thaddeus strode - ‽ (pyramids of california)

About

neugerriemschneider is pleased to present Thaddeus Strode’s thirteenth solo exhibition with the gallery. Entitled ‽ (Pyramids of California), this collection of new works showcases a vast visual lexicon drawn from the artist’s physical and cultural surroundings, mass media, art history, music, film, existential philosophies and the legacies of his conceptualist forbearers and mentors. He creates direct, responsive reflections of the present moment that encompass painting and sculpture within an installation-oriented framework, oscillating between the specific and the ambivalent, and inviting a viewer’s active participation through interpretation.

Titled for the interrobang - the ligature of an exclamation point and a question mark - Strode’s exhibition captures the energetic forthrightness of the comics that were at the origin of his artmaking and continue to serve as key stylistic and conceptual references. An unpronounceable symbol on its own, the interrobang concisely conveys awe and shock - a notion complementing Strode’s system of reflecting upon existence amidst societal uncertainty. The show’s subtitle, Pyramids of California, evokes the fantasy ascribed to the mythologized region where the artist grew up, lives and works, hinting at a grand embellishment of the non-fictional and probing the distinction between reality and fabrication. Here he addresses the natural malleability of language and his world- building capacity: Conflating, fusing and creating narratives anew frequently appears in his work, often manifesting as surreal, collage-like compositions that span media and technique.

Strode adopts a pared-down, iconographic ethos for the exhibition’s sculptural cutouts and paintings. The former, with imagery scanned from publications or the artist’s sketches, are magnified to become larger than life and push the presentation into a spatial dimension. For the latter, Strode employs his intuitive process to showcase each work’s most salient elements through deliberate, honed applications of vibrant color, spray- painted accents, dimensional texturing or expressive black outlines. Pairing this with deft navigation of negative space, he foregrounds immediacy in meditations on the here and now, using visual motifs and a wide cast of characters, often from popular culture, along with textual fragments. These pithy statements or quotes, generally appearing as freely associative non sequiturs, build upon the comic-book tradition of thought bubbles - illustrated externalizations of internal expression. Strode’s compositions share and expand upon this principle, and through a focus on portraiture, turn this introspection outwards. Their subjects are frequently personal, birthed from self-reflection, yet remain ambiguous and open-ended, inviting each viewer’s individual conclusions. The works’ nuanced archetypes that take on identities all their own. They occupy space and time of Strode’s creation, featuring in images that amalgamate intentionality and reception, and together, reckon with an ambivalent future while looking ahead toward its potential.

Thaddeus Strode (b. 1964) has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions including at Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich (2022); me Collectors Room Berlin / Stiftung Olbricht, Berlin (2015); Villa Schöningen, Potsdam (2014); Belvedere 21 - Museum of Contemporary Art, Vienna (2013); Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal (2008); Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis (2008); Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (2008); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Chicago (2007); ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2007); Sammlung Goetz, Munich (2006); Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart (2004); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2003); Kunstverein Heilbronn, Heilbronn (2000); Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (1997); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (1996); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (1996); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1994); and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (1993).

For further press information and imagery, please contact Jonathan Friedrich Stockhorst at neugerriemschneider: +49 30 288 77277 or jonathan@neugerriemschneider.com.