RENTAL announces “FAIR MARKET”, a group exhibition curated by New York artist
Haley Mellin. It is the first independently curated show at RENTAL without an external
gallery sponsor. The economics of labor and gesture embodied in the show suggest the
rationale for its placement at RENTAL: RENTAL is an atypical gallery which does not
represent artists- it is a “readymade” gallery which allows other galleries to “Rent” space
outside their primary location.

Expanding on this theme to include recent approaches, “FAIR MARKET” selects the
work of nearly 30 artists at various points in their careers engaged in questioning the
traditional values implied by work, play, nine-to five timetables, labor exchange, the
artist’s or individual’s place in production and transitive works that resist physical
location and ownership. Whether in an act of resistance to the forces of economic
development that surround and inform the making of something, or in concert with such
constructions, the whimsical, the non-demonstrative, the suggestive, and the culled are
presented as practical responses to such proprietary demands.

Works include Robert Gober’s carefully drawn logo on a paper bag filled with desiccated
donuts, Brian Clifton’s reconstructed chair that was once uncharacteristically destroyed
by Michael Joo, and a recreated painting by Olivier Mosset that was originally damaged
when the gallery was broken into through a wall, and thus, through the painting. Darren
Bader presents a textual piece as a title located on the checklist, Hanna and Klara Liden
show a self-portrait taken in Berlin, R.H. Quaytman gives a still of Orchard gallery’s
empty space. Throughout the exhibition, sequences emphasize the tension between
orientations of labor during a bear market. Peter Coffin’s ‘Untitled (Sculpture Silhouette
Array)’ depicts the delineation of forms past; the work has been presented at recent silent
auctions and benefits.

Artists included in this exhibition: David Adamo, Darren Bader, Matthew Brannon, Brian
Clifton, Peter Coffin, Ann Craven, Nathalie Djurberg, Erik Dietman, Hansjoerg Dobliar,
Claire Fontaine, Robert Gober, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Matt Keegan, Mike Kelley,
Masato Kobayashi, Knight Landesman, Hanna and Klara Liden, Adam McEwen, Ryan
McGinley, Jonas Mekas, Olivier Mosset, Ylva Ogland, R.H. Quaytman, Josh Smith,
Michael St. John, Frank Stella, Rudolph Stingel, Emily Sundblad.