Max Rippon opened his latest solo exhibition at AF Gallery in Cologne, Germany last week. The exhibition titled “W.O.W. (What Once Was) focuses on Max’s letter based works this time with some interesting additions. W.O.W. is a contradiction of aesthetics, mediums and processes. The analog hand painted sign work is contrasted against finished digital letter pieces created with new technology yet on a natural medium of wood. It is this constant back and forth with material, digital and analog that Max has been able to bring together in one cohesive statement about our generations transient nature and ability to destroy and recreate itself in constant evolution.
GF
photos by Klaus Dyba
“W.O.W. (What Once Was)“ presents Max Rippon’s latest works on canvas and wood. The exhibition’s title refers to the fundamental transience of modern life – the constant process of creation, destruction, and transformation in the material just as much as the immaterial. A new series of the artist’s “news headline“ canvases will be presented. Through layers of hand-painted lettering he explores the fast-paced, highly ephemeral business of the news media as well as the readers’ fragmented memory and perception of these events. Rippon’s latest sculptural and wood pieces, however, are the highlight of this exhibition. He transforms handpainted lettering into wood sculptures and wood collages on canvas through an elaborate production process including calligraphy, 3D-modeling, digital fabrication, and traditional wood finishing techniques. These highly delicate works blur the line between the perfection of digital technologies and the imperfections and organic nature of the analogue processes.
W.O.W. (What Once Was) solo exhibition
