NEW YORK, NY – On Wednesday, October 23, ACA Galleries held a private reception to celebrate the opening of Binding Wires, a 2-man exhibition featuring artworks by John Mellencamp and Robert Rauschenberg.
The exhibition is open to the public on Thursday, October 24, and is on view through Saturday, December 21. This exhibition investigates the dynamic juxtapositions of two bodies of work: Mellencamp’s sculptural assemblages and portraits alongside Rauschenbergs’s mixed media artworks.
In attendance were John Mellencamp and his nephew Ian Mellencamp, Bill Clinton, Jonny Lennon, Rory Tahari, Gabe Kilongo, Abdul K. Franklin, Allen & Debbie Grubman, Tim Okamura, Leo Kuelbs, Scott Landis, Alex Wiederin and Elina Kremer, Michael Deutsch, Jill Costas, Jim Bessman and Sandra Bernhard, Monte and Avery Lipman, Joan and Gary Friedman, Jesse Keyes, Anna Martucci, Tolomy and Danielle Erpf, Maureen McCarran, Ann Edelberg, Scott Landis, Sydney Maag along with guests and many more.
About John Mellencamp
Born and raised in Seymour, Indiana, Mellencamp is an acclaimed singer-songwriter and musician, as well as an accomplished painter and long-time activist. He started painting at an early age, influenced by his mother, also an artist. Mellencamp studied briefly at the Arts Students League in New York, where he discovered the work of Twentieth-Century Modernists. As his musical career flourished, he began to paint earnestly in the 1980s with an early affinity for portraiture influenced by the works of Otto Dix and Max Beckmann. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, recipient of The Woody Guthrie Award, the John Steinbeck Award, ASCAP Foundation's Champion Award, the Americana Music Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Founders Award and co-founder of Farm Aid – a nonprofit organization whose mission is to keep family farmers on the land. www.johnmellencampart.com | @johnmellencamp
About Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg (1925 – 2008) worked in a wide range of subjects, styles, materials, and techniques throughout his career. He has been called a forerunner of nearly every postwar movement since Abstract Expressionism, although he remained independent of any particular affiliation. When he began making art in the late 1940s and early 50s, his belief that “painting relates to both art and life” presented a direct challenge to the prevalent modernist aesthetic. The celebrated Combines, begun in the mid-1950s, brought real-world images and objects into the realm of abstract painting and broke down the divisions between painting and sculpture. Rauschenberg’s lifelong commitment to collaboration—with performers, printmakers, engineers, writers, artists, and artisans from around the world—is a further manifestation of his expansive artistic philosophy.
This text is adapted from an essay written by Julia Blaut, “Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective,” @Guggenheim (Fall 1997). (From the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation)
About ACA Galleries
American Contemporary Art Gallery (ACA) was established in 1932 by Herman Baron. For over 80 years, ACA has supported artists in diverse disciplines with singular points of view. The gallery has presented over 800 exhibitions and published over 400 books and catalogues. Today ACA continues to break new ground by representing and exhibiting distinguished artists and estates. The artistic and humanitarian mission of the gallery still endures, and ACA is committed to upholding this tradition by continuing to support artists from around the world in their commitment to make significant and brave contributions to the field. www.acagalleries.com | @acagalleries1932
