A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A CONTEXT by Roger White
The John Riepenhoff Experience is a smallish wooden box attached to the wall about eight or nine feet off the ground. It has a rectangular hole in the top fitted with a piece of translucent plastic, through which a photographer’s floodlight shines, and a circular hole in the bottom. Climbing up a stepladder one at a time, viewers can put their heads inside the box and see some very small art. At the Milwaukee International Art Fair in 2006, The Experience contained drawings on notecards by Tyson Reeder. For his 2010 Nohl showing at INOVA, Riepenhoff upped the ante and commissioned three curators to arrange miniature group exhibitions in each of the three Experiences presented.
The Experience, the artist told me, is an attempt to solve a persistent problem of the Milwaukee artist: having big ideas but scant resources with which to realize them. (“You probably can’t cover the walls of a normal-sized gallery entirely with chocolate,” he said. “But in The Experience, you can.”) It’s also a functional model of the work of contemporary art, which is primarily a context nestled within a series of contexts that is in infinitely extendable in both directions. Maybe navigating this system and registering the forms of value it generates is the experience of The Experience.
Then again, maybe not: Riepenhoff is attuned to the perennial tension between the public and private functions of art. “When you go to a movie theater you’re with a big group of people, but when the lights go down you enter into the film,” he said. “When you’re at an art opening, you’re with a big group of people and they never go away.... [The Experience] gives you both things. You have this intimacy with the work, you can get up close, and you can also have a little chat about it afterwards.”
-Roger White is a painter and author of The Contemporaries (Bloomsbury, 2015).
The John Riepenhoff Experience with
McCaw/Budsberg's Sub-Suburban programmed by
After School Special presenting
Horses 2 presenting new work by
Rebecca Lothan
The Nut Factory
Between Keefe and Vienna in Riverwest
February 24, 2018
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents:
The Philadelphia Wireman
545 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001
July 6 - August 4, 2017
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents:
Action Essentials, Post-production Bundle by Steve Wetzel
2276 E 16th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90021
Opening Friday June 30, 7-10pm
image by Ryan Wallice
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents:
Trunks by Jerry the Marble Fawn Torre
East Hampton, NY
June 25 through August, 2017
March 17 - April 17, 2017
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents Nicholas Frank Minifinity after (Stanley Landsman), 2007/2016
Mirrired and tinted plexiglass, arature, and seed lights
April 19 - May 22, 2017
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents Anonymous
Untitled (Pen and Ink), 2000
May 24 - June 11
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents Martine Syms Lesson I - XC, 2014-17
Three monitors with a series of high-definition videos, color, sound; 0;30 min. each
Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort Street
New York, NY 10014
April 1 - 6, 2017
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents:Shana McCaw and Brent Budsberg's Sub-Suburban featuring GraceMarie Keaton at Kyle Seis' Chamber
March 25 - 31, 2017
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents Makoe
March 19 - 24, 2017
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents Chaguin Untitled, 2008
The Suburban Riverwest
2901 N Fratney St
Milwaukee, WI 53212
November 29 - December 26, 2015
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents Motoyuki Daifu
November 29 - December 26, 2015
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents Amanda Ross-Ho
November 29 - December 26, 2015
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents Roger White
3-21-6 1F, Minami-otsuka, Toshima-ku
Tokyo 170-0005
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents:
Night Gallery
2276 E 16th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90021
September 12 - October 10, 2015
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents Ann Greene Kelly
2276 E 16th Street
Los Angeles, CA
September 9 – October 11, 2015
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents: Gordon Payne
291 Grand Street
New York, NY 10002
August 30, 2015 12 - 2 pm
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents: don't over do it, do it over by Saige Rowe
2230 Cloverdale Dr. SE
Atlanta, GA
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents:
Bernie Taupin, Dena Yago
@ Night Gallery
2276 E 16th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90021
January 5, 2014 - February 9, 2014
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents: Jacques Lipchitz variation on the theme of the last Embrace (Salvataggio)
Marlborough Broome St
331 Broome St
New York, NY
January 7 - February 1, 2014
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents: Johnny B. Bad works by Lauren Taylor
JAZZ GALLERY
926 East Center Street
Milwaukee, WI
January 18 - February 18, 2014
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents: CROSS PIPE SUZUKI by Niall MacDonald
2276 East 16th St
Los Angeles CA 90021
January 31 to March 8, 2014
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents: Ann Greene Kelly
Western Exhibitions
in HEAD
with Academy Records, Elijah Burgher, Rob Bondgren, Mariano Chavez, Ryan Travis Christian, Lilli Carre, Edie Fake, Richard Hull, Eli Jones, Larassa Kabel, Jose Lerma, Dutes Miller, Miller & Shellabarger, Rachel Niffenegger, Gladys Nilsson, Paul Nudd, Robyn O'Neil, Onsmith/Nudd, The John Riepenhoff Experience featuring Ann Greene Kelly, Edra Soto, Ben Stone
June 5, 2013 - June 23, 2013
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents: SEA-HORSE ECSTASY SWITCH by Niall MacDonald
James Fuentes
55 Delancey
New York, NY
June 5 5-7pm
with CONOR BACKMAN, EGAN FRANTZ, ROSS IANNATTI, PARKER ITO, NIALL MACDONALD, ASHER PENN, JOHN RIEPENHOFF with EMILY SUNDBLAD, ROMAN SCHRAMM
March 3, 2012 - April 7, 2012
The John Riepenhoff Experience Presents
Minor Mistakes by Jeni Spota
Tokyo
September 15th through October 20th 2012
The John Riepenhoff Experience presents Alan Belcher
_______.jpg, 2012
Pepin Moore
July 7th - August 11th 2012
The Secret Coreographer:
Atopical Bandaids (after Calabrese)
Pepin Moore
May 26th - June 30th 2012
Ryan Travis Christian Collaborates
featuring works by
Ryan Travis Christian & Eddie Martinez
Ryan Travis Christian & Geoffrey Todd Smith
Ryan Travis Christian & Eric Yahnker
Pepin Moore
April 14th through May 19th 2012
?
March 3rd through April 7th 2012
Jeni Spota
Minor Mistakes
Pepin Moore
January 14th through February 18th 2012
Andrew J Greene
Ambitious Diplomat
Pepin Moore
October 29th through December 30th 2012
Jena Lee
Bird in Space
Pepin Moore
September 17th through October 22nd 2011
SSS - Contracted Paintings curated by Fuminao Suenagaart
Shimon Minamikawa, Fuminao Suenaga, Shunsuke Imai, Katsuhisa Sato
Pepin Moore
June 11th through July 30th 2011
Te KKKiero un Potosi curated by Agatha Wara
Narda Alvarado, Douglas Rodrigo Rada, Alfredo Román, Julio Gonzalez Sanchez, Roberto Unterladstaetter, Raquel Schwartz
Pepin Moore
March 19th through April 23rd 2011
Inova, Mary Nohl Fellowship Milwaukee: The Golden Age Experience curated by Golden Age, Chicago
Megan Plunkett, Lauren Anderson, Jon Rafman, Paul Cowan, Derek Chan, Martine Syms and Marco Kane Braunschweiler
Pepin Moore
December 10th 2010 through January 15th 2011
Peter Barrickman
The Treacherous Trek
Pepin Moore
October 29th through December 4th 2010
Richard Galling
Pepin Moore
