CAPSULE SHANGHAI and HELENA ANRATHER are pleased to jointly present Soft Relief, a solo project by American artist Douglas Rieger, at the Frame section of Frieze NY 2021.
The title of the project refers to relief carving and the method of pressure release in mechanical and psychological systems. Douglas Rieger's practice emphasises the abstracted body; each work is inspired by industrial mechanisms, furniture, modernist forms, household products, and adult novelty shops.
The presentation includes panel works in upholstered vinyl and wooden sculptures. The works are figurative abstractions using familiar materials to reassemble a vulnerable natural form through incongruous artifice. Handles, holes, knobs, bands, pull chains and other elements accent the works and playfully request the viewer to interact with them.