#5 Gwen Hardie
9 – 13 Feb. 2021
#4 Jörg Gessner
4 – 8 Feb. 2021
#3 Thibaut Duchenne
30 Jan. – 3 Feb. 2021
#2 Claudia Doderer
25 – 29 January 2021
#1 Juliana Borinski
20 – 24 January 2021
#14 Mary Ellen Bartley
7 – 11 April 2021
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Mary Ellen Bartley is known for her photographs exploring the tactile and formal qualities of the printed book and its potential for abstraction. In her poetic minimalist images, the books’ contents are often hidden or only partially revealed, underscoring the tension between narrative and purely formal concerns. She has made projects in the private libraries of artists Robert Wilson, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, as well as Giorgio Morandi.
"I explore a single subject and follow where it takes me, one series leads to another quite organically. I’ve been exploring books of books, copies of copies and pictures of pictures." (Mary Ellen Bartley, extract from interview in DEEDS. , 2020)
(7 – 11 April)
Mary Ellen Bartley is known for her photographs exploring the tactile and formal qualities of the printed book and its potential for abstraction. In her poetic minimalist images, the books’ contents are often hidden or only partially revealed, underscoring the tension between narrative and purely formal concerns. She has made projects in the private libraries of artists Robert Wilson, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, as well as Giorgio Morandi.
"I explore a single subject and follow where it takes me, one series leads to another quite organically. I’ve been exploring books of books, copies of copies and pictures of pictures." (Mary Ellen Bartley, extract from interview in DEEDS. , 2020)
1
(31 March – 4 April 2021)
“Like many artists, it is the process which drives me, and here time is an important factor. My collage-paintings are slow, and it is precisely this slowness which mesmerizes me; spending endless moments of time inside the ongoing artwork, absorbed in each colour and tiny detail, yet aiming for that magical moment where I switch from being the maker to being the viewer – then the artist can step back, and the painting simply takes over.” (Maibritt Ulvedal Bjelke, 2020)
(26 – 30 March 2021)
"The initial idea for the Transparency series came from a visceral inner vision. When I closed my eyes and immersed in the darkness of this experience I saw a very thick colour field. I wanted to visualise and consequently hide this abstract image. Colours underneath the white, imprints, layers. An attempt to preserve the layers of the past in the present." (Tünde Újszászi, 2021)
In her oeuvre, Újszászi explores the topics of the illusion of permanence and the ever-changing nature of all our surroundings. She examines them through large-scale, woven installations and series of paintings.
Újszászi’s primary inspiration is the material itself and the possibilities comprised in it. She is particularly intrigued by the process of creating forms and objects and the way in which these pieces occupy the space.
Using special weaving techniques and small canvas foldings, her installations works express the desire to preserve and to stop time, as a way to overcome her fears of the unknown and passing away.
(26 – 30 March 2021)
"The initial idea for the Transparency series came from a visceral inner vision. When I closed my eyes and immersed in the darkness of this experience I saw a very thick colour field. I wanted to visualise and consequently hide this abstract image. Colours underneath the white, imprints, layers. An attempt to preserve the layers of the past in the present." (Tünde Újszászi, 2021)
In her oeuvre, Újszászi explores the topics of the illusion of permanence and the ever-changing nature of all our surroundings. She examines them through large-scale, woven installations and series of paintings.
Újszászi’s primary inspiration is the material itself and the possibilities comprised in it. She is particularly intrigued by the process of creating forms and objects and the way in which these pieces occupy the space.
Using special weaving techniques and small canvas foldings, her installations works express the desire to preserve and to stop time, as a way to overcome her fears of the unknown and passing away.
"I often look through my old sketchbooks to rethink ideas which have been overlooked – either because they were not quite right for that particular moment or because I had not yet worked out how to go about making them. This piece is one of those, a recurrent image first appearing in around 2012 and reasserting itself sporadically over the years. In 2020 one of these reoccurrences coincided with some experiments I was doing with stretched canvas over board. I liked the idea that the addition of canvas gave the harsh geometry a softer edge. It is important to me that the works not only have a strong graphic presence but also the capability to draw in the viewer and tell a deeper story. I made two ‘Environments’, one larger one with two different whites and a slightly smaller reconfigured version in ultramarine blue." (Shawn Stipling, 2021)
At first glance the paintings of Shawn Stipling appear almost machine-made; the precision of the lines and seemingly industrial surfaces belie their intensely handmade production. But looking more closely, beyond these initial impressions, we start to see that all is not as we first thought. The measurements are ‘off’ – more random than mathematical, elements are sometimes slightly skewed, lines do not meet edges where we somehow feel they should. We are being asked to look more closely, to slow down, to step forward, and in doing so, we begin to see the true identity of these works emerge.
