04/30/2014
Dear friends and colleagues, please join us this Sunday, May 4, for Houben R. T.'s opening!
Houben R. T.
May 4, 2013 – June 14, 2014
Opening Reception: Sunday, May 4, 6 – 8 p.m.
Stephan Stoyanov Gallery is extremely proud to announce the opening of a solo exhibition by Houben R.T. This will be the artist’s first show in the gallery, presenting his newest body of work.
Houben R. T. is known for his usage of images from various national currencies, captured in luminous canvases made of impasto, acrylic and the same holographic foil that is used in the production of money bills worldwide. The holographic foil contributes to the vibrancy of canvases; the images and color seem to constantly change, appear and disappear, depending on the angles of viewing and the viewer’s movements in front of the work. For his newest exhibition, the artist specifically focuses on the American currency and symbolically strong historical imagery imprinted on it. The images of presidents, buildings and landscapes become appropriated, enlarged and rendered through the artist’s multilayered, collage- like technique that dramatically transfigures them. However, the title of each work is straight to the point, quoting the resource - the original money bill the image is taken from. While looking at Houben R. T.’s paintings, one can discover his in-depth knowledge of art history which very much informs his work, both formally and conceptually: from late Roman and Byzantine art, Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Pointillism, all the way to Abstract Expressionism, street art, Warhol’s silkscreens and Rauschenberg’s collages. The artist utilizes this legacy in his investigation of images produced and fostered by government as the bold representations of national identity, historical narratives and power. He converts them into playful and poetical, often dreamlike compositions which allude to the constant flow of money, weariness of the money bills as objects in constant usage, as much as to the currency fluctuations in our globalized economy.
Houben R. T. received his Masters of Fine Arts in Painting from the National Academy of Fine Arts, Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1998. The artist is the recipient of numerous awards, residencies and scholarships, such as American Foundation for Bulgaria Award, New York, NY; Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) Residency, The Bronx Museum, New York, NY; and National Endowment for the Arts and Artslink Award, New York, NY, among others. His work was featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, at the international venues such as Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, Cazenovia, NY; Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA; Museum of Natural History, Sofia, Bulgaria; The Brogan Museum, Tallahassee, FL; NYMEX Art Gallery- World Financial Center, NY; Museum of Biblical Art, New York, NY; The Bronx Museum of Art, New York, NY; Contemporary Arts Center, Moscow, Russia; Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, Austria; and Generali Foundation, Vienna, Austria. In 2011, Houben R. T. was featured in Bulgarian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy.
