Rita McBrideActor from M HKA Ensembles

Rita McBride

° 1960

Lives in Rome (), lives in New York (), lives in Düsseldorf ().

Rita McBride (°1960) studies at Bard College and the California Institute of the Arts. She splits her time between New York, Rome and Düsseldorf, where she teaches at the Kunstakademie.

McBride’s work ranges from architectural sculptures to off-beat publishing projects, and her work is influenced by industrial design, modernist sculpture and minimalist sculpture. Since the mid-eighties, McBride’s work has focused on inconspicuous and seemingly unimportant elements in the contemporary urban landscape, which she takes out of context by playing with their scale, their materials and their connections to their surroundings. She reinterprets parking lot structures, grandstands, conduits, HVAC units, water towers and awnings, and gives them a metaphoric character.

McBride uses materials ranging from rattan to Murano glass, Carrara marble, bronze and canvas, in an effort to illustrate the contradictions between mass production and craftsmanship, between high and low culture. Some of her pieces are large-scale works that are critical of the social uses of public space, and she often accompanies her sculptural architectural works with performances.

McBride also works with publications and actively participates in the production of her exhibition catalogues so that they go far beyond simply illustrating her works and they take on an artistic life of their own.

Works

>Rita McBride, Gina Ashcraft, Naked Came The **** (by Gina Ashcraft), 2002.Book, ink, paper, 17.7 x 10.8 cm, 137 p, language : English, publisher : Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, ISBN : 3-906790-02-9.

>Erin Cosgrove , Rita McBride, Heartways - The Exploits of Genny O, 2004.Book, ink, paper, 11.7 x 17.3 cm, 155 p, language: English, publisher: Vancouver/New York: Arsenaladvance (Arsenal Pulp Press)/Whitney Museum of American Art/Printed Matter, Inc, ISBN: 1551521601.

>Glen Rubsamen, Rita McBride, Futureways: The Middelburg Triennial 2304 (A Rita McBride Project), 2004.Book, ink, paper, 15.2 x 23.3 cm, 64 p, language: English, publisher: Printed Matter, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, ISBN: N/A.

>Rita McBride, Mini Manager, 2004.Sculpture, white painted titanium.

>Matthew Licht , Rita McBride, Crimeways, 2005.Book, ink, paper, 17.7 x 11.4 cm, 173 p, language: English, publisher: Printed Matter, Whitney Museum of American Art, Arsenal Pulp Press, ISBN: 1551521733.

>Rita McBride, David Gray, Myways, 2006.Book, ink, paper, 11.3 x 17.8 cm, 157 p, language: English, publisher: Printed Matter, Whitney Museum of American Art, Arsenal Pulp Press, ISBN: 9781551521985.

>Rita McBride, Matthew Licht , West Ways, 2010.Book, ink, paper, 11.5 x 17.8 cm, 92 p, language: English, publisher: Vancouver/Beverly Hills/Zürich: Emily Carr University Press/Potter Press/Christoph Keller Editions by JRP Ringier Kunstverlag AG, ISBN: 978-3037641354.

Exhibitions & Ensembles

> Exhibition: Book Lovers 4.0 (Pop-up Bookstore). 28 January 2014 - 02 February 2014.

> Exhibition: EXTRA MUROS: Geel – Middle Gate II – The Story of Dymphna. 15 September 2018 - 04 November 2018.

> Exhibition: THE BOOK LOVERS - A Project about Artist Novels. 25 January 2013 - 09 March 2013.

> Exhibition: The collection XV – Ergens/Somewhere. With interventions by Pierre Bismuth, Koenraad Dedobbeleer & Pieter Vermeersch. 16 June 2006 - 27 August 2006.