blackbird spring 2002 vol.1 no. 1

GALLERY

ADAPTATION SYNDROME  |  Painting in Contemporary Image Culture

Daniel Raedeke

 Freestand: OUTRO_BUMP (side A), FREESTYLE (side B), 2003
 Enamel on cast latex paint (top), 44" x 30" x 5"
 Enamel on laminated foam (stand), 34" x 30" x 24"

 right back wall
 NEATERANDNEUTRAL_BUMP, 2004
 LAZYACTION_BUMP, 2004
 Enamel on cast latex paint, each 44" x 30" x 3"
 Visual Arts Center of Richmond
 Courtesy of the artist and Bryon Roche Gallery, Chicago

mouseover for side B

Daniel Raedeke’s paintings allude to consumer culture’s elaborate show while “exploring what can be done to subvert painting to increase its relevance.”

Raedeke says, “the work stems from a questioning of the function that images have in our lives today. The complex textures and experiences of the outside are sampled, assimilated, and distilled into a neutral state arranged and ready for today’s visual consumption. Experience is repackaged as object.”

His “bump” paintings incorporate an almost rubbery lusciousness—he says he likes to make paintings that babies could chew on—while recalling toys and such utilitarian objects as the bumpy safety strips at the edges of metro tracks and crosswalks.