almost nothing

white works by

mats bergquist . achim bertenburg . julian birbrajer . claudia doderer . jeffrey james . marc lambrechts . birgitte lund . jakob roepke . rebecca salter . shawn stipling . tünde újszászi . maibritt ulvedal bjelke . xiaohua

The almost exclusive use of the colour white and the extreme reduction of the superfluous characterize all the works and arethe golden thread of this minimalistic exhibition. The smallest details are given the highest importance, while being in fact almost nothing.

I portray neither hope nor desire.
Yet I know I may wish, and hope;
To close my eyes and paint,
hesitantly carve out traces.
Comforted by the certitude
that despite my blindness,
I will find them there,
in the worn surface of the image.
Hope has not been fulfilled, desire not realized.
Yet the image bears witness of an insight:
You are, and therefore you hope and desire.
The paintings are testimonies
of a journey on snow long since melted.

Mats Bergquist

... It is the very quality of Achim Bertenburg’s painting to bind together the sensual and the congnitive, the experienced and the imaginary, the conceptual and the spontaneous ... his painting is considered and emotional at the same time; again and again its potentials are questioned in a wide creative range ... photographies join the paintings (at times), indicative of everything painted being grounded here on a reality that can be seen and has been seen, on experience either experienced or mediated ... he inverts the genealogy of painting: instead of abstraction emerging from figuration, it is the figurative that emerges from abstraction ...

Excerpt from: Michael Stoeber, exhibition catalog "still"

White is the new black. Black is the genesis–being eliminated little by little. The end product becoming a transparent, invisible, muted no thing, aiming at a vanishing point. And yet it resists–the world/word of folds twists and weaves through time and space, revealing itself.

Julian Birbrajer, 2019

Claudia Doderer’s spatial studies are deeply rooted in musical ideas and patterns. They resound as a polyphonic, multidimensional play of lines and perspectives. As latent movements frozen into mere insinuations they enable manifold resonances. Coming from a background in scenography, Claudia Doderer’s focus today is on the spatial conditions of performativity, which she investigates in the objects and scenes of musical theater.

Patrick Klingenschmitt, 2019

Photo:

frank paul
ants and butterflies

A furniture maker once said, ”It’s not important how much wood you use, it’s how much you take away.”
As a sculptor I continue to remove material from a primary form until I hopefully reach a moment where the piece is suspended between two states of being. Of having everything and having nothing.

Jeffrey James, 2019

Entanglement is one of the most confusing aspects of quantum mechanics.
Entangled particles remain connected so that actions performed on one affect the other instantaneously, even when separated by great distances (even opposite sides of the universe).
If one is observed spinning up, then the other one is instantaneously spinning down. Some scientist believe that this entanglement makes the fabric of our universe.
In these works I try to play with this idea of entanglement. The white forms are cut- outs. If I cut out a square or a circle, it is placed back onto the piece in a different position. It is not always clear, and difficult to decipher. This creates positive and negative spaces which I play with and create a poetic atmosphere.

Marc Lambrechts, 2019

My paintings at Galerie Pugliese Levi’s group exhibition almost nothing are a tribute to the Danish winter light.
The organic shapes and forms are abstract impressions of ice crystals close-ups, of withered and frozen plants. The non-colour scheme of various shades of whites (and all the subtle shades in-between grey and white) is meant to illustrate the impression you get when you walk through a snowy landscape, that there is almost no colour, almost nothing, but at a closer look you’ll notice all the tiny little details.

Birgitte Lund, 2019

Assuming the shape of high reliefs, Jakob Roepke’s geometrical forms rise up in sharp- edged or soft angles. The ensuing interplay of light and shadow shows subtle shades of grey. The effects of a composition vary according to different incidences of light and lighting, so that a two-dimensional image composed of grey tones emerges from the plastic body as well, and also linear patterns stretching over the wall sculpture like a grid of topographical contour lines. Jakob Roepke’s high reliefs form pairs and groups in addition to being by themselves.

Jakob Roepke, 2018

An organizing principle underlies my work but is disrupted by the serendipity of the process of making/drawing/painting. The trace of the human hand is paramount and its presence energises the surface, subtly disturbing an underlying calm but providing an opportunity to linger and explore. The work asks for time, and rewards with an opportunity for inner reflection.

Rebecca Salter RA

My work is often very sparse in its content. The elements I use are minimised until only that which is ‘active’ remains. This reduction is essential as it allows for greater control over each of these elements and, crucially, allows me to eliminate any accident in favour of ‘conscious choice’. The precision is also functional; further emphasising that even details, of sometimes only one millimetre or less, are intentional and not the result of chance. Creating a situation where the viewer is fully aware that every nuance has been considered and is not the outcome of a serendipitous act. ...

Shawn Stipling, 2018

The Imprints series is a continuation of my artistic approach, where the inspiration is the material itself and the minimal use of tools.
This series consists of imprints, images created by gesso squeezed through the canvas and charrings of paint. They are experimentations on how the support (natural canvas and PEVA synthetics) meets the paint. The consciously reductive compositions are created by different application of white paint, resulting in hidden, almost invisible visual effect.

Tünde Újszászi, 2019

almost nothing. When I first was given the white invitation I was far from imagining how daring this single colour challenge was going to be.
The essence of my painting is nothing but colour – colours and light. Being limited to white, this reduction or even denial of colour, at first, appears to resist meaning and interpretation.

Using only white seemed to take my work to extremes. And no matter how hard I tried, white on white still wouldn’t make any sense or create wonder in my process. But taking off with heaps of colours followed by a generous flow of white paint made saturation and light appear. almost nothing - yet infinite white space loaded with significance.

Maibritt Ulvedal Bjelke, 2019

White belongs to nature, it is the only color which transcends the material world.

Xiaohua, 2019