Roy Lichtenstein & Allison Zuckerman

Ross + Kramer is pleased to present Different Strokes With Different Folks, an exhibition pairing new paintings Allison Zuckerman created in response to a series of still lives Roy Lichtenstein made in the late 1990s.

For this exhibition Zuckerman has made a new body of work that celebrates Lichtenstein (1923-1997), one of her painting heroes, whose approach to image making she has in many ways emulated and built upon in her own practice. Zuckerman sees Lichtenstein as an artist whose work evinces a deep investment in Art History that he presents using the visual language of his own time. Whereas Lichtenstein used the benday dot to signify the advent of mechanically reproduced imagery and mass media, Zuckerman uses the square motif of the pixel. In other words: the pixel in her work is the contemporary analogue to Lichtenstein’s benday dot. Passage of rhinestone grids similarly stand in for the benday dot motif while also referencing the advent of Instagram filters.

Focusing specifically on two Lichtenstein works Brushstroke Still Life with Box (1997) and Brushstroke Still Life with Coffee Pot (1997), both made at the end of the artist’s life, Zuckerman incorporated elements of each into her four new paintings made specifically for this exhibition. She sees her new works as extending his final body of work into the current moment. Elvin Queen (2022) features the open box as well as some of his signature brushstroke motifs from Brushstroke Still Life with Box (1997). A Sudden Splash of Insight (2022) features Lichtenstein’s coffee pot as well as a mask that Lichtenstein had lifted from Picasso, which Picasso had lifted from an unknown West African maker. In this way, Zuckerman has constructed and added herself into an art historical lineage. She sees her work having the modus operandi of a palimpsest: the work adds upon what exists already, art historically, while leaving room for her own innovation and spin.

In addition to Brushstroke Still Life with Box (1997) and Brushstroke Still Life with Coffee Pot (1997), the exhibition will feature Untitled Sculpture Test for Roy Lichtenstein, Based on Waterlilies with Cloud (1995) a sculptural work that Lichtenstein made referencing Monet’s waterlilies, and a few later works on paper.

Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997, New York) is one of the most iconic artists of the 20th century and arguably the foremost proponent of the Pop Art movement. A universally revered artist, his work can be seen in many major institutional collections globally. The most significant collections of his work are at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Art Institute of Chicago; the Ludwig Museum, Cologne Germany; and the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany.

Allison Zuckerman (b. 1990, Harrisburg, PA) lives and works in New York City. Zuckerman studied at the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art and went on to receive a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Zuckerman has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Stems Gallery, in both Brussels, Belgium and Milan, Italy; Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY; Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art in Israel; Akron Art Museum in Ohio; and the Rubell Family Collection in Miami, FL. In 2017, she completed a residency at the Rubell Museum in Miami, FL. Additionally, Zuckerman has collaborated on projects withs Tods, Charli XCX, Louis Vuitton, and Moschino.