THE MATTER IN HARMONY

Transcription

1 THE MATTER IN HARMONY GALERIE THOMAS SCHULTE 14 JULY to 15 SEPTEMBER 2018 Wall drawing by Albrecht Schnider, 2018 Dispersion, latex paint

2 On July 13 Galerie Thomas Schulte opened the group exhibition The Matter in Harmony with works by Richard Deacon, Angela de la Cruz, Julian Irlinger, Idris Khan, Jonathan Lasker, Fabian Marcaccio, Allan McCollum, Michael Müller, and a large wall drawing by Albrecht Schnider in the Corner Space. Furthermore, as part of the group exhibition, the artist Jonas Weichsel presents a new work, before returning to the gallery in late September for the first solo presentation of his abstract paintings. The Matter in Harmony will be on view until September 15 with a short summer break from August 13 to 25. Contact Galerie Thomas Schulte Charlottenstraße Berlin fon: +49 (0) fax: +49 (0) mail@galeriethomasschulte.de Gonzalo Alarcón +49 (173) gonzalo@galeriethomasschulte.de Eike Dürrfeld +49 (172) eike@galeriethomasschulte.de Luigi Nerone +49 (172) luigi@galeriethomasschulte.de 2,3

3 ALLAN MCCOLLUM (BORN 1944, LOS ANGELES, USA) Allan McCollum s work is defined by his preoccupation with the phenomenon of individuality within mass quantities as a sociological issue and the artistic problem of exploring identity and individuality. His works are often characterized by an extreme accumulation of individual pieces, such as drawings or sculptural objects. McCollum s The Shapes Project is based on a system of combinable silhouette-like components. With 300 components, McCollum can produce millions of combinations to ultimately match an individual shape to each living person. On view in the exhibition The Matter in Harmony McCollum presents a part of his 2015 project The Shapes Project: Shapes Spinoffs, an arrangement of 12 groups or collections of each six hand lathed, ash wood sculptures. The Shapes Project: Shapes Spinoffs, 2005/ collections of 6 parts each, ash wood, hand lathed Each: 25.4 x 16.9 cm 10 x 6 21/32 in 4,5

4 JULIAN IRLINGER (BORN 1986, ERLANGEN, GERMANY) Julian Irlinger is a German artist currently participating in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. He holds an MFA (2017) from Städelschule, Frankfurt a.m. (with Willem de Rooij). In 2016 he was awarded a scholarship from Kulturstiftung Erlangen and in 2015 received the Förderpreis of the Kunsthalle Darmstadt as well as a grant from the Kunstfonds Bonn. Irlinger s installation consists of two photographic prints mounted on a metal stud frame construction. The two photos depict details from the interior of the Frick Collection in New York. Through the lenticular printing technique Irlinger merges two different photographic representations of the same detail one image originating from the Frick Collection s own virtual tour and the other from the virtual tour produced by the Google Cultural Institute. Thus with his work Irlinger addresses contemporary forms of mass image production characterised by varying economic interests and ideas of ownership of cultural property. 6,7

5 props, 2016 Lenticular print on Dibond props, 2016 Lenticular print on Dibond Framed: x 114 x 3.5 cm 71 1/2 x 45 x 1 1/3 in Framed: 77 x 49 x 3.3 cm 30 1/3 x 19 1/3 x 1 1/3 in Edition 1/3 + 2AP Edition I/II (3) 8,9

