Press Release

Greene Naftali is pleased to announce RAQUE FORD’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, which reveals new facets of what one critic calls her “plexiglass poetry.” That slick surface is also the working matrix for a suite of monotypes on view—experiments in form undertaken at New York City’s renowned Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. Ford’s unique works on paper find a lyrical edge to the physical properties of prints: images made under pressure, forged through contact and release. The exhibition features wall-mounted works in her signature sheets of bright acrylic, laser-cut with snippets of text and graphic symbols pulled from popular culture. These frieze-like objects were lifted from Ford’s custom dance floors and bear the traces of past use—sociability, proximity, and connection indexed in the nicks and dings that mar the plastic. The artist’s interest in industrial and found materials extends to two further interventions: kinetic sculptures made from commercial receipt printers put to wayward use, and a site-specific activation of the gallery’s windows that sets the stage for fresh encounters.

Raque Ford’s Aesthetics of the Aftermath Spotlight Raque Ford’s Aesthetics of the Aftermath Danielle Ezzo considers the accumulation of forms and feelings in the bold but softly reciprocal work of Raque Ford at Greene Naftali, New York. Read the story
About the Artist

Raque Ford infuses abstraction with narrative potential, producing layered works that explore how identity is crafted from the remnants of popular culture. Known for her distinctive way with materials, Ford troubles the line between painting and sculpture, using reflective acrylic and transparent Mylar, welded steel chains and laser-cut text. Her high-gloss surfaces are incised with spidery script that quotes from a range of sources: song lyrics, snippets of conversation, excerpts from fiction and diaristic jottings. An accomplished printmaker, she has been a fellow at the renowned Robert Blackburn Workshop, recombining her signature elements into works on paper both intimate and bracing. Deeply attuned to the history of art, Ford channels the tactics of Minimalist masters like Melvin Edwards, Robert Smithson, and Richard Serra toward her own nuanced project. “That’s the interjection of being a woman of color and learning these ways of making sculpture,” she has said. “I want to have their energy, their aggressive scale and material...I’m taking all of that and making it my own.”

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About the Gallery
Founded in 1995, Greene Naftali was among the first contemporary art galleries in New York’s Chelsea neighbourhood. With artists exhibiting worldwide in museums and arts institutions, the gallery has a diverse and influential roster of artists demonstrating a strong conceptual foundation and dedication to art’s discourse and history. Significant contemporary artists include painters Monika Baer, Jana Euler, and Jacqueline Humphries; sculptors Rachel Harrison and Simone Fattal; and new media artists Tony Cokes, Paul Chan, and Cory Arcangel. The gallery’s program also includes critical historical figures Tony Conrad, Konrad Lueg, and Harun Farocki, and a group of innovative emerging artists of a younger generation – Justin Caguiat, Aria Dean, and Walter Price.
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Address
508 West 26th Street
Ground Floor & 8th Floor
New York
United States
Opening Hours
Tuesday – Saturday
10am – 6pm
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New York 508 West 26th Street, Ground Floor & 8th Floor
Greene Naftali
508 West 26th Street, Ground Floor & 8th Floor, New York, United States

Opening hours
Tuesday – Saturday
10am – 6pm
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