(21 – 25 March 2021)
"I often look through my old sketchbooks to rethink ideas which have been overlooked – either because they were not quite right for that particular moment or because I had not yet worked out how to go about making them. This piece is one of those, a recurrent image first appearing in around 2012 and reasserting itself sporadically over the years. In 2020 one of these reoccurrences coincided with some experiments I was doing with stretched canvas over board. I liked the idea that the addition of canvas gave the harsh geometry a softer edge. It is important to me that the works not only have a strong graphic presence but also the capability to draw in the viewer and tell a deeper story. I made two ‘Environments’, one larger one with two different whites and a slightly smaller reconfigured version in ultramarine blue." (Shawn Stipling, 2021)
"Salter seems as if to have painted silence itself: the work is both alive and moving, and yet still, so that the eye wanders, absorbed and yet patternless, through and among the shapes before us. There is nothing to say, nothing even to experience in any words that sound impressive, yet the looking never wearies. This is a rough image, in its very imagelessness, of the bliss of silence." (Meditations on Silence by Sister Wendy Beckett)
"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)
(15 – 19 March 2021)
"Salter seems as if to have painted silence itself: the work is both alive and moving, and yet still, so that the eye wanders, absorbed and yet patternless, through and among the shapes before us. There is nothing to say, nothing even to experience in any words that sound impressive, yet the looking never wearies. This is a rough image, in its very imagelessness, of the bliss of silence."
(Meditations on Silence by Sister Wendy Beckett)
"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)
(10 – 14 March 2021)
Norma Márquez Orozco evokes the unpredictable patterns of nature as well as the impermanence of beliefs and memories. Three-dimensional montages of paper are positioned inside translucent paper boxes or cases that resemble envelopes, providing a playful context, almost like puzzles. Mostly non-representational, her works are open-ended images that explore concepts of time, perception, form and balance mainly through the physical movement of the work itself. The patterns in the artwork are not fixed, allowing movement to create unpredictable compositions.
Márquez Orozco points out that when you look at her works, you see them for the first time, every time, because what creates and completes them always changes, like the light and the forms that merge and interact.
(10 – 14 March 2021)
Norma Márquez Orozco evokes the unpredictable patterns of nature as well as the impermanence of beliefs and memories. Three-dimensional montages of paper are positioned inside translucent paper boxes or cases that resemble envelopes, providing a playful context, almost like puzzles. Mostly non-representational, her works are open-ended images that explore concepts of time, perception, form and balance mainly through the physical movement of the work itself. The patterns in the artwork are not fixed, allowing movement to create unpredictable compositions.
Márquez Orozco points out that when you look at her works, you see them for the first time, every time, because what creates and completes them always changes, like the light and the forms that merge and interact.
