Above: Allen Ruppersberg's "The Singing Posters" (2003), which uses text from Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl." Courtesy the artist and Greene Naftali, New York.
Sunny days are back again for L.A.-based artist Allen Ruppersberg.
The West Coast artist's comprehensive survey "Intellectual Property," which premiered at the Walker Art Center last spring, opens this Sunday at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Ruppersberg and Walker Senior Curator Siri Engberg will have a public conversation about his art at 2 p.m. Sunday. The exhibition is on view from Feb. 10-May 12.
A conceptual artist with assemblage tendencies, Ruppersberg moved to L.A. from Cleveland in the 1960s for art school. Inspired by mass media such as newspapers and books, archival films, street signage, the landscape of Southern California and even Harry Houdini, the artist has produced everything from parody-like built environments such as "Al's Café" to conceptual paintings like "The Picture of Dorian Gray" — a copy of the entire Oscar Wilde novel — and portraits of himself as other people.
Ruppersberg's last solo exhibition in his hometown was a 1985 exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in L.A.
This is the first of two major Walker Art Center exhibitions that travels to a coast. Minneapolis-based artist Siah Armajani, whose career retrospective premiered at the Walker last fall, opens Feb. 20 at the Met Breuer in New York City.
