ALEX KATZ: NEW PAINTINGS
February 9 - March 31, 2006

Richard Gray Gallery presents an exhibition of "New Paintings" by Alex Katz, on display from February 9 through March 31, 2006. The public is invited to preview the exhibition and meet the artist on Thursday, February 9th from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

The exhibition will feature selected examples of Alex Katz's iconic large-scale portraits as well as all-over landscapes, and small studies. Katz's favorite subject, his wife Ada, figures prominently in two of the paintings, continuing to serve as an emblematic thread stitched into his art, providing a touchstone for his viewers.

"For painting optically, you generally see things through other painters, and what I was trying to do was things through my own eyes. And it's hard to do. What you think you see, you see through your eyes, but you see culturally also. Your culture dominates your vision. ... The highest thing an artist can do is to dominate your vision. That's where the marbles are as far as I'm concerned."

Mr. Katz recently participated as the inaugural speaker in the Richard Gray Visual Arts Series at the Chicago Humanities Festival and continues to distinguish himself and his art from that of other contemporary painters of his generation through his subjects and his painting style. With works owned by 100 museums worldwide including The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, London's Tate Gallery and the National Gallery in Berlin, Mr. Katz is one of the most important American artists of our time.