Christoph Ruckhäberle
Portrait of a Lady

July 17 to August 29, 2021

Ampersand is pleased to present Portrait of a Lady, an exhibition of new works by German artist Christoph Ruckhäberle. Portraiture recurs often in Christoph’s work. Those familiar with his publishing imprint, Lubok Verlag, will recognize that the motifs on view in this current show are also featured in his 2009 artist book titled Porträt, which in turn was a record of original paintings that featured these particular faces. This process of revisiting imagery from earlier works is intentional. The artist can experiment within the structure of his own unique visual language in the same way that a guitarist can endlessly improvise and riff over his or her own song forms. “My interest,” he says, “is in the production—cutting up the image and reassembling it.” In this sense, these new works are directly connected to other recent paintings for which Christoph loosely employs masking techniques and the wood jigsaw prints that he featured in his last solo exhibition here at Ampersand, Paradise Lost. His new paintings are made with hand cut stencils and spray paint and thereby form a kind of bridge between his painting and print making practices. Like a painted surface, each piece is entirely unique despite the recurring imagery, yet the production aspect of the stencil process is more akin to print in the sense that the artist can recreate the image over and over until the stencils fall apart or his interest wanes. “Image and form are given,” he notes, “but the expression and mood change through the process of production.” We sense variation within this act of repetition through shifts in color, registration and all the mistakes that Christoph allows to occur in the making process. It’s undeniable that one is first struck by the strong graphic outlines of his figures. But the true pleasure in viewing these paintings is derived from a close scrutiny of all the blemishes, nuances of texture and shades of color that are manifest in sprayed paint on a paper surface.

Christoph Ruckhäberle lives and works in Leipzig, Germany. He studied at the California Institute of Arts in Valencia, California and Hochschule für Grafik und Buckhunst in Leipzig. In addition to his art practice, he publishes original graphic books by contemporary artists under his imprint Lubok Verlag and co-runs Luru Kino, an independent cinema. His previous exhibitions at Ampersand include NEO - NOIR, Behind the Green Door, Paradise Lost and 5000 Miles Away with Thomas Moecker and Sebastian Gögel.

Untitled (PL_12), 2021
Acrylic spray paint on paper
27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches
SOLD

Untitled (PL_17), 2021
Acrylic spray paint on paper
27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches
Purchase >

Untitled (PL_02), 2021
Acrylic spray paint on paper
27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches
Purchase >

Untitled (PL_28), 2021
Acrylic spray paint on paper
27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches
SOLD

Untitled (PL_07), 2021
Acrylic spray paint on paper
27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches
Purchase >

Untitled (PL_20), 2021
Acrylic spray paint on paper
27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches
Purchase >

Untitled (PL_10), 2021
Acrylic spray paint on paper
27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches
Purchase >

Untitled (PL_13), 2021
Acrylic spray paint on paper
27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches
SOLD

Untitled (PL_16), 2021
Acrylic spray paint on paper
27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches
Purchase >

Untitled (PL_03), 2021
Acrylic spray paint on paper
27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches
Purchase >

Untitled (PL_27), 2021
Acrylic spray paint on paper
27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches
SOLD

Untitled (PL_06), 2021
Acrylic spray paint on paper
27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches
SOLD

Untitled (PL_23), 2021
Acrylic spray paint on paper
27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches
Purchase >

Untitled (PL_11), 2021
Acrylic spray paint on paper
27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches
SOLD