RITA ACKERMANN

Early Years

Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1968, Ackermann studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest before relocating to New York City in 1992. In New York, she attended the Whitney Independent Study Program, immersing herself in the city's underground art and music scenes, which shaped the early development of her practice. Ackermann continues to live and work in New York.

Artworks

Ackermann's practice encompasses painting, drawing, and collage, marked by a restless negotiation between abstraction and figuration. Her works often feature ghostly outlines of figures—particularly young girls—overlaid with gestural brushwork, stains, and scrawls, creating layered compositions that suggest both creation and erasure.

Early Works: Drawings and Youth Culture (1990s)

Ackermann first gained recognition in the 1990s with her raw, graphic drawings of adolescent girls. These works, including the 'Teenage Stardust' series, captured the rebellious energy and vulnerability of youth, reflecting the downtown New York art and music scenes she was immersed in after emigrating from Hungary. Ackermann's thinly outlined, often eroticised figures challenged both the aesthetics of traditional portraiture and the art world's treatment of feminine desire. This early period established central motifs in her practice: the collision of innocence and aggression, and the exploration of female identity as a site of tension and change.

Transition to Abstraction (2000s–2010s)

By the 2000s, Ackermann's practice had shifted toward greater abstraction, though the figure remained an essential element. In series such as 'Fire by Days' (2010) and 'Mama' (2011), she began layering fragmented bodies beneath gestural strokes and smears of oil, acrylic, and chalk. These paintings reflect a dynamic interplay between the visible and the hidden, where images seem to flicker in and out of focus. Ackermann's use of erasure and overlay created canvases charged with psychological intensity, evoking states of desire, dislocation, and dissolution. This period also marked a technical expansion in her work, with large-scale paintings that balanced forceful brushwork with delicate line.

Recent Works: Chalkboard Paintings and Erasure (2010s–present)

Ackermann's 'Chalkboard Paintings' series (2014–ongoing) represents a pivotal moment in her evolution as an artist. Here, the chalkboard surface functions both materially and metaphorically, offering a space where marks can be made and unmade, reflecting themes of memory, absence, and transformation. The process of drawing, painting, and repeatedly erasing creates ghostlike traces that float across the surface, generating a sense of impermanence and flux. In more recent works, including the 'Mama '21' series, Ackermann deepens her exploration of instability, with figures dissolving into volatile abstract fields. The paintings capture a tension between control and surrender, structure and collapse, making them some of the most emotionally resonant works of her career.

Exhibitions

Rita Ackermann has been the subject of both solo exhibitions and group exhibitions at important institutions.

Solo Exhibitions

• Manna Rain, Fondazione Iris, Bassano in Teverina, Italy (2024)
• Rita Ackermann. Hidden, MASI Lugano, Switzerland (2023)
• Rita Ackermann, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami (2012)
• Bakos, Ludwig Museum, Budapest (2011)
• Rita Ackermann and Harmony Korine: Shadow Fux, Swiss Institute (2010)
• Marfa / Crash, The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas (2009)
• Snowfall in August, Museum Het Domein, Sittard, Netherlands (2002)

Group Exhibitions

• The Mother and the Weaver: Works from the Ursula Hauser Collection, The Foundling Museum, London (2023)
• Women Painting Women, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas (2022)
• Trouble in Paradise. Collection Rattan Chadha, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam (2019)
• Michael Jackson: On the Wall, National Portrait Gallery, London (2018)
• Transmissions: re-creation, repetition, Beaux-arts de Paris, Paris (2015)
• Art Unlimited, Art Basel, Basel (2014)
• Looking at Music: 3.0, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011)

Critical Reception

Ackermann's practice has been widely covered in publications including Artnet News, ArtReview, The Financial Times,

FAQs

Sherry Paik | Ocula | 2025