Eric Rhein Transmutation February 12 – April 9 2011 Opening Reception: Saturday February 12, 6-8pm Exhibition continues Saturdays 1-6pm and by appointmen

BoxoFFICE is proud to present Transmutation, a solo exhibition by Eric Rhein. Rhein, a native of New York’s Hudson Valley, is known for his refined and passionate wire drawings that combine human forms with animal and plant life. He weaves personal stories, experiences and mysticism into explorations of the powerful connections among man, nature, and the spiritual world.

The exhibition features Rhein’s own photographs, as well as vintage photography of male nudes, combined with found objects and bronze & silver castings of leaves & twigs. These assemblages, like Rhein’s other works, depict a sense of humanity’s communion with nature, and evoke figures from Celtic and Egyptian mythology.

Rhein explains: “What matters to me is the interconnectedness, sympathetic relationships, and sensual commonalities of all things in the natural world. Images of nature are used as a metaphor for the cycles of human experience: birth, life, death, and regeneration.”

Eric Rhein’s work has been widely exhibited in both national and international museums and exhibition spaces, including: Sculpture Center; White Columns; Artists Space; Art in General; Lincoln Center; Morris Museum, New Jersey; Portland Museum of Art, Oregon; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall, England; Pera Museum, Istanbul; American Embassy, Malta; Ambassadorial Residence, Cameroon; Leslie-Lohman Gallery, New York; Jonathan Edwards College, Yale University; and the Smithsonian Institution’s Traveling Exhibition for the Millennium.

Reviews of Rhein’s artwork have appeared in Art in America, Interview, The New YorkTimes, Time Out New York, TheVillage Voice, Dutch Elle, and Vanity Fair. Grants and fellowships include: the Pollock/Krasner Foundation, the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, and The MacDowell Colony.

The New York Times critic, Holland Cotter, wrote that in Rhein’s work “the combination of art and craft, delicacy and resiliency, feminine and masculine, is exquisitely wrought and is, as it should be, seductive but disturbing.”

BoxoFFICE, is dedicated to furthering contemporary art from the new American frontier. While this frontier may conjure a geographical image, it is actually a spirit that lives in many places simultaneously. The artists that BoxoFFICE cooperates with are each singular in their practice. They address a range of subjects, in a variety of media, working freely, boldly, and independently. Some are located in places that nurture the open spirit, such as Joshua Tree, CA and environs. Others create their own free space within the urban fabric. These artists open the dialogue surrounding freedom, choice, and responsibility, and BoxoFFICE is their conduit to a a wider audience.