‘Birgitte Lund’s canvasses are places where things meet. Acrylic painted areas, pieces of paper, liquid rubber and other fluids – an imprint of organic structure. They meet on the canvas and attempt to unite in a composition; an abstract collage. The works are often constructed around areas that divide the canvas into horizontal bands, as in the series “Psychedelic Landscapes”. Some are immediately beautiful colour compositions in the tradition of Mark Rothko. But strict beauty must be challenged – and it is – with things that don’t fit in – things that are possibly even irritating, ugly and nasty. That’s the way it is with visual dissonance. The dissonances are not, however, allowed to just stand there and irritate. They are made to communicate with each other and with the background, by adding new layers and bridges so that balance is restored, but the dissonance remains. As a rule, the dissonances are not this harsh. They function as tension fields in the picture that make its beauty long-lasting.’ (Torben Sangild)
“My work revolves around the discovery of pictorial landscapes – like an archeologist uncovering but in reverse order. The landscapes are built up through many textured layers. Tracks are left behind on absorbent or repellent surfaces. Lines, marks, calcified figures from my graphical sketches, drawings and earlier works form landmarks on the surface.” (Birgitte Lund)
(5 – 9 March 2021)
‘Birgitte Lund’s canvasses are places where things meet. Acrylic painted areas, pieces of paper, liquid rubber and other fluids – an imprint of organic structure. They meet on the canvas and attempt to unite in a composition; an abstract collage. The works are often constructed around areas that divide the canvas into horizontal bands, as in the series “Psychedelic Landscapes”. Some are immediately beautiful colour compositions in the tradition of Mark Rothko. But strict beauty must be challenged – and it is – with things that don’t fit in – things that are possibly even irritating, ugly and nasty. That’s the way it is with visual dissonance. The dissonances are not, however, allowed to just stand there and irritate. They are made to communicate with each other and with the background, by adding new layers and bridges so that balance is restored, but the dissonance remains. As a rule, the dissonances are not this harsh. They function as tension fields in the picture that make its beauty long-lasting.’ (Torben Sangild)
“My work revolves around the discovery of pictorial landscapes – like an archeologist uncovering but in reverse order. The landscapes are built up through many textured layers. Tracks are left behind on absorbent or repellent surfaces. Lines, marks, calcified figures from my graphical sketches, drawings and earlier works form landmarks on the surface.” (Birgitte Lund)
(Photo: Stuart McIntyre)
With basal patterns, materials, and techniques, executed mostly on wood, plaster, and paper, Marc Lambrechts works open views into hidden worlds. The macrocosms of nature, life, and universal space appear in microcosmic correspondences on the manifold surfaces of the paintings. Lambrechts captures the metaphysics of our world with light- handed charm.
The artist summons cosmic visions with the humblest matter: corn husks and banana leaves, bamboo and cement, latex and leather. Surfaces emerge that are never flat; captured energies reverberate in their depths and elevations. Opened up by carefully and precisely implemented scratchings, other surfaces beneath emerge, in a playful tension of the pierced realities of the universe. In the works on paper the fragile, thinned out surface turns into a fluttering veil.
(Andreas Müller, Berlin)
(28 Feb. – 4 Mar. 2021)
With basal patterns, materials, and techniques, executed mostly on wood, plaster, and paper, Marc Lambrechts works open views into hidden worlds. The macrocosms of nature, life, and universal space appear in microcosmic correspondences on the manifold surfaces of the paintings. Lambrechts captures the metaphysics of our world with light- handed charm.
The artist summons cosmic visions with the humblest matter: corn husks and banana leaves, bamboo and cement, latex and leather. Surfaces emerge that are never flat; captured energies reverberate in their depths and elevations. Opened up by carefully and precisely implemented scratchings, other surfaces beneath emerge, in a playful tension of the pierced realities of the universe. In the works on paper the fragile, thinned out surface turns into a fluttering veil.
(Andreas Müller, Berlin)
In her paintings, Tiina Heiska depicts the human condition, our contact with ourselves and existence. Referencing photographic and filmic situations, Heiska’s female figures are mysterious and sometimes troubling. With firm hand, Heiska constructs a dramatic tension. Wide brushstrokes attest to the moment of the painting’s making. Colours are minimal and monochromatic yet intense, they reveal the light in scenes otherwise often pervaded with darkness.
Alice in Wonderland alike – Heiska’s figures, or just the trace of their movements, recall very womanly states. The little girl and the grown-up woman, innocence and sensuality, children’s games and dreams, adults’ fears, desire and fantasies alternate and surprisingly intermingle.
(21 – 25 Feb. 2021)
In her paintings, Tiina Heiska depicts the human condition, our contact with ourselves and existence. Referencing photographic and filmic situations, Heiska’s female figures are mysterious and sometimes troubling. With firm hand, Heiska constructs a dramatic tension. Wide brushstrokes attest to the moment of the painting’s making. Colours are minimal and monochromatic yet intense, they reveal the light in scenes otherwise often pervaded with darkness.
Alice in Wonderland alike – Heiska’s figures, or just the trace of their movements, recall very womanly states. The little girl and the grown-up woman, innocence and sensuality, children’s games and dreams, adults’ fears, desire and fantasies alternate and surprisingly intermingle.
