Beauty is a Blast: for Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe
Art Cake Gallery, Brooklyn Open April 6th, 4pm-7pm. The Brooklyn gallery Art Cake and Christian Haub proudly present Beauty is a Blast: For Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe. The group exhibition celebrates the life, work, and far-reaching impact of the artist, teacher, and theorist Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe who died in August 2024. This memorial show brings Gilbert-Rolfe’s work together along with 200 artists whose lives and work were touched by Gilbert-Rolfe's vision, intellect, and mentorship. The exhibition includes diverse voices from established figures ranging from John Baldessari, Joan Jonas, Robert Ryman, Dorothea Rockburne, and David Smith to emerging talents and devoted students. In late 2021, Christian Haub, artist, curator, and close friend of Jeremy's, initially conceived of the exhibition as an intimate celebration and showcase of Jeremy’s work and influence. The project was put on hold. In late 2024, working in partnership with the Art Cake team and Jeremy’s family, the project was revived. Once word of the exhibition got out, the show transformed into an extraordinary and heartfelt celebration of Gilbert-Rolfe’s artistic legacy, influence on contemporary art, and community. "Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine 250 artworks hanging on these walls," says Haub. "This exhibition represents an extraordinary outpouring of love and respect for a singular artistic voice. Jeremy's impact on contemporary art extends far beyond his own remarkable body of work - it lives on in the countless artists he inspired and challenged." Beauty is a Blast offers visitors the opportunity to experience the ripple effect of Gilbert-Rolfe's creative legacy. The exhibition creates a visual conversation among hundreds of artists connected through their relationship to Gilbert-Rolfe's ideas and presence. This dialogue extends across generations and artistic approaches, creating a living memorial that celebrates not just what Gilbert-Rolfe created, but what he inspired others to create. Beauty is a Blast includes five separate but related exhibitions:
The group show includes works by 200 artists and a selection of Gilbert-Rolfe’s works going back to 1968. Gilbert-Rolfe’s books, as well as those of his peers and students, will be represented. An abbreviated version of Gilbert-Rolfe’s final curatorial project, Painting on Air, is a four-person show with single works by Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe, Christian Haub, Clinton Hill, and Nicola Staeglïch. A selection of Gilbert-Rolfe’s works on paper, ranging from the 1970s to works created before his death. There will be a small two-person show by the collaborators, Gilbert-Rolfe and Haub. About Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe (1945-2024) was an influential artist, critic, and educator whose work and thought helped shape contemporary discourse on abstraction, beauty, and art theory. As a painter, Gilbert-Rolfe was known for his rigorous exploration of color, composition, and the philosophical underpinnings of abstraction. His vibrant canvases demonstrated a masterful understanding of the relationships between form, light, and spatial perception. Born in England, Gilbert-Rolfe moved to the United States in the late 1960s, where he established himself as both a distinctive voice in abstract painting and a formidable art theorist. His writings, including seminal texts such as Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime and Beyond Piety: Critical Essays on the Visual Arts, challenged prevailing artistic orthodoxies and offered nuanced perspectives on aesthetics in contemporary art. As an educator, Gilbert-Rolfe profoundly influenced generations of artists through his teaching positions at prestigious institutions, where his intellectual rigor and passionate advocacy for critical thinking inspired countless students. His legacy lives on not only through his own artistic production and scholarly contributions but through the work of the many artists he mentored throughout his distinguished career. Gilbert-Rolfe's impact on the art world extends far beyond his individual accomplishments, as evidenced by the extraordinary response to this exhibition—a testament to how deeply his ideas and presence resonated across the artistic community. About Christian Haub
Christian Haub has established himself as a significant voice in contemporary abstraction through his innovative exploration of color, light, and form through his radiant Plexiglass Floats and his paintings, exhibiting internationally since 1980. Haub's dedication to the serious play of abstraction reflects a long lineage which includes Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, James McNeill Whistler, Piet Mondrian, Robert Ryman, and Frank Stella, while maintaining a distinctly personal vision. Haub was born in Miami, Florida. He earned a BA in Art History from Princeton University, and was awarded a Rome Prize in 1983 from the American Academy in Rome.
