American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center
September 7 - December 8, 2024
Opening Reception: September 7, 2024 | 6 - 9 pm
MARK KELNER’S exhibition New American Landscapes explores a broader argument for understanding what nature, environment, and landscape are in contemporary art right now. As an artist who identifies as “writerly” in his approach to all things visual, who is to say that Kelner’s paintings, sourced from artifice, are any less earnest than what we consider to be still lifes or traditional landscapes? Above all, how do we define what a landscape is in the digital age, an era of forever text enabled by our smartphones? What is “art” supposed to look like in the time of alternative facts? And who, in reality, is the audience for this socially impactful work that engages viewers conceptually, emotionally, and physically?
Imagine walking into Times Square, but instead of neon lights and videos thrust upon you, a viewer is immersed in 26 painterly recreations of strip mall signs with thick impasto, saturated colors, bold lettering, and unintentional graphic design, remade as purposeful and highly stylized works of art. The idea here is a simple one: in the suburbs he grew up in, these signs are for Kelner, the equivalent of trees, if not markers of time.
In his paintings, Kelner isolates the raw material of collective signage, suggesting that they are really about a changing national identity — who we are by what we eat and how we consume. Kelner explores how that can be expressed visually with multiple uses of text, typography, various languages, collage, and clip art logos. “In short,” says the artist, “my own family’s immigrant experience as told through the lens of what I and the audience see on the street.” To a suburban kid on his Huffy, such signs or totems are the “New American Landscapes.”
This exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalog, 86 pages with 26 full color reproductions, an essay by Reilly Davidson and an interview with the artist and Ariana Kaye.
ABOUT MARK: A graduate of George Mason University, where he studied with the esteemed novelist Vasily Aksyonov, he also trained under Dennis O’Neil at the Hand Print Workshop International. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Hyperallergic, The Washington Post, Washingtonian, and The Times among other media outlets. His practice centers on the distortion of ubiquitous mass — cigarette labels, oil and gas station logos, fast food signs, and retail culture, among other touchstones. In 2021, Kelner exhibited his first solo show in Japan titled Barcodes, at The Container in Tokyo. A 77 page catalog was published by the gallery documenting the exhibit and previous work related to objectifying material culture, logos becoming art, and art masquerading as fashion. In 2020, his first museum acquisition was to the Zuzeum Art Centre in Riga, Latvia, as part of their exhibition, American Dreams. In 2019, his solo exhibition Solaris: Shelter for the Next Cold War, garnered wide critical acclaim and over 13,000 visitors. In 2015, he was a featured guest on PBS’s Charlie Rose concerning the intersection of art, culture, politics, and Russia. Since then, he has shown at Ronald Feldman Gallery in New York, Librairie du Globe in Paris, Art Contemporary Los Angeles, and HEMPHILL Artworks in Washington, DC. New American Landscapes represents the artist’s first solo museum exhibition.
American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016
Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Sunday | 11 am - 4 pm
Artist Talk: September 21, 2024 | 2 pm
For more information contact:
Mark Kelner Studio
202.368.6900
info@mkelner.com
IG markkelnerstudio
www.markkelner.com