Hardie has always been fascinated by the human body, not so much as a physical entity, something to be comprehended as a whole, but rather for one particular aspect: the skin, the surface of the body…
In her more recent work, she has concentrated on the visual appearance of skin, its colour, its translucency, the way it changes in tone, the way it advances or recedes in our field of vision according to the interaction with other colours and / or varying degrees of light and shade … The canvas has become the equivalent of skin. On it, Hardie has carried out in a tightly prescribed formal sequence, painterly exercises in colour, tone, light and shade, using the canvas as a sort of palette on which to mix her paints…
There is a meditative aspect to Hardies work, which is underpinned by a powerful humanistic awareness of the wide spectrum of skin colours that Hardie encounters with her friends, on the streets and subways of New York where she now lives. In other words, these paintings are not simply formal exercises in capturing the complex fluctuations of our perceptions of colours, but a meditation on the incredible richness / multiplicity of humanity and, implicitly, the way that ethnicities are not fixed but fluid…
(Extracts from a text by Keith Hartley, Deputy Director of Modern and Contemporary Art, National Galleries of Scotland)
(9 – 13 Feb. 2021)
Hardie has always been fascinated by the human body, not so much as a physical entity, something to be comprehended as a whole, but rather for one particular aspect: the skin, the surface of the body…
In her more recent work, she has concentrated on the visual appearance of skin, its colour, its translucency, the way it changes in tone, the way it advances or recedes in our field of vision according to the interaction with other colours and / or varying degrees of light and shade … The canvas has become the equivalent of skin. On it, Hardie has carried out in a tightly prescribed formal sequence, painterly exercises in colour, tone, light and shade, using the canvas as a sort of palette on which to mix her paints…
There is a meditative aspect to Hardies work, which is underpinned by a powerful humanistic awareness of the wide spectrum of skin colours that Hardie encounters with her friends, on the streets and subways of New York where she now lives. In other words, these paintings are not simply formal exercises in capturing the complex fluctuations of our perceptions of colours, but a meditation on the incredible richness / multiplicity of humanity and, implicitly, the way that ethnicities are not fixed but fluid…
(Extracts from a text by Keith Hartley, Deputy Director of Modern and Contemporary Art, National Galleries of Scotland)
The fascinating presence of hand-made Japanese papers in their highest perfection, with their multitude of finest fibers and their silky webs, is enhanced in Jörg Gessner’s work. The very many transparent layers of paper are combined with one another, without any glue, simply stretched in such a way that they form a whole. Light as the principle subject is captured to make it play, as one would say of a musical instrument, the full scale of possible nuances and depths.
Born in Germany in 1967, Jörg Gessner studied fashion design at Studio Berçot in Paris. His genuine career combining form, material and light began in Milan in 1992, when he specialized in textile design. Throughout a decade, he spent long periods of time in Japan, studying paper and its applications with one of the greatest dynasties of Japanese paper-makers. Gessner is considered today among the most respected experts in Japanese paper. He currently lives and works in Lyon.
(4 – 8 Feb. 2021)
The fascinating presence of hand-made Japanese papers in their highest perfection, with their multitude of finest fibers and their silky webs, is enhanced in Jörg Gessner’s work. The very many transparent layers of paper are combined with one another, without any glue, simply stretched in such a way that they form a whole. Light as the principle subject is captured to make it play, as one would say of a musical instrument, the full scale of possible nuances and depths.
Born in Germany in 1967, Jörg Gessner studied fashion design at Studio Berçot in Paris. His genuine career combining form, material and light began in Milan in 1992, when he specialized in textile design. Throughout a decade, he spent long periods of time in Japan, studying paper and its applications with one of the greatest dynasties of Japanese paper-makers. Gessner is considered today among the most respected experts in Japanese paper. He currently lives and works in Lyon.
Thibaut Duchenne’s photography is precise, uncompromising and sensitive. His work pays homage to nature and rural life. The objects and landscapes he photographs, conquered by rust and dust, are touching even though immortalised in an almost documentary fashion. Photographed without artificial additions, retouches or embellishments, these places move us and remain engraved in our memory.
Thibaut Duchenne was born in the French region of Picardy. After having completed his studies of agriculture he took over the family farm. At the age of 35 his father gave him a camera. From this decisive moment onwards, he started to accompany his daily labour on the farm with a photographic activity. Progressively his photographic work took him further away from the farm, always on the quest for places abandoned by humankind.
