For Refraction, the second exhibition to be installed in Project, Jorge Pardo's 2000 renovation of Dia's first floor lobby, exhibition space, and bookshop, a focused selection of works by Gerhard Richter has been inserted into Pardo's vibrant environment. The basis for the exhibition is the artists' shared concern for issues of framing and representation and for the interplay of the work of art with its spatial context. Together, Richter's pieces and Pardo's environment mutually question and reflect upon each other.

Artist Biography

Born in Dresden in 1932, Gerhard Richter studied at the art academy in Dresden between 1951 and 1956 and at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1961 to 1963. He became a professor there in 1971. Since his first solo show at Galerie René Block in Berlin in 1964, Richter has exhibited internationally, including in Documenta 5 (1972), 7 (1982), 8 (1987), 9 (1992), and 10 (1997). In 1998, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, co-organized Richter's first North American retrospective. During its 1995–96 season, Dia exhibited Atlas, Richter's ongoing encyclopedic work composed of photographs, reproductions, and illustrations. In early 2002, the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented a major retrospective of Richter's paintings, which is traveling throughout the United States.

Born in 1963 in Havana, Cuba, Jorge Pardo emigrated to the United States in July 1969. He studied at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena (1984–88) and has exhibited widely since his first solo show in 1988. Besides participating in numerous international group exhibitions, he has realized various permanent projects, including Reading Room at the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam in 1996, Pier in the 1997 Skulptur. Projekte in Münster in 1998, 4166 Sea View Lane (with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles), and Untitled (Café-Restaurant), K21, Düsseldorf, in 2002. Pardo lives and works in Los Angeles and Long Island.