CTS} creative thriftshop in conjunction with Dam Stuhltrager Gallery is extremely proud to announce its first of six exhibitions under the gallery’s sponsorship program East Meets West. The gallery is located in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn's thriving contemporary art scene, and will kick off the fall season in September 2009 with the inaugural exhibition of New York's infamous bootlegger Eric Doeringer. In the exhibition entitled Eric Doeringer : Sol LeWitt we aim to examine the notion of value in the art market through a selection of deceptively simple, well-known wall drawings by the late, great Sol LeWitt. Much of Eric Doeringer’s work involves copying. His portfolio, comprising over ten years of work as a professional artist, is rooted in manipulating almost everything you believe is real about art. His work thrives on multiple readings and the capacity for misunderstanding.

His work has been labeled fake, mocking, pirated, pseudo, pretentious, a very funny put-on, a great sham, and, by some, plain wrong (just count the cease and desist letters he has received).

Eric is best know for his "Bootleg" series (2005) - darling knock-offs, mainly on canvas, which depict some of the art markets "greatest hits" and draw from a list of names familiar to anyone who has recently picked up an art periodical. You may have seen Doeringer dragging a suitcase or two along Chelsea's gallery row in New York or set up outside of the latest hot art fair. Regardless, it is fairly likely that you or someone you know owns a Doeringer. It is just about the only way an art collector of average means would ever get his or her hands on a highly prized Richard Prince Nurse or a Damien Hirst Spot Painting.

In 2006 he created a series of counterfeit Art Basel VIP cards, not so much to democratize the process of getting into the most coveted parties and events in Miami Beach, but more out of personal determination and toying with the notion of subversiveness. In case you were wondering, holder of the card still got turned away at some of those ultra hip parties with a perfectly legit counterfeit VIP card. Not because they know it is counterfeit, but because there are more important people than the VIP when in Miami Beach for Art Basel.

Fake admission stickers for the Whitney Museum (2007): sanctioned. Faux museum staff ID Cards (2005): not so sanctioned. Is there really a Kinkaid Museum? Please tell me not. His "On Kawara - I Got Up” postcards sent to friends and collectors (2008/09), were perhaps an early prelude to the concept of twitter. Page number 12 in his "Ed Ruscha - Stains" (2009), my personal favorite, always makes me wonder, "Why is it so yellow?" "CD 2002" (2002) is a copy of every CD the artist owned at the time, all 289 discs. Too bad Sony BMG's chief anti-piracy lawyer believes "copying" music you own is "stealing". The series that first introduced me to the artist’s work, "Contraband" (2004), is a group of sealed bottles, the contents of which and possession of (never mind sale of) would land anyone involved into a heap of trouble. Eric Doeringer is, very simply put, a challenge to work with. Most everything he creates, or re-creates for that matter, somehow tests your knowledge of the law and also questions the flexibility and temperament of society.