21 Nov 2008 to 15 Jan 2009

Human reality is a many-layered structure formed by the sum total of myriad perspectives and interpretations of the facts; it continually alters with the constant current of change. Communal considerations and individual musings combine, suggesting the idea of a complex society. Art possesses the potential of allowing an awareness of this complexity to emerge in the beholder, without reducing the meaning in a simplifying manner.

In her pictures, Sandra Ackermann traces and investigates such complex mixtures of social and personal concepts. In the last few years she has, by placing pictures within the pictures and by the playful juxtaposing of foreground and background, developed a visual language in which meaning is intensified by an exciting rendition. Along side this, we find her continuing interest in surfaces such as skin, textiles and hair; from these her painting draws its suggestive force.

Women serve as a guiding theme , who, more often than not, are adaptations of fashion photography and possess a specific, unique pathos. They serve as orientation for the viewer, perhaps even as identification figure, and operate similarly to a personification in an allegory. These elegant women embody society's self-image, serving not merely as vicegerents of the beautiful, but as condensates of desires.

Other elements, too, originate from the collective pictorial memory, though from other sources. Pictures like those of a tank, a high-rise apartment building, a globe, or a burning human are not mere amendments, narrative anecdotes, or attachments to the actual paintings. These visual themes become dynamic counterparts of the women, and, as such, at times undermine and question the original function of depicting beauty. Fashion itself is familiar with shock elements and the transformation and integration of violence. Military clothing, for instance, was one of the most important sources of inspiration for the fashion art of the 20th century. Camouflage patterns adorn not only warships and tanks but embellish t-shirts and wallpaper. The question whether this transference charges the design with an aggressive moment or, rather, softens the design of power, remains unanswered.

By bringing seemingly disparate elements together, Sandra Ackermann triggers a series of associations that might lead each of the different onlookers to relate what they see to his or her own specific life and situation. The sometime quizzical constellations of the pictures raise more questions than they offer answers to with their myriad meanings. Here Sandra Ackermann reminds one of the notoriously famous "Songs of Malador" by Lautrémont and the metaphor of a random meeting between an umbrella and sewing machine on a dissection table. Applied to painting the dissection table would be the canvas, on which the play of the various levels of reality is performed. The realities have much of the reality of dreams, in which, likewise, the most astounding encounters and turns of plot are made possible.

(excerpt)

Galerie Voss
Mühlengasse 3
D-40213
Düsseldorf

+49 021113 49 82

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Darin Shuler, Kim E. Alexander, Jr., and Sean Alexander

December 3rd - December 27th, 2008

Two-dimensional artists Darin Shuler, Kim E. Alexander, Jr., and Sean Alexander bring an unusual group of drawings to the Soil Gallery. Joining three artists who spend much of their waking lives drawing, this exhibition is aptly named "Just Drawing." An intense and diverse display of spectacles in ink and pencil, each artist's work has a definite commitment to the illustrated form, each one taking very divergent paths in subject and style. The visual terrain covered ranges from the surreal to absurd, to the absolutely boundless.

Kim E. Alexander, Jr. continues his investigation into issues of scale, geography, mapping, and the environment with a new series of drawings on Mylar. Alexander uses his experience with drafting as a basis to create highly complex, multi-layered, and abstract compositions. Each piece is developed utilizing intuition and unconstrained mark making. The result is an explosive rendering of geometries in transition.

Sean Alexander lives and works in Tacoma, Washington, where he created this unique collection of lonely fantasies. Using obsessive detail and a host of recurring patterns, the drawings frequently feature self-referential characters, alluded to through their nervous postures. Accompanying the characters is a rotating roster of whimsical symbols, which includes hammers, alcoholic beverages, ladders, windows, rats, cigarettes, the sunmoon (the moonsun), snakes, wood floors, sneakers, ice cubes, and cacti.

Darin Shuler's art uses cartoon iconography from his childhood to express his thoughts. His most recent drawings involve ideas and imagery inspired by fairytales, folklore, and legends from around the world. The magic of Chinese fairytales, the monsters of Native
American stories, and the visual absurdity within German and Irish allegories have all contributed to the grotesque, violent imagery of his current work.

In the SOIL Backspace Kinu Watanabe presents a new body of pillow-shaped ceramic works called Afterimage.

 

SOIL Artist -run Gallery
112 3rd Avenue South
WA 98104
Seattle, WA
+1 (206) 264-8061

 

 

 

 

 

22 November - 21 December, 2008

IBID PROJECTS is pleased to present a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Dutch artist Aaron van Erp. Since graduating from the St. Joost School of Fine Art and Design in Hertogenbosch in 2001, van Erp has quickly established a reputation as one of the foremost exponents of a younger generation of painters who are working in the wake of neo-Expressionism in Europe. Having garnered significant critical appraisal following two recent museum solo shows at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in 2007 and the Museum Der Stadt, Ratingen in 2008, his deftly painted canvases show a renewed interest in the tactile qualities of paint as an expressive medium combined with the formal possibilities of figurative representation.

At first sight, Erp is unafraid to allude to issues that can be harrowing. He addresses such contemporary social problems as terrorism, troubles in the healthcare system or child abuse. His painted world is bleary, sometimes disturbingly violent, inhabited by a cast of victims and torturers, burnt-out landscapes and familiar domestic objects - such as flying bacon, vegetables, football shirts or newspapers - that float across the sky in disconcerting narrative configurations. Considerable debt is apparent in van Erp to the handling and colour pallete of such predessors as Francis Bacon or James Ensor. What is also shared is a vision of a Bataille-esque experience that can be present in the most common thoughts and experiences, such as the encounter of a lone figure or children playing in a forest, or the depiction of torture as a humanistic concern.

