Stellan Holm Gallery is pleased to present Black & White, a group exhibition including works by William S. Burroughs, Steven Parrino, Richard Prince, Rudolf Stingel, Andy Warhol and Christopher Wool. Exhibition opens Saturday, May 9, 2009 and will run through June 2009.

Black & White addresses the presence of monochrome abstraction in contemporary painting. In the absence of color, traditional practices of painting are redefined and re-enlivened.

Rejecting color in favor of minimal silver, Steven Parrino utilizes his canvases to create a more dynamic form, re-contextualizing the traditional two-dimensional picture plane. Traversing the seemingly limitless possibilities of painting, Christopher Wool chooses to limit his palette to black and white, and experiment with various modes of mark making other than the brush, using items such as paint rollers, tapestry rollers, silk screen and spray paint. Although Andy Warhol has frequently utilized the motif of black and white, mainly within his more graphic and/or commercial works, these Diamond Dust Shadow paintings represent Warhol’s glittering and enigmatic departure into abstraction late in his career. Richard Prince’s monochromatic ‘joke paintings’ continue his use of appropriation and exploration of ownership through the use the text and humor. Rudolf Stingel’s monochrome abstractions, steeped in notions of process, resemble aspects of Minimalism and Color Field painting. Two of the only eight paintings that William S. Burroughs ever completed are on view, reflecting Burroughs’ gestural improvisation and brushy abstraction in black and white.