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Galerie Max Hetzler: Rebecca Warren | FUEL - Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia - 27 Apr 2012 to 16 June 2012 Current Exhibition |
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Rebecca Warren
Installation view, 2012 |
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Rebecca Warren April 27 - June 16, 2012 Preview on April 27: 6 - 9 pm Galerie Max Hetzler is pleased to present an exhibition of recent sculptures by British artist Rebecca Warren. A series of hand painted bronzes punctuate the main space of the gallery, following on from the gold patinated totem-like sculptures Warren exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2010. Unfired clay works, characteristically raw, sit alongside a large wall-based vitrine. Warren’s sculptures move from figurative to abstract, ranging from amorphous to more clearly recognizable forms. Her sculptures can be tender and droll, yet also aggressive in their depiction of the female form. Her figurative ideal emanates from translating the idioms of different sculptors; from Rodin's monumentality to Giacometti's vertical vision, or de Kooning's and Degas' diverse approaches to sensuality. Whilst she often manages to both invoke and skewer the work of these familiar names, her works individually and collectively form an entirely modern, complex and distinctive visual language. The tactile relationship to material, having eloquently shaped the clay prior to casting, seems remarkable at first glance; a unique approach in regards to contemporary sculpture. Although the production of a bronze cast usually starts with a positive made of unfired clay, she uses the same material for the completion of fragile (sometimes smaller and sometimes larger scale) sculptures, expanding the spectrum of the medium. Equally striking is the duality of the monumental alongside her anti-heroic posture. Warren's bronze gestures echo the fragility of the clay. The raw material is distorted later to be fixed in bronze, sometimes painted in soft colours. The sculptures have a visceral hand-made yet delicate touch. A further component of Warren´s work is represented in the exhibition by a large scale vitrine, another type of sculpture that re-invents those made by the likes of Joseph Beuys. Whilst his are characterized by earthy colours, Warren´s give way to abstract pale neon. Often filled with pompoms, indescribable objects and intentionally poorly sealed, the vitrines break the accepted language of museum display and as with her other works in clay and bronze, Warren tries to push and break given boundaries. This is Rebecca Warren's second solo exhibition at Galerie Max Hetzler. Rebecca Warren (born 1965) lives and works in London. Having studied at Goldsmith's and Chelsea College, she came to prominence with solo and group shows at major venues. She was nominated for the Turner Prize, London in 2006 and for the Vincent Award, Amsterdam in 2008. Recent exhibitions in museums and institutions include the 54th Biennale di Venezia (2011); Royal Academy of Arts, London (2010); The Art Institute of Chicago (2010); The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (2010); Serpentine Gallery, London (2009); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2009); Barbican Art Gallery, London (2008); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2008); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2007); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2007); Tate Triennial, London (2006); Ottawa Art Gallery, Ontario, Canada (2005); Kunsthalle Zurich (2004); Kunsthalle Vienna (2004); Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (2004) and Hayward Gallery, London (2004). In April this year, Warren will be showing at Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Ghent (Opening on April 15th, 2012). FUEL Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia April 27 - June 16, 2012 Preview on April 27: 6 - 9 pm Galerie Max Hetzler is pleased to present the exhibition Russian Criminal Tattoos featuring 120 sheets of drawings selected from the archive of the original tattoo drawings by Danzig Baldaev, published in the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia Volumes I-III (FUEL Publishing, 2003-2008). They represent the broad range of themes contained in the language of Russian tattoos, from the political to the pornographic. Displayed in groups of fifteen in eight large museum frames, each sheet is accompanied by a detailed translation and information regarding the location, as supplied by Baldaev. Between 1948-1986, during his career as a prison guard, Baldaev made over 3,000 drawings of tattoos. They were his gateway into a secret world in which he acted as ethnographer, recording the rituals of a closed society. The icons and tribal languages he documented are artful, distasteful, sexually explicit and provocative, reflecting as they do the lives, status and traditions of the convicts that wore them. Baldaev made comprehensive notes about each tattoo, which he then carefully reproduced in his tiny St. Petersburg flat. The resulting exquisitely detailed ink drawings are accompanied with his handwritten notes and signature on the reverse, the paper is yellowed with age, and carries Baldaev’s stamp, giving the drawings a visceral temporality – almost like skin. In 2009 Damon Murray and Stephen Sorrell (FUEL) purchased the entire archive of 739 original sheets of tattoo drawings from Baldaev’s widow. Accompanying the drawings are 32 photographs by Sergei Vasiliev, taken between 1989-1993 in prisons and reform settlements across Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Tagil, Perm and St. Petersburg. They act as an important counterpart to Baldaev’s drawings, providing photographic evidence of their authenticity, and allowing us a glimpse into this compelling and extraordinary world. In these incredible images the nameless bodies of criminals act as both a text and mirror, reflecting and preserving the ever-changing folklore of the Russian criminal underworld. Danzig Baldaev was born in 1925 in Ulan-Ude, Buryatiya, Russia. The son of an ‘enemy of the people’, he was subject to repression in communist Russia and sent to an orphanage for children of political prisoners. After serving in the army in World War II, he moved to Leningrad in 1948 and was ordered by the NKVD to work as a warden in ‘Kresty’ – an infamous Leningrad prison – where he started drawing the tattoos of criminals. His collection of tattoos were recorded in different reformatory settlements for criminals across the former USSR. He died in 2005. Sergei Vasiliev was born in 1936 in the Chuvash region of Russia. He was a staff photographer for the newspaper Vecherny Chelyabinsk for over thirty years. He has received many honours including International Master of Press Photography from the International Organization of Photo Journalists (Prague, 1985), Honoured Worker of Arts of Russia and the Golden Eye Prize. His work has been exhibited internationally and is held in numerous museum collections. Damon Murray and Stephen Sorrell founded FUEL Design & Publishing in 1991. Upcoming exhibitions: 28.07. - 29.07.12 Yves Oppenheim, Galerie Max Hetzler, Weidingen/Eifel 15.09. - 20.10.12 Mona Hatoum, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin Gallery Weekend Berlin: April 27 – April 29, 2012 www.gallery-weekend-berlin.de |
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