Adam Lindemann's Venus Over Manhattan Exhibition Opens With À REBOURS, 5/10

Venus over Manhattan, a new exhibition space created by collector and art writer Adam Lindemann, will open to the public in New York City on May 10, 2012, with the inaugural exhibition À rebours. Including several dozen works of art spanning the 19th century to the present, the show will remain on view through June 30th.

The exhibition takes its title from Joris-Karl Huysmans' 1884 anti-novel “À rebours,” translating in English either as "against the grain" or “against nature.” This tale of fin-de-siècle decadence tells the story of the Duc Jean des Esseintes, an eccentric aristocrat who recoils from the manners and values of conservative Parisian society and flees to the countryside to immerse himself in art collecting and exotic fetishism.

À rebours at Venus over Manhattan explores the notion of “against the grain” through a selection of more than 50 works of art and artifacts, including African fetishes and an 18th century Hawaiian chief's feather cape. Artists represented in the exhibition range from Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon – the favorite of Huysman's protagonist - to Henri Fuseli, Felicien Rops, Franz von Stuck, Lucas Samaras, William Copley, Jeff Koons, Glenn Brown, Salvador Dali, Walter Dahn, David Hammons and Bernard Buffet, as well as Jeni Spota, Andra Ursuta and Gavin Kenyon.

The exhibition is accompanied by a free 'zine, which will be available in print at the gallery and for download online at www.venusovermanhattan.com.

Venus over Mahattan was founded as a curatorial platform for exhibitions and projects that expand upon the conventional gallery format through collaborations with artists, dealers, collectors, curators and institutions. Shows will include works of art and design that range from historic to contemporary.

The gallery is located at 980 Madison Avenue, between East 76th and 77th Streets, on the third floor. Venus over Manhattan is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 10AM to 6PM.