Sara Greenberger Rafferty

February 6, 2019

May 5-July 21, 2019
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 4, 2019, 7-9pm

JOAN is pleased to present a large-scale exhibition of Sara Greenberger Rafferty’s archive of wallpapers and two recent series of framed photographs.

Rafferty’s wallpaper imagery, mostly arranged in the ubiquitous grid, includes personal images, book excerpts, and documents; including Freedom of Information Act requests for the terms comic, comedian, laughter, and laughing. The myriad of images also includes the FBI surveillance of Joan Rivers after an incident of stalking, Phyllis Diller’s joke archive, photographs of Steve Martin’s white suit, Rodney Dangerfield’s shirt and tie, alongside discarded commercial and educational stock footage purchased on eBay. The wallpapers cover most of the gallery walls, resembling an immersive, architectural-scale photograph.

Hanging across the wallpapers are photographs from two recent series: one opaque, repetitive, silver gelatin prints depicting the numbers 1-9; and the second colorful, transparent and reverse-printed on ballistic Plexiglas, the kind used for protection. Taken together, these works amount to a slice of the artist’s examination of contemporary and mid-20th century visual culture.

 

Sara Greenberger Rafferty has exhibited widely since 2001, including solo exhibitions at MoMA PS1, New York; The Kitchen, New York; Eli Marsh Gallery at Amherst College, Massachusetts; Fine Arts Center Gallery at University of Arkansas; and a commissioned sculpture for the Public Art Fund. Gloves Off, the first traveling survey of her work with accompanying fully illustrated catalogue published by SUNY Press, completed a three-venue tour at the end of 2017.

The artist was included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial and the 2014 Hammer Biennial, as part of Public Fiction’s programming, in addition to group shows at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Oregon; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, California; and The Jewish Museum, New York, among many others. Her work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Rafferty is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Photography at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

 

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

Installation view of Sara Greenberger Rafferty at JOAN.  May 5 – July 21, 2019 at JOAN, Los Angeles

 

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