'If the Phone is Ringing Don't Pick It Up' wonderfully presents Rita Ackermann's distinctive style and visualization of contemporary youth culture. Here, Ackermann depicts a vague scene with her unique nymph-like female characters talking on the phone. Exhibited in the typical story-book like display Ackermann is known for, the composition of cartoonish figures is collaged with close-ups of the girls' faces as well as appropriated photographs of girls on the phone, which have been pushed to the background by a layer of green and yellow paint. In comparison to the smiling faces of the photographed girls, Reflecting a generation in response to identity politics, Ackermann's characters display a nonchalance towards the activity, echoing the sentiments expressed by the title, which are in opposition to the smiling faces of the photographed girls from a generation past.
Incorporating a range of media and technique with personal observation and experience, Hungarian-American artist, musician and curator, Rita Ackermann (b.1968) explores fantasies and fetishes of social and gender roles as reflected in the seemingly glamorous culture of the 1990s New York City. Her representations of provocative and youthful female figures produced on unusual materials though collages and drawings question traditional painting approaches while simultaneously reflect on contemporary identity. Ackermann studied at the University of Fine Arts Budapest from 1989 to 1992 before moving to New York to study at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture. In 2012, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, FL organized a mid-career retrospective of Ackermann’s work. Her work has also been featured in recent solo shows at Hauser & Wirth, London, England (2012); Ludwig Múzeum, Budapest, Hungary (2011); The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2011); Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France (2010); Rebecca Camhi Gallery, Athens, Greece (2010); Peter Kilchmann Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland (2009); and Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY (2008).
