Chase Contemporary is pleased to announce its first solo exhibition in its new East Hampton location, which will open over July 4th weekend. A selection of medium and large-scale canvas works by acclaimed Expressionist urban painter Richard Hambleton will be on display at 66 Newtown Lane in East Hampton, from July 1 through July 18, 2021. This installation of “Shadowmen” at Chase Contemporary will mark the first time a Hambleton show of this size has been presented on the East End. An opening reception will be held on July 1st from 4-7pm at 66 Newtown Lane.

Hailed as the “godfather of street art,” the Canadian-born Hambleton is recognized around the world for his daring, dark graffiti style which he displayed on walls of burnt out buildings, along the passages and streets of off-beat neighborhoods and other non-traditional settings. While his work is often compared with graffiti artists Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, it was his larger-than-life black “shadowmen” which began to appear around New York streets and first captured the attention of New York critics in the 1980s. The Shadowmen and his earlier, more controversial “mass murder” installations set him apart from his contemporaries. 

In a 25-minute raw video of Hambleton discussing his work in 1983 at Civilian Warfare Gallery in NYC, the artist discusses his Marlboro (Horse & Rider) series and it’s presentation of American mythology. Here Hambleton is exploring Marlboro’s exploitation of this American hero, and his view of that image as a contemporary myth. One of Hambleton’s rodeo collage studies will be included in the exhibition. 

Hambleton’s first solo exhibition opened in the Lower East Side of New York in 1982, and just two years later, his work was included in the Venice Biennale. He was included in the Venice Biennale again in 1988. From 2009-2011, a major retrospective was mounted in collaboration with Giorgio Armani, touring multiple venues that included the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and Phillips de Pury in New York. “Shadowman”, a film about Hambleton by director Oren Jacoby, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017. Today, Hambleton’s works are held in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the Moco Museum in Amsterdam, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, among others. Hambleton continued to live and work in New York until his death in 2017.

For additional information about Richard Hambleton at Chase Contemporary, contact: Isabel Sullivan | isabel@chasecontemporary.com | 631-604-6672