Robert Montgomery, THE STARS PULLED DOWN FOR REAL

ALL RISE is pleased to present new site-specific text and light works by Robert Montgomery. The London-based artist, poet and interventionist is known for ephemeral works that are intended to be experienced like the advertisements his medium critiques: quotidian and seductive. He has received solo exhibitions at venues in Europe and Asia, including major outdoor light installations at Tempelhof in Berlin with Neue Berliner Räume, and was the British artist for the 2012 Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India. Montgomery has made billboard series for Berlin, London, Paris and Los Angeles. This is his first Northwest exhibition, organized by ALL RISE as a collateral off-site project of the Seattle Art Fair.

For ALL RISE, Montgomery’s project, “THE STARS PULLED DOWN FOR REAL” activates the 90,000 square foot outdoor site with a series of six billboards installed on oversized plinths at Denny Way, a highly visible traffic route, and a 20’ x 24’ text/light work on scaffolding installed with the city as backdrop. Montgomery’s texts confront a post-utopian current while echoing a full, at times romantic, chronology of a land divided, shaped, and built ever-upward. Montgomery’s voice as artist-recorder with puckish timing locates him fittingly alongside references to Ezra Pound, Jack Kerouac and punk aesthetics.

Robert Montgomery, THE STARS PULLED DOWN FOR REAL

LED light, scaffold and billboard works

July 25 through September 5, 2015. Lighting and reception with the artist: July 25, 8-10pm

Optimal viewing hours for light work are dawn and dusk, although the project is always visible

Robert Montgomery, b.1972, Chapelhall Scotland, United Kingdom Lives and works in London, United Kingdom

Robert Montgomery follows a tradition of conceptual art and stands out by bringing a poetic voice to the discourse of text art. Montgomery creates billboards, light pieces, woodcuts and watercolors. He was the British artist selected for Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012, the first biennale in India. Montgomery has had solo exhibitions at venues in Europe and in Asia, including major outdoor light installations on the site of the old US Air Force base at Tempelhof in Berlin with Neue Berliner Räume, and at the 2012 Kochi- Muziris Biennale in India. He has made billboard series for Berlin, London, Paris and Los Angeles and his work has been included in numerous exhibitions at venues including KOP, Breda, NL; Athens Festival, GR; the Jardin du Tuilieries, Paris, FR; 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, IT; The De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, UK; The Edinburgh Art Festival, UK; Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, UK; Galerie Nuke, Paris, FR; Galerie Analix, Geneva, CH; The Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh, UK; Istanbul 74, Istanbul, TR; Anna Jil Luepertz Gallery, Berlin, GR; The Office, Nicosia, CY; C24 Gallery, New York, US; and The BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle- Gateshead, UK. The first monograph of his work was published by Distanz, Berlin in 2015.

Interview Magazine, The Poetics of Robert Montgomery, Rachel Small

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