ALAN BUTLER – HELIOSYNTH

Posted on 2017-03-20

HELIOSYNTH is the artist’s first exhibition in a commercial gallery and comes at the end of a plethora of exhibitions and curated online shows in Ireland and internationally from Belgrade to Skibereen. Butler has garnered a reputation for being one of the most insightful and inventive artists whose “raw material” is the virtual. His use of digital simulacra has unexpected, ravishing and perplexing philosophic results and is as close to the pioneering technologies of the early 19th century daguerreotype and cyanotype as it is to the silicon technology in your pocket and on your desk.

The exhibition will include new, unique monumental works on paper, digital photograms, new sculpture and video works.

Opposite – Sierra.jpg (v1) 2016

Exhibition runs through to April 29th, 2017

Green On Red Gallery
Park Lane
Spencer Dock, Dublin 1
Dublin
Ireland

www.greenonredgallery.com

  

RAPHAELA SIMON

Posted on 2017-03-20

Simple forms and vibrant colours define Raphaela Simon’s canvases. The clear compositions are consciously simple, structures are being taken up again, gestures are being repeated which both carry like a thread through the entire work of the artist. Simon works in several layers, she overpaints and modifies previous elements over and over in a continuous and at times longterm process. However, the traces of editing, of adding and removing remain always visible. Coloured forms shine through white areas and here and there dark brushstrokes are spotted underneath lighter parts. Thus, her paintings appear as a form of palimpsest which is being overwritten and reused while still preserving the references of former layers.

Simon gives her paintings concise titles like Föhn, Pflaster or Schacht (hairdryer, band-aid or shaft). Seemingly banal terms of everyday life suddenly turn into the meaningful sense of the work. Simultaneously, she reduces the single work to a first association, a key word. This provides the paintings with a symbolical character that makes them appear like icons.
Thus, the artist creates a contrast to the actual size of her works and the highly charged medium painting. Focused on a word, the abstract visual language seemingly loses its complexity and, similar to a pictogram, emphasises the informative content. In so doing, Simon also plays with the desire of the viewer to construe figurative elements in abstract forms as well as search for references even though these always remain personal interpretations.

Opposite – Waschmaschine, 2017

Exhibition runs through to April 22nd, 2017

Galerie Max Hetzler
Berlin: Goethestraße 2/3
D-10623 Berlin-Charlottenburg

www.maxhetzler.com

  

KENNY SCHARF – BLOX AND BAX

Posted on 2017-03-13

In his paintings, sculptures, videos, public artworks, and installations, Kenny Scharf unites political ideas with a pop aesthetic, critiquing mainstream media and rampant commercialism through his art. For his new exhibition, Scharf has produced three distinct but related bodies of work. Monumental in scale, the BLOCKHEADZ paintings feature square and rectangular cartoon faces in loose grid patterns that recall hard-edged abstraction and color field paintings. Occasional breaks between the faces reveal the galactic skyscapes that have appeared in Scharf’s work since the 1970s. Using abandoned television monitors found on sidewalks around the city, Scharf transforms the matte black and silver plastic TVs into brightly painted faces for his series TV BAX. Finally, Scharf’s Assemblage Tableaux Vivants series comprises wall-mounted assemblages pieced together from found plastic toys and games. Scharf uses paint along with plastic beads and decorations, layering colors and objects to create fantastical, intimate dioramas that reference Scharf’s lifelong concern about the detrimental environmental effects of discarded plastic. These three series all engage rectilinear forms as framing and structuring devices but resist the traditional rigidity of the grid, inviting playful imagery and bold color into its structure.

Opposite – Supersonic Home Entertainment Communication Vortex, 2016

Exhibition runs through to April 22nd, 2017

Honor Fraser
2622 S La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles
CA 90034

www.honorfraser.com

  

MARIA LASSNIG – A PAINTING SURVEY, 1950 – 2007

Posted on 2017-03-13

Spanning work made from the 1950s to the end of the artist’s life, this survey traces Maria Lassnig’s evolution from early experiments with abstraction to a richly inventive figuration and the refinement of her ‘body awareness’ paintings, in which she captured physical sensation as felt from within. Lassnig devoted much of her career to recording her physiological states through a direct and unflinching style, believing that ‘truth resides in the emotions produced within the physical shell’. Pursuing her extraordinary science of the self, Lassnig rendered an oeuvre that has influenced important artists such as Martin Kippenberger and Paul McCarthy.

Opposite – Grosse Flächenteilung / Spiegel (Large field-division / mirror), 1989

Exhibition runs through to April 29th, 2017

Hauser & Wirth London
23 Savile Row
London
W1S 2ET

www.hauserwirth.com

  

WILL BENEDICT – THE SOCIAL DEMOCRAT

Posted on 2017-03-13

Will Benedictʼs eclectic practice emphasizes the dialogue between the different media of painting, drawing, photography and increasingly also film. Deconstructing conventions of representation, Benedictʼs work incorporates disparate elements, addresses contemporary issues but is also imbued with a sense of incongruity and ambivalence.
The predominant motif in Will Benedictʼs practice is that of the “picture in the picture”. His paintings in gouache on canvas are mounted within larger panels of foam board where photographs or (smaller) paintings are integrated as part of the final composition and set in aluminium and glass frames. The smaller canvas inserts depict a wide spectrum from colourful Parisian street scenes, to yellow-golden cornfields, from female portraits to the contours of countries, from body fragments to abstract figurations. Even though Benedictʼs pictures are based on the method of collage, they do not aim at fragmenting the picture, but on the contrary appear surprisingly homogeneous.

Opposite – Christiana Figueres, 2017

Exhibition runs through to March 24th, 2017

Giò Marconi
via Tadino 20
I-20124 Mila

www.giomarconi.com

  

ABSOLUT – ROOM SERVICE BY JOAO VASCO PAIVA

Posted on 2017-03-07

Absolut presents ‘Room Service’, an Art Bar by João Vasco Paiva during Hong Kong Art Week 2017.

Considered one of Hong Kong’s leading emerging contemporary artists, Paiva will put a spin on the concept of retreat to create an oasis in which the contemporary and natural worlds coincide. Room Service features a series of sculptures, film projections and resting nets, inspired by Hindu vernacular architecture and residential buildings from present-day life. The film projections will show videos of abandoned places in Hong Kong – from ruins of villages that have been recaptured by nature to daily commodities displayed in shop fronts.

The Art Bar also features a series of Artist Cocktails, specially curated by Paiva and will host a diverse musical programme.

Room Service will open on March 17th through to April 2nd 2017, from 8pm until late at Potato Head.

Potato Head
100 Third St
Sai Ying Pun
Hong Kong

www.absolut.com