MICHIEL CEULERS
2012-05-21Setting off from a blithe and basic beginning, Ceulers has spent many long nights with painting: stripping it down, lovingly caressing it, kicking it around the room, taking its bent limbs and girding them with humor and grace, manhandling the poor thing so that you can witness every bruise and tear, each scrape and scratch, the mystical sprays and the many whispering brushstrokes he’s dragged across its long face. When they finally wander out of the studio to hang against the stark white walls of far-flunggalleries, the paintings bear all the marks of his love affair.
He strips the medium right down to its skeleton, peeling away all the unnecessary accouterments laden on poor painting by thousands of years to find out as best he can what the act can presently and personally mean. He endeavors to renovate the ancient practice with works wearing proudly their labors, sometimes singly and sometimes coupled together in handsome pairs. A rapid rigor reveals itself, unwinding through stripes and grids leaving the paintings at the end of the process curiously tender and refreshingly human.
Exhibition runs through to June 30th, 2012
Mihai Nicodim Gallery
3143 South La Cienega Blvd
Unit B
Los Angeles
CA
90016
