Environmental Catastrophes Top Ten and and other Abominations ‒ Glen Rubsamen
-However, the Los Angeles-based artist’s work does not follow the conventional iconography designed to confront humans with their own mortality. Rather, they point to something far beyond the individual. They are scenes of global catastrophes and threats, which thematize the end of nature, or even the planet.
Rubsamen finds the templates for his images in the mass media: internet icons or anonymous images from Instagram—images that determine our collective memory. These are the starting point for his backlit apocalypses: the hard monochrome silhouette of the Hiroshima Dome against a seductive color gradient. His skies, which always remain color field paintings, lend the paintings their typically melancholic atmosphere, which nonetheless manage to steer clear of kitsch by dint of their toxic tonal values. Here, Glen Rubsamen meets the masters of the 17th century. Despite its thematic horrors, each memento mori also discusses its own aesthetic presence.
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GLEN RUBSAMEN
‘Environmental Catastrophes Top Ten and other Abominations’
Installation view, COSAR -
GLEN RUBSAMEN
TMI-2
2019
Acryl auf Holz / Acrylic on panel
76 cm x 101 cm / 30 in x 40 in -
GLEN RUBSAMEN
WTC
2019
Acrylic on panel
51 cm x 40,5 cm / 20 in x 16 in -
GLEN RUBSAMEN
‘Environmental Catastrophes Top Ten and other Abominations’
Installation view, COSAR -
GLEN RUBSAMEN
OK TEDI
2019
Acrylic on panel
53,5 cm x 53,5 cm / 21 in x 21 in -
GLEN RUBSAMEN
Chain Reaction
2017
Acrylic on panel
51 cm x 51 cm / 20 in x 20 in -
GLEN RUBSAMEN
Kiss of Life
2018
Acrylic on panel
55,5 cm x 55,5, cm / 22 in x 22 in -
GLEN RUBSAMEN
Hiroshima Mon Amour
2019
Acrylic on panel
51 cm x 38 cm / 20 in x 15 in -
GLEN RUBSAMEN
Blood Moon
2019
Acrylic on panel
61 cm x 45,5 cm / 24 in x 18 in -
GLEN RUBSAMEN
Ranch Hand
2019
Acrylic on panel
76 cm x 76 cm / 30 in x 30 in -
GLEN RUBSAMEN
Love Canal and Cross my Heart
2018
Acrylic on panel
47 cm x 47 cm / 18,5 in x 18,5 in each