John Riepenhoff: Apparitions

The Low-Residency MFA program and the Center for Contemporary Art & Culture at PNCA present Apparitions, an exhibition of new work by Milwaukee-based artist John Riepenhoff. Riepenhoff spent time on the Oregon Coast to produce a new series of en plein air paintings of the sky and forest. Working mostly at night, he made these paintings with only the aid of lanterns or campfires and applied sourced materials on raw canvas. The exhibition opens June 22, 2018 and runs through July 12, 2018.

“Painting outside in the darkness of night, this painting-action favors seeing the stars of the night sky over the colors of the painting-object while the work is being made,” says Riepenhoff. “After a night of painting, when the sun hides the stars with the light of the day, a full-spectrum painting is revealed for the first time, and I’m able to view the work no longer as the author of the painting, but as an other. This process uses the furthest light we can see with our naked eyes as a still for objectifying ego in the creation process.”

John Riepenhoff was born in 1982 in Milwaukee, WI where he lives and received a BFA from the Peck School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. He is represented by Marlborough Contemporary, NY & London.

Riepenhoff is also a curator and co-owner of The Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI, collaborator at The Open, co-organizer of Milwaukee International and Dark Fairs, is an inventor of artistic platforms for the expression of others and regular food ideator. His recent exhibitions and curatorial projects have been presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Marlborough, and Swiss Institute New York, NY; Tate Modern, London; Crystal Bridges, Bentonville, AR; 356 Mission Rd, Los Angeles, CA; Poor Farm, WI; Lynden Sculpture Garden, Inova, and The Suburban, Milwaukee, WI; Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN; and Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, GA. He also continues a program of the John Riepenhoff Experience at various locations around the world, most recently at Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA and Misako and Rosen, Tokyo. He was the 2015 Milwaukee Arts Board Artist of the Year, co-chairs Friends of Blue Dress Park, founded Milwaukee’s first Beer Endowment for artist-run organizations, runs The Oven at The Open in Milwaukee, and sits on the board of Riverwest Radio.