Stefan Rinck Presents 'Semigods of the Jockey Club'
On view at Skarstedt East Hampton.
Imagine if characters seen across modern sports and gambling arenas morphed into Pre-Colombian artifacts. That’s essentially a good starting point to describe Stefan Rinck’s new solo exhibition at Skarstedt.
Housed at the gallery’s East Hampton location in New York, Semigods of the Jockey Club presents a series of totemic sculptures made of various materials, such as diabase, sandstone and cairo grey marble. Weathered like an artifact you’d find in a museum, yet polished with contemporary techniques, Rinck reintroduces modern lexicon through an almost ancient lens that draws from French Romanesque, Pre-Columbian, and African history.
Mapped across 24 sculptures, each represents a different character found in a sports setting. From Forecaster, who looks over the crowd like a spectator, Chief of the Feather Industry who is seen donning an etched tennis headband, to Wrong Bet Rabbit, who hides its face in shame after losing a large sum of money.
The exhibition does a great job at interlocking bygone eras in the present moment — spotlighting the notion that although we are far ahead in time from our ancient ancestors, much of the joys and qualms of today are not so different than before. Semigods of the Jockey Club is on view at Skarstedt East Hampton until September 11.
Elsewhere in art, Gagosian presents SWISS MADE: From Ferdinand Hodler to Urs Fischer.
Skarstedt
66 Newtown Ln,
East Hampton, NY 11937
