Rodeo and Andrew Kreps present a curated two-person show featuring British artist Ian Law and American artist Robert Overby – the latter passed away in 1993. During his lifetime, Overby rarely showed in exhibitions, and it’s only in relatively recent years that his work, from his oil paintings to his other career in graphic design, has been considered afresh. In particular, his latex wall casts of domestic facades, carefully painted to suggest qualities of age, share early affinities with the memory houses of Rachel Whiteread and Do Ho Suh. Overby’s practice often demonstrated an almost ritualized process – taking a door and then casting it in resin, producing a neon outline before finally turning it into a map on canvas. In these ‘canvas maps’, which are shown here, Overby sought a more reflective, tactile counterpoint to his facade casts. In his ‘restoration paintings’, he purchased cheap street market knock-offs of old master works which he then subjected to cleaning techniques in order to ‘restore’ them – included in the show is his Princess Restoration c.1850 anon. (1973) through which Overby explored this interest in the retentive and cerebral capacities of the canvas. Ian Law similarly expresses an interest in material memory – and his work featured here engages with the writings of Simone Weil.
Read our Critic's Guide to Condo here.