Save the Date: “Judy Rifka: A Survey of Important Works (1970’s – Present)” – February 26th through April 20th
Join us on Sunday February 26th for the opening reception of “Judy Rifka: A Survey of Important Works (1970’s – Present)”, Curated by Gregory de la Haba with Paul Herman and Paul Calendrillo.
American artist, Judy Rifka began creating her Single-Shape paintings in the early 1970’s. Keith Haring first exhibited them on the fourth floor of the Mudd Club where the influential art critic, poet and writer Rene Ricard (July 23, 1946 – February 1, 2014) first saw them and the collector Jean-Paul Najar first began purchasing them. American conceptual artist Mel Bochner selected Rifka’s Single-Shape paintings for a 1975 show at Artists Space on Wooster Street and they were also selected by the curators of the 1975 Whitney Biennial. Writing in Artforum for a group show at Bykert Gallery in April, 1974, the art critic Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe had this to say about her Single Shapes: “Judy Rifka’s paintings dominated the show…which leads me to say that Rifka’s is the most devastatingly original formulation of painting’s identity that I’ve encountered in some time.”
Merage Gallery and Sinai Temple, along with curators Gregory de la Haba, Paul Herman and Paul Calendrillo, are delighted to present a number of never-before-seen works from Rifka’s important and seminal Single Shapeperiod along with other paintings and collage created during her long and illustrious career that spanned over forty years.
“Her single shapes on plywood are among the most important paintings of the decade. Every painter who saw them at the time recognized their influence.”
–Rene Ricard, ARTFORUM Magazine, December 1981
About the Artist:
Judy Rifka (b. 1945) is an American artist, native New Yorker and the ultimate, art-world iconoclast active since the early 1970s as a painter and video artist. Part of the collective Colab and the Lower East Side arts scene of that period, Rifka, who took part in shows at The Mudd Club and Danceteria, was closely associated with artists Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Ahearn, Ron Gorchov, Keith Haring, Joseph Nechvatal, Bruce Nauman, Jenny Holzer, Richard Prince, and Kiki Smith. In 1980, Rifka took part in the groundbreaking Times Square Show which ushered in a new wave of contemporary art. Apart from participating in two Whitney Museum Biennials (1975, 1983), Documenta 7, and being on the cover of Art in America in 1984 for her series, “Architecture”, Judy Rifka’s work can be found in over 25 museums around the world. She lives and works in Tribeca, New York.
Exhibition:
“Judy Rifka: A Survey of Important Works (1970’s – Present)
February 26th, 2017 – April 20th, 2017
Opening Reception:
Sunday February 26th, 2017 12-2pm. Bagels and Lox, along with coffee, will be served.
Address:
Merage Gallery
Sinai Temple
10400 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024
For more information, contact Gregory de la Haba, Curator/Publisher, Quiet Lunch Magazine. Also, check out the preview video here.
Judy Rifka, Artist Space 1975
NYC Artworld Legends including Judy Rifka
