state presents Present Through a Rear-View Mirror by Rachelle Reichert

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Category: Art, Museums, Galleries

Published on Thursday, 13 July 2017 20:27

state is pleased to announce Present Through a Rear-View Mirror by San Francisco-based artist Rachelle Reichert. This exhibition is the culmination of "Summer Home", state’s first ever residency program in which Reichert was chosen to create work on-site.

In the month leading up to her solo exhibition, Reichert created all works in residence. Present Through a Rear-View Mirror is a collection of new works that address ideas about raw materials and their extractive economies. The artist offers a close reading of material by facilitating its decay, corrosion, and metamorphosis.

Untitled, Iron and salt on paper, 9x11 inches, 2015 (R)
Liumao, graphite on panel, 72 x 72 inches, 2017 (L)

This careful way of looking draws both inspiration from and a contrast to technological forms of vision utilized in the exploitation of materials. Present Through a Rear-View Mirror will be on view from August 5 - September 23 with an opening reception on Saturday August 5 from 6-8 PM with the artist in attendance.

“We look at the present through a rear-view mirror.
We march backwards into the future.”
-Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore
The Medium is the Message, 1967

Originally trained as an academic oil painter, Rachelle Reichert has been working exclusively with terrestrial material over the past five years. For this exhibition, Reichert will be showing works made of salt and graphite. While the artist’s practice broadly questions humanity’s relationship to earthbound substances, this exhibition will emphasize the materials’ physical change —the slow “deep time” of geomorphology. Reichert elucidates:

Rachelle Reichert working during her residency, photo courtesy of Miguel Aruzabe

Precarious states of transformation - entropic processes such as crystallization and corrosion - are observed. At a time when technology seeks to accelerate and disembody human experience, these observations point to larger processes that declare a primordial tempo and physicality. 

The front gallery will display three large scale pieces, one of which was made at state—a ten foot by four foot piece of steel rusted over the course of the residency in a salt bath prepared by the artist in the gallery. Displayed on the floor and bent in an elegant arc, the work is a striking visual record of salt’s ability to hasten corrosion. The steel’s surface is marked with a crystallized texture that references the earth’s topography as seen from above.Untitled (Salt Circle), is a hanging wall piece of salt crystals bound by a circular ring of steel. Harvested by the artist off the southern shores of the San Francisco Bay, the material will slowly interact with its steel frame marking the chemical communication between salt and steel over time.

The exhibition also contains a collection of recent graphite drawings on panel and paper, such as Liumao (pictured right), that are abstract references to satellite images of Chinesegraphite mines as they grow. The graphite from these mines is used not only for Reichert’s drawings (which bear the names of the mining regions in their titles), but also for “clean” technology like the lithium ion batteries used to power our cell phones and electric cars. On September 14 at 6:30pm Reichert will be in conversation with satellite earth-imaging specialist and designer Robert Simmon (NASA, Planet Labs) to discuss her work and its relationship to the human extraction and consumption of earth substances that we so often take for granted.   

About the artist

Rachelle Reichert lives and works in San Francisco. She has exhibited nationally and internationally. Select exhibitions include the German Consulate in New York City, SFMOMA Artist Gallery, Southern Exposure, and Mills College Art Museum. She was awarded residencies at Planet Labs, Can Serrat in Spain, and grants from the Susan Pilner Money for Women Artist Fund and the Russek Foundation. Her work has been reviewed and published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Make Magazine, and New American Paintings and is held in private collections such as Boston University Medical School, Red Bull Inc., and General Catalyst Ventures. This year Rachelle presented her artwork at the California Climate Change Symposium and has been granted a Research Ambassadorship from Planet Labs to create anthropogenic climate-related artwork. She earned her MFA from Mills College in Oakland, CA and a BFA from Boston University. To see her artwork visit  www.rachellereichert.com.

About state

state is a visual arts exhibition space in the Mission District of San Francisco. state exhibits contemporary art with an emphasis on Bay Area artists and project-based artwork. state is run by Danielle Smith and Kimberly Verde of FRAMEWORK.

August 5 - September 23
Artist’s Reception, Saturday, August 5, 6-8 PM
Artist in conversation with Robert Simmon, September 14, 6:30 PM
state | 1295 Alabama Street, San Francisco, CA  94110 | statespacesf.com

Gallery Information:
12-5 Tuesday - Saturday
1295 Alabama Street, San Francisco 94110
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