(30 Jan. – 3 Feb. 2021)
Thibaut Duchenne’s photography is precise, uncompromising and sensitive. His work pays homage to nature and rural life. The objects and landscapes he photographs, conquered by rust and dust, are touching even though immortalised in an almost documentary fashion. Photographed without artificial additions, retouches or embellishments, these places move us and remain engraved in our memory.
Thibaut Duchenne was born in the French region of Picardy. After having completed his studies of agriculture he took over the family farm. At the age of 35 his father gave him a camera. From this decisive moment onwards, he started to accompany his daily labour on the farm with a photographic activity. Progressively his photographic work took him further away from the farm, always on the quest for places abandoned by humankind.
How does Claudia Doderer, architect of spaces for contemporary music and ballet, who directed and created stage design for important operas, achieve capturing the early experience of freedom in small formats? There is something touching in her turning away from the power of the cherished scenographic space.Though the base material is still the model board of earlier days, slightly colored, layered in so many different shades of white, what is of interest to Claudia Doderer today is the little, the pure, the contours, the shadow, the cautiously unwieldy, the quiet resistances. See how the white exudes it’s not being at someone’s disposal! But there is also the muffled warmth of a birch veneer, or a sudden red, like a darting flame, a warning. Time and again the unexpected occurs. Something is offset, folded in an unfamiliar way, bent without cause, an outlier to the order. An energy still unknown, something joyfully perturbing announces itself in these objects.
(Extract from a text by Gertrud Leutenegger, 2020)
(25 – 29 January 2021)
How does Claudia Doderer, architect of spaces for contemporary music and ballet, who directed and created stage design for important operas, achieve capturing the early experience of freedom in small formats? There is something touching in her turning away from the power of the cherished scenographic space.Though the base material is still the model board of earlier days, slightly colored, layered in so many different shades of white, what is of interest to Claudia Doderer today is the little, the pure, the contours, the shadow, the cautiously unwieldy, the quiet resistances. See how the white exudes it’s not being at someone’s disposal! But there is also the muffled warmth of a birch veneer, or a sudden red, like a darting flame, a warning. Time and again the unexpected occurs. Something is offset, folded in an unfamiliar way, bent without cause, an outlier to the order. An energy still unknown, something joyfully perturbing announces itself in these objects.
(Extract from a text by Gertrud Leutenegger, 2020)
When she works on photography or cinema, Juliana Borinski never uses a camera or video camera. She creates images that are generally abstract, using photosensitive paper or film directly, in order to explore their inherent aesthetic and technical abilities. What should only be a receptacle for images, its medium, thus becomes the very material of her work.
For the series Between Humiliation and Happiness, the artist reworks a sheet of photosensitive paper that has been previously overexposed, then subjects it to various rubbings and folds before exposing it again on a new sheet. Photographic skeleton-like forms against a black background result from this: a typology of image-less photographs.
Juliana Borinski looks for errors, lacks and chance. She positions herself deliberately at the margins of the systems she uses, visual media, taking care to avoid images in the usual sense and new technologies, favouring the “almost nothing”. This unconventional approach is also apparent in the fact that each work is unique, in an era where copying an element can be achieved with a single click, and when the tools of her trade are photography and film.
(Excerpts from a text by Aurélien Pelletier, translated from the French by Anna Knight)
(20 – 24 January 2021)
When she works on photography or cinema, Juliana Borinski never uses a camera or video camera. She creates images that are generally abstract, using photosensitive paper or film directly, in order to explore their inherent aesthetic and technical abilities. What should only be a receptacle for images, its medium, thus becomes the very material of her work.
For the series Between Humiliation and Happiness, the artist reworks a sheet of photosensitive paper that has been previously overexposed, then subjects it to various rubbings and folds before exposing it again on a new sheet. Photographic skeleton-like forms against a black background result from this: a typology of image-less photographs.
Juliana Borinski looks for errors, lacks and chance. She positions herself deliberately at the margins of the systems she uses, visual media, taking care to avoid images in the usual sense and new technologies, favouring the “almost nothing”. This unconventional approach is also apparent in the fact that each work is unique, in an era where copying an element can be achieved with a single click, and when the tools of her trade are photography and film.
(Excerpts from a text by Aurélien Pelletier, translated from the French by Anna Knight)