Marfa Invitational 2022
May 5 — 8, 2022
For the 2022 Marfa Invitational, Nino Mier Gallery presents sculptures and drawings by Stefan Rinck. The artist’s distinctively patterned and painstakingly constructed motley crew of stone characters hail from a fantastic dreamworld. Masked totems, well-dressed dogs, smiling alligators, twisted gargoyles and other creatures culled from contemporary culture and historical canons are birthed through Rinck’s chisel.
Having studied German literature, art history, and philosophy, Rinck pulls from new and ancient archetypes and myths to inform his relationship to the iconic. His figures capture our impulse to anthropomorphize ideas or objects, imbuing it with cheeky humor. Pythagoras, for instance, is a quarzite and atlantis rock triangle, fit with two eyes, legs, and a toothy mouth. The triangle becomes tantamount to the ancient Ionian philosopher who first theorized the geometry of right triangles—and is subsequently rendered ridiculous through Rinck’s irreverent, cartoonish figuration. The artist has a particular affinity for visual puns, such as a figure with an envelope for a head in Letterman, or a green quarzite and atlantis sculpture of a tubular form on four legs called Veggie Sausage.
Rinck’s off-kilter drawings and sculptures befit the eccentric atmosphere in Marfa. His deployment of ancient rocks such as marble, diabase, and sandstone also complement the West Texan landscape dominated by the organic materials of our Earth.
