EVA ROTHSCHILD – A MATERIAL ENLIGHTENMENT

Posted on 2017-09-18

Treating sculpture as a way to mediate simultaneous forms of presence, Rothschild implicates the viewer in a continuous search for possible outcomes, even from within a “completed” work.

Rothschild’s works frequently occupy the intersection between ritual objects and minimalist formal tradition. Often relying on simple geometric shapes the work engages with these intertwined histories, amplifying the psychological and critical associations they connote. “An Array” (2016) brings together a set of forms from Rothschild’s own lexicon. The sculptures, all black and arranged on a low platform, are realized in Perspex, jesmonite, papier-mâché, and steel, and loosely demarcated via open steel frames. This tableau of objects, with pedestals and partitions acting in diametric tandem, suggests options for various presences and ways of being within a single work in space. The mulitplicity of potential arrangements is both tacit and tangible, as Rothschild’s shapes appear on the edge of transposition, yet are beholden to their parameters in terms of a configured artwork. The implicit opening in perception grants the viewer conscious access to the nature of looking, and how an object can vacillate between active and static depending on how and when it is looked at.

Opposite – Red Sun, 2016

Exhibition runs through to October 28th, 2017

303 Gallery
555 W 21st Street
NY 10011 New York
USA

www.303gallery.com

  

WADE GUYTON: DAS NEW YORKER ATELIER, ABRIDGED

Posted on 2017-09-18

Guyton is interested in the translations that take place between these tools, transforming three-dimensional space into digital information that is subsequently reproduced on surfaces and in space.
This new exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, entitled Das New Yorker Atelier, Abridged, presents a body of work completed in the past two years. Guyton’s choice of title bears witness to the site of both the first installation of the work, in Germany, and its place of production in downtown Manhattan. It also references Guyton’s encounter with the painting Das Pariser Atelier (1807) by the Swiss artist Hans Jakob Oeri. The studio’s potential, not just as a locus for discussion and production, but as a material in and of itself, is echoed throughout this exhibition.
Guyton’s paintings are printed on to sheets of linen that are folded in half and run, sometimes repeatedly, through large inkjet printers. Inconsistencies surface on the canvas, caused by diminishing levels of ink toner or technical glitches, distorting and disrupting the image, while intentional ‘errors’, such as streaks, creases and misalignments, occur as the fabric feeds – or is pulled – through the machine. Guyton’s works on paper are printed over pages removed from art catalogues, with the artist’s additions obscuring or revealing the original images and text.

Exhibition runs from September 29th through to February 4th, 2018

Serpentine Gallery
Kensington Gardens
London
W2 3XA

www.serpentinegalleries.org

  

WILLIAM LEAVITT – CYCLADIC FIGURES

Posted on 2017-09-11

The artworks on view in William Leavitt: Cycladic Figures portray worlds layered upon worlds, each suggestive of an uncanny science fiction story met with Southern California vernacular design and architecture. In Faraday Cage, for example, a wood and metal cage used to block electromagnetic fields envelopes a plastic lawn chair. Both objects are situated in front of the false walls and props of a film set designed to resemble a makeshift garage laboratory. The scene was employed as a set in William Leavitt’s new film Cycladic Figures, and its recontextualization as a sculpture suggests that Leavitt isn’t just creating images within which a narrative may take place but an entire alternate reality on a parallel plane. By displaying sets from his plays or films as sculptural installations and by including his paintings in the sets for his plays or films, Leavitt destabilizes the medium and location of his works. The result yields multiple perspectives: an array of objects in physical space, a suggested narrative playing out in the viewer’s mind, and a working set in a film.

Opposite – Lennie’s Set, 2016

Exhibition runs through to October 23rd, 2017

Honor Fraser Gallery
2622 La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles
CA 90034

www.honorfraser.com

  

HERAKUT – SAD BUT HAPPY

Posted on 2017-09-11

The show ‘Sad But Happy’, the duo stated; ‘It fits every single piece, we think, and fits our style in general. Ambivalence. Schizophrenia even. That’s us. That’s the essence of Herakut.’
This series of new works sees the duo progress with their distinctive and dark style. Depicting children and animals with large emotive eyes, they draw the viewer in to their mysteriously eerie world, making them contemplate the statements scribbled across the canvas and their relationship with the characters in the works.
Their dark use of colour contrasts with the bright and fast use of movement and brush work. Their style welcomes a kind of imperfect perfection, the brushstrokes seeming erratic and fluid but also so beautifully placed.
Their joint creative art process is about storytelling, the creation of imaginary worlds and inspiring their figures with individual characters. Hera sets the characters’ form and proportions, whilst Akut paints the photorealistic elements.
We are excited to have the duo back at StolenSpace again with this new body of work which promises to be beautiful as ever.

Opposite – Priorities, 2017

Exhibition runs through to September 24th, 2017

Perrotin
17th Floor, 50 Connaught Road, Central
Hong Kong
China

www.stolenspace.com

  

JOHN HENDERSON – RE-ER

Posted on 2017-09-11

John Henderson’s oeuvre has long revolved around the problematic of modernism, abstraction, and the painterly gesture. In this sense, he could possibly be situated in the context of a larger wave of process based abstraction in recent years, one that is marked by the flatness of the picture plane, a preoccupation with process, and improvised gestures indexing the real. As the critic David Geers has argued, this trend is “in equal parts, a generational fatigue with theory; a growing split between hand-made artistic production and social practice; and a legitimate and thrifty attempt to ‘keep it real’ in the face of an ever-expansive image culture and slick ‘commodity art’.
Yet what sets Henderson apart is his reflexive distance to the painterly, putting the romance of the authorial gesture and the assumption of an unproblematic spectatorship into question. On the one hand, the artist admits the performative element to his work, but on the other, he problematizes it by “translations”, “documentations”, and erasures. Understanding painting as performance is, of course, nothing new. Since the heyday of Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s, when the critic Harold Rosenberg declared that henceforth paintings would be “an arena in which to act… What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event”, the performative gesture in painting has been a guarantee of presence. In the present age, this guarantee of presence also firms up the value of painting in the face of digital and new media incursions.

Opposite – Reticle (model 06), 2017

Exhibition runs from September 7th through to November 7th, 2017

Perrotin
17th Floor, 50 Connaught Road, Central
Hong Kong
China

www.perrotin.com

  

FASHION TOGETHER

Posted on 2017-09-04

Fashion Space Gallery, located at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London is delighted to announce Fashion Together, a group exhibition curated by Lou Stoppard.

Exploring some of fashion’s most renowned partnerships, it delves into the behind-the-scenes world of these intriguing alliances, illuminating what exactly makes the pairings so captivating.

The fashion industry is often seen as the home of eccentric personalities and unique, exceptional talents, but it’s the collaborators, rather than the individuals, who really push the industry forward. It is this phenomenon that is the inspiration for the exhibition.

Spotlighting the process and output of seven of the industry’s most accomplished partnerships, the exhibition looks at how the unique relationship of each pairing facilitates the duo’s success in their respective fields. Featured partnerships reveal that creativity tends to be pushed forward and enhanced most when challenged. Dialogue, discussion, and even confrontation are shown to be central to originality here.

Featured exhibitors include: Rick Owens and Michèle Lamy, Nick Knight and Daphne Guinness, Shaun Leane and Alexander McQueen, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Gareth Pugh and Ruth Hogben, and Thom Browne and Stephen Jones.

Exhibition runs from September 8th through to January 13th, 2017

Fashion Space Gallery
London College of Fashion
20 John Prince’s Street
London
W1G 0BJ

www.fashionspacegallery.com