10 October – 3 December 2011, Wednesday – Saturday, 12 – 6pm Preview: Sunday 9 October 2011, 2 – 5pm Special Frieze week opening times: 11 – 17 October 2010, Everyday, 12 – 6pm
Alexandra Bircken has developed a unique sculptural language in which natural and synthetic materials are often knitted, knotted or strung together. Bircken’s work is grounded in a deep connection with and understanding of her materials. This is informed by her background in fashion, which she studied in London at St Martins College. The acquired techniques of draping, knitting and threading create a particular formal approach to the construction of her sculptural objects. Bircken has described her constructions as ‘units’ that create internal tensions and dialogues between materials and then a wider conversation occurs between these units within the particularities of the space.
Bircken’s sculptures take on many forms. In previous works, she created web-like structures that seem to have caught detritus and treasures alike or frameworks in which objects are suspended as if in mid-air. Materials range from fragmented mannequin limbs to tree trunks and from washing lines to netting. They venture into the body with tampons, human hair and wax. This interest in material substance and narrative threads places Bircken in relation to earlier artists such as the vitrines of Beuys and the sculptural works of Eva Hesse. These strange placements are not only based on the aesthetic qualities that materials may possess but also on a potency or power the individual elements have. In combination they form fascinating objects. Like wishing trees or dream catchers the objects are at once organic and ritualistic, like distorted talismans, they border on the spiritual. More recent works have shown a somewhat restricted language, -reduced down with use of harder materials such as metal, mirror and mortar. The New York critic Roberta Smith recently described the work as “a rather belated challenge to Post-Minimalist sculptors”.
Alexandra Bircken currently lives and works in Cologne and has had solo exhibitions at Kimmerich Gallery, New York (2011); Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2o1o); Stedelijk Museum CS in Amsterdam (2008) and Gladstone Gallery in New York (2007), with forthcoming solo presentations at Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamberg and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (both 2012). She has participated in numerous group exhibitions including Kettles Yard, Cambridge (201o), Barbican Art Gallery, London (2008), New Museum, New York (2007) and White Columns, New York (2005). The artist is represented by Herald St, London, BQ, Berlin and Kimmerich Gallery, New York.
Supported by The Henry Moore Foundation With kind assistance from Yana Peel and Herald St, London
Gallery 2: Doreen McPherson Portraits
10 October – 3 December 2011, Wednesday – Saturday, 12 – 6pm Preview: Sunday 9 October 2011, 2 – 5pm Special Frieze week opening times: 11 – 17 October 2010, Everyday, 12 – 6pm
Doreen McPherson makes very distinctive and detailed portraits of individuals. Her work is characterised by intense mark marking and a strong sense of light and darkness through the use of shading – particularly around the hair and facial features where particular attention is paid.
Over the summer, the artist has used the gallery as her studio, although not directly referring to the space, some of the works in the exhibition have been conceived in-situ and hold a particular atmosphere. This particular feeling is continued with how the drawings are placed, creating narratives and readings between the drawings. A number of the drawings are based on images of Roman stone and bronze sculptures, but this connection to sculpture goes beyond the original source material. By building up tone, pattern and form, working on different sections of the drawing simultaneously, there is a strong sense of construction and structure within the works.
Doreen McPherson lives and works in London and is a member of Intoart, an art collective who have a permanent studio at Studio Voltaire. McPherson work has been included in a number of group presentations including MADMuseé, Liege (2011), No Soul for Sale, Tate Modern (2010), Whitechapel Gallery, London (2009) and Studio Voltaire, London (2010 and 2007).