Float for Gilberto Perez, Christian Haub, 2015
works by ALICE ADAMS CARL AFFARIAN DONALD ALBERTI ELENA ALEXANDER ROBERTA ALLEN JOHN BALDESSARI AUGUSTO BALLARDO MATTHEW BARRY UTA BARTH ISABELLE BAS PASCALE BAS JEFF BEALL BILL BECKLEY CONNIE BECKLEY TIFFANY BELL TOM BILLS RONALD BLADEN NORMAN BLUHM MARY BOOCHEVER OLIVIA BOOTH CAROL ANN BRAUN MICHAEL BRENNAN CALVIN BROWN HOWARD BUCHWALD CARMEL BUCKLEY PHONG BUI LUIS BUSTAMANTE LUCA BUVOLI TOM BUTTER SUE CARLSON FANDRA CHANG DON MEE CHOI REBECCA CHOU JAMES CLARK FREDDIE JEN COHEN JIM CONDRON MAUREEN CONNOR CHRIS COOK HUGH CRAWFORD TODD CRONAN PEGGY CYPHERS LISA CORINNE DAVIS ROSE DESIANO DAVID DIAO GEARÓID DOLAN YUKARI EDAMITSU BONNIE EGAN LAUREN FEJARANG MARC FIELDS COLUMBIA FIERO THOMAS FINK TOM FINKELPEARL KENT FLOETER PENNY FLORENCE CAROLYN FORRESTER ROY FOWLER LINDA FRANCIS JOHN FRANKLIN RUTH ANN FREDENTHAL ALLEN FURBECK SHARON GARBE STEVE GAVENAS STAN GAZ FRANK GEHRY ROLAND GEPHARDT JEREMY GILBERT-ROLFE RICHARD GLUCKMAN MICHAEL GOLDBERG RON GORCHOV TIMOTHY GREENFIELD-SANDERS STEPHEN GUILD PETER HALLEY MARK HARRIS CHRISTIAN HAUB NANCY HAYNES JAMES HAYWARD RENATA HEGYI HANNA HELLSTEN DANIEL G HILL HANS HOFMANN ROBERT HOOPER TISHAN HSU JAMES HYDE RAYMIE IADEVAIA LUKE JACKSON SAM JACKSON DIANE JACOBS RON JANOWICH GABRIELLE JENNINGS ED JOHNSON JASPER JOHNS JOHN JOHNSTON JOAN JONAS WENDY EVANS JOSEPH RICHARD KALINA EVERETT KANE SHIRLEY KANEDA STAN KAPLAN MARTHE KELLER MIKE KELLEY GWENAEL KERLIDOU MARJORIE KERNAN RACHEL KESSLER JULIA KIDD RICK KLAUBER HILARY KLIROS JULIKA LACKNER LINDA LEVIT CATHY LIGHTFOOT MANEL LLEDÓS JANE LOGEMANN LAURA LONDON RORY MACARTHUR RUSSELL MALTZ JODIE MANASEVIT BRICE MARDEN KNOX MARTIN MARILYN MARTIN ALFRED MARTINEZ TOM MARTINELLI G A MCALMON III MIKE METZ CHRISTOPHER MICHLIG RIFKA MILDER VERA MILJKOVIĆ HOLLY MORSE ELIZABETH MURRAY JUDITH MURRAY MARIA NAZOR REBECCA NORTON CANDACE NYCZ DOUG OHLSON JEFF OSTERGREN SAUL OSTROW LAURA PADDOCK FABIA PANJARIAN SOOJUNG PARK CAROLANNA PARLATO PAULA PEATROSS GILBERTO PEREZ GEORGE PORCARI LUCIO POZZI BEN PRITCHARD STEPHEN PUSEY PRIYANKA RAM ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG CHARLES READ SALVATORE REDA DAVID REED MICHAEL REY DAVID RHODES JAMES RICHARDS LARRY RIVERS CLAUDIA ROBERTS WALTER ROBINSON DOROTHEA ROCKBURNE JAMES ROSENQUIST MICHAEL ROUILLARD DAVID ROW GREGORY RUKAVINA MALCOLM RYDER CORDY RYMAN ETHAN RYMAN ROBERT RYMAN JOOP SANDERS BARBARA SAVEDOFF RUDOLPH SERRA DAVID SHAPIRO KATE SHEPHERD RICHARD SHIFF MARY SCHILIRO DM SIMONS RENA SMALL DAVID SMITH REBECCA SMITH SPENCER SMITH SUSAN SMITH EVE SONNEMAN KELLY SPALDING NICOLA STÄEGLICH TED STAMM CHIP SULLIVAN DAVID SULLIVAN SUSANNA TANGER KEVIN TEARE ALEXIS TEPLIN GWENN THOMAS JULIUS TOBIAS RICHARD TOBIAS RYAN TOMCHO SHIRLEY TSE ALAN UGLOW LYNN UMLAUF ALEXANDER VISCIO SUSAN KAISER VOGEL JEAN VONG MERRILL WAGNER JOAN WALTEMATH TOM WEAVER DAWSON WEBER JERRY WELLMAN THOMAS WEST MIA WESTERLUND STEPHEN WESTFALL HANNAH WILKE ROBERT YASUDA