Rita Ackermann, recently featured in the NY Times, is a Hungarian-American artist living and working in New York. She is best known for her racy nymph-girls paintings from the early 1990′s. She has had numerous solo exhibitions worldwide and her work is very diverse, ranging from paintings and t-shits to a line of underwear and drawings.
The NY Times article focuses on Rita Ackermann and the ways she is attempting to distance herself from her early fans. When she first arrived in New York from Budapest, she was determined to make a name for herself. Her paintings drew a lot of attention because of their subject matter: nymphets in various stages of undress. Her following began to grow and included filmmaker Larry Clark, photographer Corinne Day and actress Chloe Sevigny. With this type of following, she emerged onto the fashion scene and worked on collaborative projects such as one with designer Adam Kimmel and she even designed windows at Macy’s!
Today however, Rita Ackermann is no longer interested in that type of scene and states that she does not want that kind of attention from her fans anymore. Her work has a new style no longer filled with seductive imagery and instead challenges society. For example, she has focused on society divas portrayed as monsters and also the sociocultural climate of the United States of America.
Paddle8 had the opportunity to attend Bryan Weiss and Stephanie LaCava’s party in celebration of the Journal Gallery on Friday, May 4th, where we saw Rita Ackermann, along with Michael Nevin, founder and editor in chief of The Journal, a curated art and culture quarterly, contemporary artist Julia Dippelhofer and artist Aurel Schmidt. It’s the season of celebration!
Check out Rita Ackermann’s “Fire By Days” at Paddle8 member The Journal Gallery on view until June 3rd and don’t miss the artist and gallery in Paddle8′s latest editorial project In the Gallery | New York!