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7 JONATHAN LASKER (BORN 1948, JERSEY CITY, USA) Resisting the Lyrical Abstraction, Field Painting, Minimalist movements of the 1970s Jonathan Lasker has made use of the art world s conceptual turn in the 1980s, engaging ever since in new possibilities of painting, developing the abstract formal idiom that has come to characterise his oeuvre. Coming up in Spring 2019 will be a solo exhibition by Lasker presenting at the gallery a series of new works. The exhibition is scheduled to open as part of Gallery Weekend Berlin. Lasker s Were 8 on Its Side (1998) on view as part of The Matter in Harmony is the result of the artist s characteristic conceptual approach to painting, in which the artist makes the dynamics of the process of gestation explicit even though every brushstroke is carefully planned. Thus, Lasker s paintings remain vexing. The viewer is able to sense that even though the sign-like forms derive from spontaneous gestural movements of the hand, they have nevertheless been applied to the canvas in an extremely controlled and deliberate manner. 12,13 Were 8 on Its Side, 1998 Oil on linen 191 x 244 cm 75 1/4 x 96 in

8 JONAS WEICHSEL (BORN 1982, DARMSTADT, GERMANY) Jonas Weichsel is a painter who studied in Mainz and Düsseldorf, before graduating as Meisterschüler of Judith Hopf at the Städelschule in Frankfurt a.m. in This autumn Weichsel will return to Galerie Thomas Schulte to realise a site-specific installation in one of the gallery s offices. Weichsel s painting Große Flagge II (2018), which the artist presents as his contribution to the group exhibition The Matter in Harmony, from a distance appears to have a uniform surface and reminds us of computer-generated imagery. Getting close however, the sophisticated painting technique creating the illusory effect reveals itself to the beholder. Onto the primed canvas the artist applies layer after layer of paint and adhesive film to form a grid-like structure, which is removed from the surface once the paint is dry. 14,15 Große Flagge II, 2018 Acrylic and UV print on linen 250 x 172 x 4 cm 98 1/2 x 67 3/4 x 1 1/2 in

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10 IDRIS KHAN (BORN 1978, BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND) Idris Khan OBE gained international acclaim shortly after completing his studies at the Royal College of Art in London. His works often combine art and artefacts from various spheres of literature, visual arts, and music, his profound interest in language and meaning materializing in a wide array of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, works on paper or glass. Khan s Rhythms 2 addresses some of the big issues pertaining to art, time, and memory through the means of appropriation, abstraction, and repetition. In his earlier works on music, Khan has digitally created layers of the photographed pages of various compositions by composers including Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, or Wagner, letting the sequence of pages coincide in a single image. By contrast, in Rhythms 2, Khan uses the sequence of pages of sheet music as ground for abstract black oil stick paintings. The notation itself has been blocked out by an impasto, expressive application of paint leaving on the page nothing but the natural breaks. As a group the work takes on a minimal presentation creating a rhythm of shifting lines across the wall. Music itself is often seen as an abstract representation of human emotions. Notation systems are a further means of abstraction, an attempt to translate and render the ephemeral, time-based sound replicable and conservable. However, like emotions, the experience of music can neither be repeated nor relived. Khan s Rhythms 2 eloquently speak of this impossibility emphasizing the silence of the material, but at the same time using the appropriated material for a new creation, a new composition with its own visual rhythm and expressiveness. Rhythms 2, of 18 parts work, oil on paper and canvas Framed: (18x) 35.5 x 28 x 4 cm 14 x 11 x 1 1/2 in 18,19

11 RICHARD DEACON (BORN 1949, BANGOR, WALES) Richard Deacon as part of The Matter in Harmony presents Infinity #15, a large sculpture made of interlocking stainless steel modules from the Infinity series which the artist began in the late 1990s. Stainless steel can be formed into the simplest, slightly undulating surfaces, which depending on the light and the viewpoint can create a rather convincing impression of gently shimmering stretches of water. This is achieved by means of a special embossing and perforation process, which immensely heightens the impression of mobility and fluidity. The ensuing reflective pattern evidently triggered the idea of a module ; over the years this has led to a highly varied series of wall and floor pieces, which, in keeping with their title Infinity could go on forever. Infinity #15, 2001 Stainless steel 152 cm 205 cm 130 cm 59 27/32 x 80 45/64 x 51 3/16 in 20,21

