Werner Reiterer: Raw Loop

Opening: Monday, April 21, 2008, 6:00-8:00 PM by Dr. Andreas Stadler, Director of THE AUSTRIAN CULTURAL FORUM, New York

The Speed Art Museum is thrilled to present the first solo exhibition in the United States by Austrian artist Werner Reiterer, Raw Loop, on view April 22 through June 29, 2008. This exhibition offers visitors an opportunity to enjoy the unique way that Reiterer uses humor and irony to upend our perceptions of the world.

Is art allowed to make us laugh? Reiterer turns the world upside down and creates new rules in works that question our perceptions while playing with art's relationship to everyday reality. Through drawings, objects and installations he engages the viewer in a re-examination of everyday experience that makes us think and smile a lot.

In Raw Loop, viewer interaction transforms art into a collaborative project. In one installation, a wall text solicits the viewer to Take a deep breath and carry the air into the next room. In Life Counts Death, (2008), a loud bell will ring out simply by us pressing a pedal in front of a large white cube. In Untitled (2004) the artist asks us to believe that steam escaping from an oil barrel is actually laughing gas. Walking the line between sense and nonsense, Reiterer"s art plays with the relationship between matter and ideas, leaving it to the audience to connect the dots and discover new meanings. In each instance the viewer is an active link in the loop or bringing the work into being.

Raw Loop also features 38 new drawings by the artist. Reiterer"s drawings reorganize the relationship between objects and ideas in unexpected and often humorous ways.

Born in Graz, Austria, Reiterer studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna from 1984 to 1988. He has been featured in major museum and gallery exhibitions across Europe and has become recognized as one of the leading artists of his generation. Reiterer has created public art projects, including the interactive chandelier found on Main St. in downtown Louisville, Ky., outside of the Proof on Main restaurant.

Raw Loop
Werner Reiterer