Rita Ackermann

Ackermann studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest before immigrating to New York in the 1990s. A lively presence in the downtown art scene, she collaborated with musicians, photographers, and fashion designers. Her early paintings were dominated by images of sensuous, nymph-like female figures. In the following decade, her work evolved into gestural compositions that toe the line between abstraction and figuration. Her sketchbooks play an essential role in her working process and inspired directly many of her drawings and paintings. They show how her imagery combines a wide range of sources from art history to Pop culture, with references to children's fairytales, advertisements, Gauguin, Native American ledger art, and even Shakespeare's characters.