Joshua Abelow
E.L. Kirchner 
 October 18 - December 14 2025 

E.L. Kirchner consists of a single object; a small painting *accidentally* produced “in the style of” American artist Joshua Abelow.
The painting was purchased on eBay from seller ‘apuzzo’ (SoulfulAbstraction); a Bulgaria-based entrepreneur selling a range of works on canvas, including “Signed Francis PICABIA Handmade Art” and “Cy Twombly Signed Vintage Abstract Oil Painting”. Unknown to ‘apuzzo’, their listing “Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Signed German Expressionist Oil Painting on Canvas” (Item Number: 235890067297) is in fact a reproduction in miniature of Abelow’s most well-known and widely redistributed painting — Running Witch (2014).
In 2014, after years working from studios in New York and Europe, Abelow produced a suite of large 80 x 60 inch paintings of ‘Running Witches’ in a Craigslist-rental hay barn in Maryland, not far from his childhood home. Departing from his highly regimented ‘colour code’ paintings, the ‘Running Witches’ stemmed from Abelow’s more spontaneous drawing practice — typically centred on copies of images and figures from historical art texts he keeps in his studio, as well as humorous and deprecative modes of self-portraiture.
…
Prior to his exhibition programme ‘Freddy’, Abelow published a prolific and popular online blog — ART BLOG ART BLOG. The blog featured combinations of images and text, often publishing work by young or lesser-known artists alongside more famous and established names — including 20 posts dedicated to the presentation of works by German expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. At close of the project, *which ran* from March 30 2010 - March 30 2015, Abelow edited the site so that all images across the 13,000-post blog were replaced with an image of one of his own paintings;  Running Witch (2014).
This gesture sets into motion the gravestone-grey object now presented in solitude on the back wall of Bill’s.
**In line with earlier sculptural presentations of ART BLOG ART BLOG at both James Fuentes (New York) and Tif Sigfrids (Los Angeles), the painting acts as a stand-in for the immaterial lore, networks, and logics which facilitated its production — not produced by Abelow’s hand — but a deft result of his diverse and rigorous art practice over the past 15 years.
…
Joshua Abelow (b.1976, Frederick MD) lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1998 and earned his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2008.
Recent exhibitions include Dorp (Bath, United Kingdom); Gene’s Dispensary (Los Angeles, CA); Disneyland Paris (Perth, Australia); Kunsthalle Wichita (Wichita, KS); Apartment 13 Gallery (Providence, RI); Baader-Meinhof (Omaha, NE); JIR SANDEL (Copenhagen, Denmark); Magenta Plains (New York, NY); Sydney (Sydney, Australia); Real Pain Fine Arts (Los Angeles, CA); Et al. (San Francisco, CA); James Fuentes (New York, NY); Tif Sigfrids (Los Angeles, CA); and Freddy (Harris, NY).