RENTAL announces “FAIR MARKET”, a group exhibition curated by New York artist Haley Mellin. It is the first independently curated show at RENTAL without an external gallery sponsor. The economics of labor and gesture embodied in the show suggest the rationale for its placement at RENTAL: RENTAL is an atypical gallery which does not represent artists- it is a “readymade” gallery which allows other galleries to “Rent” space outside their primary location.

Expanding on this theme to include recent approaches, “FAIR MARKET” selects the work of nearly 30 artists at various points in their careers engaged in questioning the traditional values implied by work, play, nine-to five timetables, labor exchange, the artist’s or individual’s place in production and transitive works that resist physical location and ownership. Whether in an act of resistance to the forces of economic development that surround and inform the making of something, or in concert with such constructions, the whimsical, the non-demonstrative, the suggestive, and the culled are presented as practical responses to such proprietary demands.

Works include Robert Gober’s carefully drawn logo on a paper bag filled with desiccated donuts, Brian Clifton’s reconstructed chair that was once uncharacteristically destroyed by Michael Joo, and a recreated painting by Olivier Mosset that was originally damaged when the gallery was broken into through a wall, and thus, through the painting. Darren Bader presents a textual piece as a title located on the checklist, Hanna and Klara Liden show a self-portrait taken in Berlin, R.H. Quaytman gives a still of Orchard gallery’s empty space. Throughout the exhibition, sequences emphasize the tension between orientations of labor during a bear market. Peter Coffin’s ‘Untitled (Sculpture Silhouette Array)’ depicts the delineation of forms past; the work has been presented at recent silent auctions and benefits.

Artists included in this exhibition: David Adamo, Darren Bader, Matthew Brannon, Brian Clifton, Peter Coffin, Ann Craven, Nathalie Djurberg, Erik Dietman, Hansjoerg Dobliar, Claire Fontaine, Robert Gober, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Matt Keegan, Mike Kelley, Masato Kobayashi, Knight Landesman, Hanna and Klara Liden, Adam McEwen, Ryan McGinley, Jonas Mekas, Olivier Mosset, Ylva Ogland, R.H. Quaytman, Josh Smith, Michael St. John, Frank Stella, Rudolph Stingel, Emily Sundblad.