Alejandra von Hartz Gallery is very pleased to announce the installation of new work by New York-based artist Russell Maltz. This is Maltz’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.

Russell Maltz’s most recent works are the product of an ongoing project begun in January 2004. These works by mapping the element of time and duration explore issues of fabrication, transportation, painting, assembly, disassembly and the integration of the work’s elements into the public realm. These newest works of the S.P. series consist of plywood plates painted and suspended from steel posts attached to the wall of the gallery. In their raw physical state, they convey the concept of semblance, an assembly of everything they are; an ordered representation of the unseen process, that go into their making. Onto these structures Day-Glo paint and industrial enamels are applied as “material on material,” defining areas or zones on the raw plywood surfaces generating layers of information. It is this layering that curbs the perception of entropy and fosters a discussion of painting in terms of process and duration and time, as its form and as its content.

The altering of manufactured material such as steel plates and beams, glass, metal stud, lumber, drywall and CMU etc.; for the purposes of making art becomes an act of ventriloquism by the artist. This ventriloquism manifests itself in the artist’s ability to take the basic, intrinsic and intended use of a material by its manufacturer, as defined by the requirements of a society and transform these into art-works that function on several levels simultaneously, without relinquishing its original, newly found or potential, future identity. In addition to the S.P. works, Russell Maltz will engage the gallery space with a new installation work that will examine the phenomena of conveyance as an event.

Russell Maltz (b. 1952, Brooklyn, NY) has exhibited work in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally, including in Australia, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Israel, Denmark, Mexico, Switzerland, Japan and New Zeland.

His work has been reviewed in publications such as The New York Time, Artforum, Art in America, and Village Voice. His works are in the collection of The Brooklyn Museum. Yale University Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museum, Kunstraum-Alexander Burkle, Freiburg, Germany; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas; Saarland Museum, Saarbrucken, Germany; Stiftung fur Konkreter Kunst, Reutlingen, Germany; WhilhelmHack Museum, Ludwigshafen, Germany; Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.

He has also been facilitating with Critical Practices Incorporated since its inception and serves on its advisory board. Critical Practices is currently participating in the 2014 Whitney Biennial as a think tank for intellectual participation and critical theory.

Russell Maltz lives and works in New York City.