Skip to content

Muntean / Rosenblum

May 21 – June 25, 2005

Photo of pencil drawing next to apple and passport
Photo of person looking down on portrait sketch
Boy in green hoodie, with bottom text reading 'It's pretty hard to explain your own life'
Closeup of woman's face, with woman leaning against frame
Close up of woman's profile, with boy crouching in the background
Painting of two women, reading 'I believe that you've had most of you important memories by the time you're thirty'
Close up portrait of boy, with another boy crouching in background
painting of individual in red converse reading 'life is an experimental journey that we make involuntary'
painting of individual in jeans next to punching bag
painting of skateboarders in parking lot
painting of individuals on tire swings, reading 'on the horizon illuminated by the morning light, were the visible buildings of the city. It was strange to feel so outside of civilization and yet it had an aura of permanence, as if everything including ourselves, had a long history'
Painting of three women, reading 'strange, the moments like that when everything seems to break free and just drift and anything might happen'
Muntean / Rosenblum

Muntean/Rosenblum
May 21 – June, 2005
Opening reception: Saturday, May 21st, 6:00 - 9:00pm

The Jack Hanley Gallery in Los Angeles is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by the Vienna-based art duo Muntean/Rosenblum.  Working in a variety of media, Muntean/Rosenblum appropriate images culled from lifestyle and fashion magazines to explore teenage angst in a most sympathetic way.  The resulting compositions: images of young, beautiful people frozen in awkward poses, are juxtaposed with existentially searching pieces of text which have also been literally cut and pasted from printed material. Adopting these poses from fashion magazines, the young people seem troubled by a world that sees them only as "image." The text reminds us of our relation to youth and its insecurities, and to the passing of time and memory. Muntean and Rosenblum are adept at suggesting self-awareness of their teenage subjects, in contrast to the way media images objectify young people. The absence of original context and subsequent re-contextualization, of image and text, creates a sense of anonymity and ambiguity, thereby questioning one’s familiarity with the fashion format.

 

Markus Muntean and Adi Rosenblum have worked in collaboration since 1992.  They live and work in London and Vienna.  Their work has been exhibited at Maureen Paley/Interim Art in London, De Appel in Amsterdam, Georg Kargl inVienna, Art & Concept in Paris, Jack Tilton Gallery and MWMWM in New York, Kunsthaus Glarus, and SECESSION in Vienna, 2000.

Download PDF