljmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, (curated by Jan Grosfeld) and “While Interwoven Echoes Drip into a Hybrid Body“ at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich.

Paul P., born 1977, Toronto, Can., is painting primarily portraits of young males and now also increasingly atmospheric landscapes by use of traditional techniques like Kreuzschraffur, pastel, oil and watercolour. While creating his paintings of unknown persons he rejects on the one hand the traditional process of producing art, on the other hand he is completely absorbed by it. His models are unknown to him and thus he is deceiving the intimacy usually linked to portraying.

Michael Huey, born Traverse City, Michigan, USA, living in Vienna since 1989. Michael Huey’s artistic method  has developed from painting, genealogical studies, art historical enquiries and collecting photographs. Since 1996 he is concentrating on historical photography and it’s realization in his work. The shining surface of the Diasec – technique reminds Michael Huey of the nineteenth century – the era of his initial specification – like for example daguerreotypes or the wet collodium – process.

Michael Huey >< Full Death >< May – June 2005

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Michael Huey                                            

“Full Death”
22 April –  25 June 2005

Galerie Lisa Ruyter is pleased to present „Full Death“, an exhibition of photographic works by Michael Huey, whose artistic practice is evolved from painting, genealogical studies, art historical research, and collecting photographs.

„ Artifacts are robust: on the one hand, they usually outlive us. On the other hand, they are fragile, and not just physically: they are open to manipulation and have no way of defending themselves (except, as I say, by outliving the manipulator and waiting around for the next, possibly fairer, interpreter). I have always been intensely passionate about justice (Gerechtigkeit), and I tend to want to apply it to the past, as well.“  -Michael Huey

Michael Huey re-photographs historical documents and, in particular, photographs from the second half of the nineteenth century. In looking at his own family, he identifies the 1860s and 70’s as the time period where the tangible and intangible become irresolvable. It is also one of many points in Huey’s work where nostalgia, fetish, and death become interchangeable stylistic flourishes. The identities of relatives and strangers become confused with the identities imposed by the decorative, scientific and stylistic processes of the image-making of different eras.

For Michael Huey, the highly reflective surface of the currently trendy Diasec technique calls to mind daguerreotypes and the wet-collodion photographic process of the era of his primary fixation, the middle and last decades of the 19th century. With diasec, a reflection is impossible to avoid, the viewer is included in the image through the same channels of distancing. Michael Huey’s other techniques include scale, meta-narrative implications, cropping and coincidence.

Michael Huey considers his appropriation to be related to the act of photography itself – related to the act of using a camera to „take“ a picture. By recovering nearly lost artifacts of moments in time, sometimes with identifiable origins in family members or 19th century photo studios, Michael Huey’s work begins to tackle the bigger subjects of personal history, authorship, ownership, inheritance, legacy, and justice.

This is Michael Huey’s first solo exhibition. He was born in 1964 in Traverse City, Michigan and has lived and worked in Vienna since 1989.

The Rose Garden Without Thorns >< July – August 2004

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„The Rose Garden without Thorns“
8 July –  11 September 2004

Slater Bradley, Brice Dellsperger, Dan Fischer, Irina Georgieva, Erik Hanson, Michael Huey, Justin Lieberman, Tam Ochiai, Jon Routson, Jack Smith, Jean-Luc Verna

This show is about the richly complicated relationships that artists have with each other. It is not a show about appropriation, theft or homage, but these strategies are certainly addressed. The emphasis here is on figuration rather than abstraction in art objects. The inspiration for “The Rose Garden Without Thorns” is a drawing made by Jack Smith, the underground filmmaker whose spirit runs throughout Andy Warhol’s network of ‘superstars’. 

Slater Bradley has made many series using a Doppelgänger as a stand in for himself, and also for Kurt Cobain, Michael Jackson and Ian Curtis.

Brice Dellsperger remakes scenes from movies using the same actor for every part in the scene. Often the actors are playing their parts in drag, confusing identifications and identities.

Dan Fisher makes very tight renderings of well known photographs of artists.

Irina Georgieva is making pieces she considers diaristic, combining images of artworks with images from her childhood in Sofia. All are distilled to a commonality of technique and then subject to her train of consciousness associations.

Erik Hanson deliberately quotes the music that defined him as the subject of all of his work.

Having recently completed a massive genealogical study of his family, Michael Huey is now re-photographing odd remnants he has come across, including receipts for death certificates, or a drawing of the stars made by a grandmother.

Justin Lieberman references artists and musicians in combinations he finds interesting. He reimagines Henry Darger landscapes populated by Jock Sturges’ adolescent girls and Paul McCarthy’s monsters.

Tam Ochiai makes work that references cinema, music, artists, and even galleries, museums and museum gift shops. He once made a sculpture of Gilbert and George’s singing sculpture.

Jon Routson has made a twenty minute version of Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 4, edited for TV, and interspersed with commercials.

Jean-Luc Verna has starred in many of Brice Dellsperger’s films. His own work is very much about his body, he makes drawings that are made the way tattoos are made and refer to something he loves.

 

The Rose Garden Without Thorns >< Photo Gallery