Capsule Shanghai and Helena Anrather jointly present
Douglas Rieger: Soft Relief
Frieze NY, 2021
Helena Anrather and Capsule Shanghai are pleased to jointly present ‘Soft Relief’, a solo project by American artist Douglas Rieger, at the Frame section of Frieze NY 2021.
Douglas Rieger’s practice emphasizes the abstracted body; each work is inspired by industrial mechanisms, furniture, modernist forms, household products, and adult novelty shops.
The title of the project refers to relief carving and the method of pressure release in mechanical and psychological systems. The presentation includes panel works in upholstered vinyl and one large wooden sculpture. The works are figurative abstractions using familiar materials to reassemble a vulnerable natural form through incongruous artifice. Handles, holes, knobs, bands, pull chains and other elements accent the works and playfully request the viewer to interact with them. The desire to touch and the consequence of committing a violation is very much a part of Rieger’s practice and the installation is a continuing exploration into the artist’s current practice.