Aaron van Erp's canvases are rendered unique through this multitude of references to contemporary elements, as well as the fragmentary way in which parts of the surface are often only half-described, halfpainted like spectres or faded memories. At other times, his works benefit from a directness and sharp simplicity. In his work 'Untitled' (2008), for example, the remains of an unidentified animal lie on the floor of a sparsely decorated room. A red plastic chair and metal-framed bed situate the setting in some sort of unnamed institution, whilst bizarre elements such as a cabbage or the green leaves of bushes sprouting through the floor are picked out in bright flashes of surrealistic detail.

As much as the narrative for van Erp's paintings could have come from newspaper headlines or the descriptive accounts of different survivors, inspiration could equally be seen to come from popular culture and a nihilistic imagination, or even the lyrics of a hardcore punk band. Van Erp has stated that "horrible things frequently also have a funny side". This is reflected in the way that in works such as ' Vlot met stuk vlees aan een haak (Raft with piece of meat on a hook)', 2008 or 'The terrible hordes barbarians invading The Netherlands after Prof. Dr. Pim's death', 2002 it is uncertain exactly whose memories these paintings describe. Whether the viewer is perpetrator or innocent witness to the events is rarely clear.

Aaron van Erp (b. 1978 in Veghel, Netherlands) has had solo exhibitions at the Museum Het Kruithuis in Hertogenbosch, Netherlands (2007), the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (2007-2008, exhibition catalogue), the Museum Der Stadt in Ratingen, Germany (2008), Sperone Westwater Gallery in New York (2008) and the Stadtmuseum Güttersloh in Germany (2008). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions including 'Strange Brew' at Max Lang Gallery, New York, curated by Wolfgang Schoppmann (2007) and 'Sieben auf einen Streich' at MARTa Herford (Germany), curated by Jan Hoet (2006). Awards include the Buning Bronger Prize (2002) and the Starter Stipendium from the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB) in Amsterdam (2004).

 

IBID PROJECTS
21 Vyner Street
London E2 9DG
+44 (0) 208 983 4355

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 22 - January 17, 2009

Sandroni Rey is pleased to present Ask the Sky, an exhibition of new paintings by Hernan Bas. This will be Bas' fourth solo exhibition at Sandroni Rey.

Driven by an interest in literature and a passion for historical painting, Bas infuses his compositions with nihilist romanticism. As he has recently moved away from more figure-dominated work, the paintings in "Ask the Sky" relish in the landscape-forests and jungles that are rich with rushing waters, birds in flight, the gravity of wet paint, and become at once a dream and a nightmare. As he reflects on this body of work, Bas comments that "Ask the Sky is harping back to the grand feeling of being really puny in the scheme of it all... taking little leaps of faith that while they might be imaginary are incredibly important right now." Bas' rich palette flames with dreamy brushstrokes, and his forms swell and recede with controlled eroticism.

This exhibition is comprised of large-scale paintings including one diptych and a grouping of graphite drawings-many of which are studies for completed and upcoming works where Bas focuses in on characters from larger works, and a more formal line that informs his looser brushwork.

Hernan Bas currently lives and works in Miami, FL. He is a graduate of the New World School of Arts, Miami. His work was included in the 2004 Whitney Biennial, and he recently closed his first retrospective at the Rubell Family Collection in Miami, FL.

 

Sandroni Rey
2762 S. La Cienega Blvd,
Los Angeles, CA 90034

+1 310.280.0111

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 21st, 2008 through January 3rd, 2009

Leo Koenig Inc. is pleased to announce the opening of Deepest Darkest  a solo exhibition of new works on paper by Christian Schumann. For the exhibition, Schumann continues the contemplative, intricate and labor-intensive works that has distinguished his body of work for the past three years.

Upon entering the gallery, the works, all identically sized, appear as abstract ones. Upon closer inspection the drawings reveal impossibly dense, secret worlds. The manner of improvisation is similar to Schuman's previous abstract work in that marks are placed upon fields of color. There are also distant links to comic books as many of the works seem to evoke nano-cities overrun with self-replicating technology, and androids melding into organic matter that has begun to proliferate. Hybrids of organic and artificial become enmeshed with one another on fields of gradating color imbued by an inexplicable melancholy.

Schumann describes these works as impoverished landscapes that relate a speculative fiction. The title alludes to the darkest impulses of mankind. The subconscious is a referent as well. Though the idea of an inner landscape is contrived, it is still valid. There is also a nod to American notions of the exotic, and the tendency of a socially oppressive/restrictive society to only allow for forms of subconscious release to be exposed via the conduits of taboo.

Christian Schumann has had numerous solo exhibitions worldwide. His work has been included in exhibitions such as "The Panic Room," - works from the Dakis Janou Collection, The Deste Foundation, Athens Greece, "Proliferation," at MOCA Los Angeles, and "Pop Surrealism," Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art. His work has been included in public collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Dallas Museum. Christian Schumann currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

 

Leo Koenig Inc.
545 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011
+1 212 334 9255

 

 

 

 

 

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