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Galerie Anita Beckers: JAN SCHMIDT � durchgespielt JANET BIGGS (Video Space) �Arctic Trilogy� - 31 Aug 2012 to 2 Nov 2012 Current Exhibition |
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Jan Schmidt, Retour d�un kilo de cl�s, 2007
Keile, Quittung, Fotos in Tischvitrine, Ma�e Vitrine 140 x 70 x 80 cm |
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Jan Schmidt – durchgespielt Exhibition duration: August 31– November 2, 2012 Opening: August 30, 2012, at 7 pm Characteristic of virtually all work cycles, which Jan Schmidt (b. 1973, London) who studied at the Städelschule and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Mainz, realizes, is an analytical questioning. For the works in this exhibition, the artist brought the medium of painting, as well as traditional genre boundaries into question. A series of large-scale canvases focuses on the absolute reduction of its own. As in the laboratory Schmidt has dissected the inner workings of his medium and printed them on the fabric. The colors are reversed. Patterns emerge, not much more and no less than composed deconstructions. It's about the medium and less about a particular content, except possibly, that less is more. Schmidt’s craquelés radiate a special fascination. Craquelés are cracks on the surface of paintings or varnishes. Often due to aging and influenced by climatic changes these fractures are signs of time, which dig into the material and then become independent. Schmidt transfers the networks of cracks in the surface of old masters occurred over the centuries into elaborately prepared white canvases, which correspond in size and material, to their role models. Historical positions such as The Penitent St. Jerome and a Young Carmelite Monk by Fra Filippo Lippi, are however copied in a very personal way. Here too, the artist is interested in their materiality, and not in their content. The crackle is considered as a fingerprint of the image, as an individual pattern, which has been created by chance. The filigree drawings document the physical condition of the painting. But at the same time Schmidt's craquelés copies begin their own life, which is affected by their environment and makes them autonomous works of art. Whether Schmidt's large canvases, on which he has printed the components of the stretcher, his razor-thin support legs, which carry out their original function of supporting through their apparent instability to absurdity or his craquelés, it's always about function, form and the passage of time. (Anna Feldhaus) In 2013 Jan Schmidt will have two solo exhibitions at Kunstverein Ludwigshafen (Opening: January 18th) and at the Museum Wiesbaden (Opening: March 1st). His work was exhibited in institutions like the Städelmuseum, Frankurt; the Kunstverein Wiesbaden and Kunsthalle Mainz. Jan Schmidt was awarded with a scholarship by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and Cité des Arts, Paris. Amongst other prices he received the Grafikpreis of Nordrhein-Westfalen. JANET BIGGS (Video Space) “Arctic Trilogy” 31. August – 2. November 2012 Eröffnung / Opening: 30. August um 19 Uhr / 7 pm We proudly present three films composing the “Arctic Trilogy” serie, together with the newest single-channel video “A Step on the Sun”, by American artist Janet Biggs. Biggs is primarily known for her work in video, photography and performance, in which isolated and vulnerable characters struggle to define and defend their sense of self in extreme environments. “Brightness All Around” focuses on Linda Norberg, a woman coal miner who is seen drilling and bolting the newly excavated cave ceiling in freezing temperatures and relentless darkness. These, almost documentary images, serve as a counterpoint to New York music guru Bill Coleman’s sexual performance. The second film in the trilogy, “In the Cold Edge” opens with a lone figure descending into claustrophobic ice tunnels. Both an aggressive assertion of power and a cry for help, the piece confronts the viewer with the terrific power of nature, between awe and terror. The second film in the trilogy, “In the Cold Edge” opens with a lone figure descending into claustrophobic ice tunnels. Both an aggressive assertion of power and a cry for help, the piece confronts the viewer with the terrific power of nature, between awe and terror. “Fade to White” was shot during an expedition in the high Arctic. The video addresses the myth of the solitary white male explorer and our fantasies associated with it. The soundtrack, by counter tenor John Kelly, parallels the vanishing Arctic landscape and signals the waning of male dominance. In her most recent production “A Step On the Sun” the artist focuses on hardships overcome by a sulfur miner in the Ijen volcano, in the East of Indonesia. We watch as the miner collects hardened sulfur crystals, packs them into a basket and carries the heavy loads up a steep, rocky path. The footage confronts us with a provocative mixture of natural beauty and human exploitation. Janet Biggs’ work has been exhibited in many museums around the world, including the Tampa Museum of Art, Florida; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan; the Musée d’art Contemporain de Móntreal, Canada; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY; Vantaa Art Museum, Finland; Linkopings Konsthall, Passagen, Sweden; the Oberosterreichisches Landesmuseum, Austria; among others. Biggs is the recipient of numerous grants including the Electronic Media and Film Program at the New York State Council on the Arts Award, the Arctic Circle Fellowship/Residency, Art Matters, Inc., the Wexner Center Media Arts Program Residency, and the NEA Fellowship Award. Her work is in public collections including the High Museum, Atlanta, Georgia; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina; Gibbes Museum of Art, South Carolina; and the New Britain Museum of Art, Connecticut. From 16.09. through 25.11.2012, the Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl will held the exhibition „Randsucher“ by Janet Biggs. Galerie Anita Beckers Frankenallee 74 60327 Frankfurt am Main Telefon 069-739009-67 Telefax 069-739009-68 E-Mail: [email protected] |
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