Exhibition

  • Richard Rezac: Address
    Richard Rezac
    Artist
    Solveig Øvstebø
    Curator
    The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Chicago
    Apr 21, 2018 to Jul 22, 2018
  • GRANTEE
    The Renaissance Society
    GRANT YEAR
    2017

Richard Rezac, Quimby (painted steel, plate glass, enameled plate glass, and cherry wood), 2017, Chicago. Courtesy of the artist.

The Renaissance Society presents works by Chicago-based sculptor Richard Rezac, curated by chief curator Solveig Øvstebø. For his project at the Renaissance Society, Rezac will include new and old works spanning his last decade of production, considering the nuances of the gallery's neo-gothic architecture. With an eclectic range of references, including the architectural drawings from the Italian baroque, strong organizing principles unify Rezac's work. These works explore and complicate the sculptural logic of geometry, one's relationship to objects keyed to the scale of the human body, and the elusive mechanisms of interpretation and meaning. Rather than signifying complex systems like these through symbolism or simple illustration, Rezac creates sculptures that embody or enact them in their precisely determined construction and positioning in space.

Richard Rezac lives and works in Chicago. His sculpture has been shown nationally and internationally, most notably in a survey of his work at the Portland Art Museum (2006). He has most recently exhibited at James Harris Gallery, Seattle, and the DePaul Art Museum, Chicago. Other venues include Yale University Art Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Rezac has received fellowship grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, and the Tiffany Foundation, and in 2006, the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome. He is an adjunct professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Solveig Øvstebø has lead the Renaissance Society as executive director and chief curator since 2013. She previously served as the director of Bergen Kunsthall from 2003, developing it into one of the main European contemporary art institutions with a focus on production, research, and discourse.  She has curated and cocurated numerous exhibitions, including SlideRichard Tuttle (2012), Gabriel Kuri(2012), Tretrachromat Tauba Auerbach (2011), Christopher Williams (2011), Stephen Prina (2009), Sergej Jenssen (2008) and The Welfare Show: Elmgreen & Dragset (2005). Øvstebø has written and lectured extensively on contemporary art.

The Renaissance Society, founded in 1915, is widely acclaimed here and abroad as one of the premier museums for leading edge contemporary art from around the world and one of the oldest institutions of contemporary art in Chicago. Through exhibitions, commissions, publications, and educational programs, it promotes the work of artists and movements that question, redefine, and expand the aesthetic boundaries of the visual arts.