NEW YORK, NY.- Ryan Lee is presenting a selection of films by Rudy Burckhardt in RLWindow, including 145 W. 21 (1936) and Eastside Summer (1959), that focus on daily life in New York. 145 W. 21 is a 10-minute black and white film that follows the dramatic narrative of a young couple played by Edward Denby and Paula Miller as their lives unfold over the course of an afternoon in the Flatiron neighborhood of Manhattan. Eastside Summer is quite different. Completed more than two decades later, the 11-minute film is employed with documentary film techniques as Burckhardt captures 14th Street, the Lower East Side, Central Park, and other quintessential New York moments in a collage of close-up images in color. The New York Times called Burckhardt’s approach to film, and specifically of New York City, “a continuous, nearly choreographic performance [that] might be counted among the precedents for Happenings and other kinds of performance art.”

Burckhardt (b. 1914, Basel, CH; d. 1999, Searsmont, Maine, US) began filmmaking in the 1930s, after settling in New York in 1935. His work has been exhibited widely at Kunstmuseum Basel, CH; Institute Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia, ES; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, US; MoMA P.S.1., New York, US; and The Swiss Institute, New York, US. His films have been screened internationally at such places as Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR; Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur, CH; Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, AT; and MoMA, New York, US, among others.

RLWindow is a dedicated exhibition space featuring video, installation, and performance art designed to engage High Line visitors, viewable from the elevated park at 26th Street. Capitalizing on the gallery’s position overlooking the High Line and its visibility to almost 5 million yearly visitors, RLWindow shows innovative, experimental, and collaborative projects by international, contemporary artists, including invited and gallery-represented artists.

Forthcoming projects include work by Maria Antelman, Andrea Mastrovito, Luisa Rabbia, Peter Sis, Sandy Skoglund, Stephanie Syjuco, and more.

Currently on view through August 28, 2015 in the gallery’s main space is “On the Exactitude of Rain,” a group show that explores how artists engage with landscapes and nature in a time where climate change and shifting environments are happening rapidly. Forthcoming gallery exhibitions include Paul Henry Ramirez (September 10-October 24, 2015); Kakyoung Lee (October 29-December 23, 2015); and Sandy Skoglund (October 29-December 23, 2015).