YOU YOU / REJECTION

Ketty La Rocca, Rosa Rendl

10. 06. 2023 - 02. 09. 2023

curated by Amer Abbas

Words and images are the common thread that unites the research of the two artists, so distant from each other in therms of history and generation, but at the same time united by a visual language structured in a multiplicity of symbolism and meanings where personal experience plays a generating role.

Ketty LA ROCCA (La Spezia, 1938 - Florence, 1976). In Florence she came into contact with Gruppo 70, the Florentine artistic avant-garde; in this sphere she made her first collages, an ironic critique of the communication of mass-media society. In 1968 Gruppo 70 disbanded; Ketty La Rocca carried on her artistic research focusing on the analysis of contemporary society and the communicative function of the body. In 1972 she participated in the XXXVI Venice Biennial, a fundamental experience for the artist, then 34 years old. In the same year his work was exhibited in the Photography Into Art exhibition at the Camden Art Center in London. Ketty La Rocca's works can be found in numerous public and private collections, including the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Rosa RENDL (1983) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Vienna. She studied fashion design at the Fashion Institute Vienna and is a graduate of photography at the University of the Arts London. Within her multidisciplinary practice, Rendl works primarily with photography, music and fashion. She has been part of the experimental pop duo LONELY BOYS for ten years and wanders between the fields of music and the visual arts as a singer, producer and classically trained pianist. In her photographs Rendl negotiates the modes of production and emotional states at odds, when placing herself, the artist, as subject. Rendl‘s collages and photographic installations are analytical, poetic and political at the same time. She has exhibited in both public and private spaces, such as Belvedere 21 Museum of Contemporary Art (Vienna), Neuer Essener Kunstverein (Essen), Georg Kargl Fine Arts (Vienna), KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin), Halle für Kunst Lüneburg (Lüneburg), Salzburger Kunstverein (Salzburg), and Bodega (New York) amongst others.