TERRY NILSSEN-LOVE

Posted on 2012-07-23

Whilst the work from Terry Nilssen-Love over the last few years has moved in a more free direction, as opposed to the earlier more geometrical structured compositions, what has continually occupied him has been the search for a balance between order and chaos and how far to move in either of these directions.
Perhaps this is a natural problem he shares with many other painters as part of the process experienced whilst moving towards the “finished” work.

The question as to when a painting is finished is a difficult one to answer ?– the “final” brushstroke before signing the work is a myth perpetuated in novels. Perhaps a painting is finished when one simply stops in order to move on. Inevitably the next painting will be a continuation of the last, and therefore all paintings must represent a documentation of an ongoing process; so what is a finished and what is underway?
Nilssen-Love does not want to start and finish and then to start again. He works on several paintings at the same time. The dialogue takes place not only between him and a painting, but takes place also between one painting and another, or between several works.

Opposite – Turn around, 2012

Exhibition runs through to August 26th, 2012

Maerz Molde
Fjordgata 5
6413
Molde
Norway

www.maerzmolde.no

  

THE EUROPA TRIANGLE

Posted on 2012-07-23

The Europa Triangle is a group exhibition about how we imagine Europe today, explored through the work of ten international artists and designers whose work is concerned with public space and current affairs. Curated by Kit Hammonds, Tutor from the RCA’s Curating Contemporary Art MA, with additional contributions by students from the programme. The title of the exhibition refers to a motif present between all the works – triangles. This simple shape is used by the artists to comment on models for public space in society, politics and economics. Featured artists Oliver Klimpel, Marisol Malatesta, Nils Norman, Diego Santomé, Slavs & Tatars, Christian Teckart, Lincoln Tobier, Daniel Wilkinson and Hannes Zebedin.

Opposite – Slavs & Tatars, Triangulation, 2011

Exhibition runs through to August 18th, 2012

The Royal College of Art
Dyson Building Gallery
1 Hester Road
London
SW11 4AN

www.rca.ac.uk

  

ANTONY GORMLEY – STILL STANDING

Posted on 2012-07-16

In the ground floor gallery, Gormley has created an installation of 17 body forms, orthogonally arranged within the architecture of the gallery space. Each sculpture has been built up from a series of small, rectangular iron blocks; modular architectonic forms that diagrammatically map the body’s internal volume, radically departing from anatomy.The works evoke imbalance and even entropy since key blocks in their visible support system have been removed and subtle displacements of weight mean that they are shifted from their own centre of gravity. Gormley has described these works as ’a kind of weaving of mass with void; a push and pull between blocks that are present and blocks that are absent‘. Poised in a suspended state, the works could be seen to investigate the verticality of the body, both in spatial terms but also in relation to the evolutionary trajectory of humans, progressing from an animal on all fours to an upright, cognitive being.

In the upstairs gallery, Gormley will present a single new sculpture from the ’Propper‘ series which further experiments with blocks as the fundamental basis for building or sculpture and uses the tectonics of post and lintel architecture – in the form of vertical and horizontal blocks – to translate body mass into the equivalent of a high-rise tower. Although these works appear like carefully constructed body-forms, their formation is actually more playful and free, reflecting the childhood game of placing blocks one on top of another, each time attempting to reach new levels of height and width before collapse and drawing attention to the eccentric loan paths of the build.

Exhibition runs through to September 15th, 2012

White Cube
48 Hoxton Square
London
N1 6PB

whitecube.com

  

BOYD & EVANS – VIEWS

Posted on 2012-07-16

In the first decade of their partnership, Boyd & Evans made paintings from photographs in their own archive, spraying acrylic paint through stencils to create an even, thinly painted surface. Assembling disparate elements from different photographs allowed them to create new, mysterious compositions. Their paintings, while highly realistic, have a scale, composition and use of perspective that edges closely to surrealism; in these dreamlike pictures the air feels thin and time suspended.

Vision itself has been a longstanding concern for Boyd & Evans, with many works suggesting the conditions of seeing or being seen. Views 1 and 2 (1973) show in the first canvas a girl with her back to the viewer, looking out toward a group of people and some cars parked incongruously in the distance. In the second painting she turns, as in a photographic snapshot, and smiles directly at the viewer.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Boyd & Evans abandoned the spray gun in favour of brushes, but continued to be inspired by photographic imagery, with an emphasis on landscape. In a number of works lone figures are set within sweeping, panoramic vistas traversed by railroad tracks and asphalt roads, ubiquitous traces of human industry and travel. Increasingly Boyd & Evans have also shown an interest in pure landscape, devoid of human presence, a concern which developed while they were in Indonesia and the American Southwest.

Exhibition runs through to September 2nd, 2012

Ikon Gallery
1 Oozells Square
Brindleyplace
Birmingham
B1 2HS

www.ikon-gallery.co.uk

  

PATRICK LUNDEEN – GOOD FOR YOU SON

Posted on 2012-07-16

Lundeen brings together seemingly disparate objects-from flags to rugs to posters to keyboards to grocery store dailies and magazine pages-into cohesive works resembling anthropomorphic masks. Neon-colored, kaleidoscopic patterns embellish six-foot tall cut out canvas masks, speaking to the artist’s fascination with the exaggerated theatricality of Coney Island type characters, the Contemporary Macabre, and Outsider Art motifs. Borrowing from pop culture imagery and the neo-impressionists, the works hover between the humorous and sinister and the naïve and sardonic. Accompanying the exhibition is a 7″ vinyl record by the artist’s experimental three man rock band, The Oblique Mystique.

While Lundeen’s musical influences range from the lo-fi genre, and improvisational acts like Hound Dog Taylor to the schizophrenic sounds of Daniel Johnston-it’s a naggingly familiar tune by 80’s crooner Rick Astley that drones from an old Casio keyboard in the piece, Together Forever. In the lo-fi, lo-brow Genie Amp, a vintage Fender Silverface amplifier functions as both pedestal and audio source for a booming silver-faced genie trapped in a T.V. declaring, “Behold, I am Silver Face!” The nostalgic nod is twofold. Despite the purposely brazen use of intentionally awkward elements, the work maintains a sense of authenticity and serves as homage to earlier American culture from before the artist’s time.

Exhibition runs through to July 28th, 2012

Mike Weiss Gallery
520 West 24th Street
New York
NY
10011

www.mikeweissgallery.com

  

LUKE CAULFIELD – SECOND HAND

Posted on 2012-07-09

The artist’s latest series embraces the failure of historical documentation to relay the elusive experience of an object or event in its own time and place. Focusing on neon light works from the twentieth century, Bernini sculpture and the Mafia bombs that destroyed cultural targets in 1993, Caulfield reflects upon an anxiety to preserve the past, an anxiety to memorialize; instincts that seem to fight against the flow of time.The synergy between Caulfield’s inspiration, perception and
artistic portrayal is succinct throughout his body of work, both consciously and sub-consciously. His paintings play with and break a linear narrative and time structure. Much of the work is filtered through unconventional digital processes (2D and 3D), which allow digital “flaws” to add to the fallible texture of the documentation

Exhibition runs through to August 16th, 2012

Lazarides Gallery
11 Rathbone Place
W1T 1HR
London

www.lazinc.com