Warhol Foundation Grants $75,000 to Robin Rhode Exhibition at Wexner Center

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, whose mission—as per Andy Warhol’s wishes—is to foster innovative artistic expression by supporting cultural organizations that support experimental artists, has provided a $75,000 grant in support of the Wexner Center’s exhibition Catch Air: Robin Rhode. The show, which will be on view April 2–July 26, 2009 at the Wexner Center, features 20 of the South African artist’s potent, multimedia works. In the form of deceptively playful narrative vignettes that combine drawing, performance, photography and film, Rhode’s work considers a range of interrelated topics such as the history of segregation and racial discrimination in apartheid South Africa, urban poverty, and violence, as well as contemporary popular culture and media stereotypes. At the same time, he is concerned with modernist abstraction and questions of illusionism, which he especially foregrounds in recent work. A site-specific installation will integrate actual objects with a life-sized drawing, and one of Rhode’s earlier performances will be projected onto a window adjacent to the entrance of the Wexner Center, literally bringing his work to the street.

“The Warhol Foundation seeks out work that is both provocative and experimental in nature—and Robin Rhode’s is both,” says Pamela Clapp, program director at the Foundation. “With a new piece to be created specifically for the Wexner Center, this exhibition should break new ground while raising awareness of an exciting young artist. We applaud the center for continually generating forward-thinking projects and exhibitions, and always look forward to what’s next there.”