PRESS RELEASE:

Times Square Gallery

In bringing together ideas involving the sublime relationship between nature and products of modern society, Kurt Riebel is attempting to thrust his audience out of their everyday thinking, forcing them to reevaluate their own inherent philosophical positions, in order to become more open.

His work deals with the reality of the body in conjunction with the surrealism of childhood mysteries, nightmares and interpretations of the medical practice. His influences list from a range of artists such as Ives Klein, John Cage and Joseph Kosuth to the more recent Damien Hirst, Mike Kelly and Janine Antoni. The process or categorization of his art, in terms of media, usually exists in the overlapping areas between photography/digital imaging and sculpture. While creating the sculptural pieces he carefully documents the process, resulting with works in two different but equal entities of the same idea. The photograph is used both within the sculpture itself and at times as the surviving representation of a concept and/or process. The juxtaposition of toys and science make up the visual basis and departure point for Riebel’s ideas.

Kurt Riebel’s art is a constructed combination of ideas which use a variety of materials (such as children’s toys, doll parts, photographs, antique photographic equipment, stitched raw meat, pages of an anatomy book and anatomical representations) to form strange dreamlike worlds that confront the viewer psychologically, intellectually and viscerally with symbols which never fully reveal themselves.

Kurt Riebel's work can be viewed on display, now through February 22^nd, 2003 at Times Square Gallery 450 West 41^st Street New York, NY 10036 or anytime on the web at kurtriebel.com