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13 MICHAEL MÜLLER (BORN 1970, INGELHEIM, GERMANY) Michael Müller is a conceptual artist continuously broadening the methods of his artistic expression, combining works on paper with painting, text-based work, sculpture, found objects, music, video, and performance. As part of The Matter in Harmony Müller presents the new diptych Different Movements (2018). Both paintings are behind glass and can be attributed to Müller s recently developed series of reverse glass paintings, in which the artist applies the paint both to the canvas, but also to the back of the glass protecting the work. One of the two large paintings has been evenly primed in a dull pink before repeatedly splashing on black paint onto the same spot in the center of the lower third of the painting. By contrast the other painting has been primed in green while splurge of black paint concentrates towards the upper left corner of the canvas. Different Movements, parts work, acrylic on glass and linen Framed: (2x) 183 x x 5.5 cm 72 x 56.5 x 2.17 in 24,25

14 FABIAN MARCACCIO (BORN 1963, ROSARIO, ARGENTINA) Fabian Marcaccio in his work poses the question whether traditional painting traditions can survive the digital age using printmaking transfer techniques, to manipulate generally held conventions of painting. His explorations have resulted in the very unique style that has afforded him international acclaim since the 1990s. Untitled (2017) which forms part of the group exhibition The Matter in Harmony belongs to a recent series of works that are a further development of Marcaccio s earlier Rope Paintings. Like the Rope Paintings, the new works involve the re-definition of all the given elements of painting to enable a re-territorialization or re-materialization of painting as analytical engagement with the flood of media images in our day. However, while the Rope Paintings involved the re-definition of all the given elements of painting, from the rough wood stretcher to the hand-woven rope, in Untitled (2017) even the canvas has been produced through 3D printing. 26,27 Untitled, D printed plastic, alkyd paint, silicone 80 x 80 x 10 cm 31 1/2 x 31 1/2 x 4 in

15 ANGELA DE LA CRUZ (BORN 1965, LA CORUÑA, SPAIN) Trained at Goldsmiths College and the Slade School of Art, Angela de la Cruz has made London her home early on. De la Cruz works take on anthropomorphic characteristics either in the actions the objects appear to be performing or through the poses in which they are set. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in Last year she was awarded the Spanish Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas. T Piece (2005) is from the so called Clutter series in which the artist incorporates objects found on the streets. Using wardrobes of human body size and installing them in the shape of a dynamic, lopsided large T or wooden cross, de la Cruz approach finds its art historical roots in the Minimalist works by Robert Morris, in which the size of the artist s body becomes integral to the concept of the sculpture. 28,29 T Piece, wooden wardrobes Top: 175 x 49 x 63 cm 69 x 19 x 25 in Base: 51 x 175 x 61 cm 20 x 69 x 24 in

16 ALBRECHT SCHNIDER (BORN 1958, LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND) Albrecht Schnider works in painting, drawing and occasionally in smallscale sculpture. The artist s complex process is both creative and constructive; beginning within the dialogically linked act of drawing and the analysis of shape, to the choice of color and form. Throughout this process, Schnider s paintings are meticulously planned, rigorously structured, organised and executed. Alternating between different abstract, organically and geometrically shaped fields of color, they oscillate between figure and ground; positive and negative image. Schnider s precise abstract paintings take as their source the delicate explorations of shifting planes and geometric forms found in the artist s drawings. They demonstrate a restrained elegance, which has been destilled from the artist s many sketch books. While many of the drawings simply remain exercises, others are singled out by the artist and translated into larger, more rigid compositions in painting as exemplified by the large wall drawing which is installed in the gallery s nine meter high Corner Space this summer. 30,31 Untitled, 2018 Dispersion, latex paint Dimensions variable

17 Publisher Galerie Thomas Schulte GmbH Charlottenstraße 24 D Berlin fon: +49 (0) Photo Credits hiepler, brunier, 2018 the artists, the photographers and Galerie Thomas Schulte This dossier was published on the occasion of the exhibition The Matter in Harmony (14 July to 15 September 2018).