Hans-Peter Feldmann is a well kept secret in the United States. However, during a career that started in 1968, his influence and reputation among his peers has been almost legendary. This lack of recognition is, in part, a reflection of the work itself - its modesty, its simplicity, its triviality and its lack of commercial value.
During the 1970's Feldmann produced a varied body of work that included a number of small handmade books that contained simple black & white reproductions from certain categories - airplanes, shoes, chairs, soccer players, landscapes, film stars - they were taken from various sources, and presented in a consistent format. This sensibility carried through to the other areas of his later work - postcards, offset posters handcolored xeroxes, newspaper pages, handpainted plaster figurines of classical figures, magazines and catalogue projects.
His work is, above all, democratic in its dispersal of images and objects. He is an archaeologist of the everyday, celebrating the diversity and wealth of interesting mass-produced ephemera. The images are so ordinary that they become rooted in a specific moment - their dated quality increases this sense of democracy. These pictures do not strive for universal meaning, or to transcend their time, but are content to remain local and slightly provincial.
At the end of the 1970's when large-scale painting and sculpture and market-driven evaluations began dominating contemporary art, Feldmann abruptly withdrew from the art world completely; he ceased to make work and destroyed most of the pieces in his possession. Not until very recently has he again begun to produce new work and this recent work will be shown in his exhibition at 303.
Shark Editions and 303 Gallery will be publishing a new edition by Hans-Peter Feldmann which will be made available during his exhibition at the gallery.