KAI RICHTER – SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN
2017-02-20The materials – wood, metal and concrete – Richter uses for his sculptures and assemblages refer to the process of building. Some titles like Das schwarze Dreieck (2017) or Barnett (2017) correlate with well-known names in art history. Richter encounters the specific qualities of the varied materials and artistic positions with curiosity. He questions and explores their potential in order to utilize and to develop it. In his understanding artistic practice means observation and experimentation.
While Richter has to respect gravity and statics with his wall works and sculptures, the collages open up a more fantastic sphere. The impossible gets designed and built in these two-dimensional collages. But works like Sonde (2017) or Prop (2017) show that there is only a fine line between fragility and stability, between imbalance and balance, in other words between conceived and constructed works. Hence Sonde stalks on thin scaffolding poles through the entrance area of the gallery while Prop seems to lean weightlessly against the wall.
In the adjacent room of the gallery, the work Das schwarze Dreieck made of brittle and awkward construction materials demonstrates how Richter uses simplicity and clarity of form to elicit sensual aspects of the material. Even though there is accordance and harmony there is also a certain unrest, questions are starting to take shape: What, for example, differentiates a sculpture from a so-called objet d’art. What takes precedence – the material, with which the sculptor occupies a space, or the space itself, which the artist makes visible and perceptible with his art? The answer lies somewhere in between.
Exhibition runs through to April 1st, 2017
Galerie Christian Lethert
Antwerpener Straße 4
50672 Cologne
Germany
