The group exhibition Kaleidoscope presents the works of seven artists from Austria, England, Finland, Turkey, the United States and Switzerland. True to its title the exhibition shows a rich and multi-faceted spectrum of works by these international artists. They all share a passion for colour, light and reflection as central themes of their art practices, many of which examine various forms of monochromatic expression. The surprising breadth of artistic expressions working with a wide variety of different media and techniques offers the viewers a spectacular and dazzling array of colour and forms – a glimpse through a kaleidoscope.
The works of Finnish artist HC Berg, which are for the first time shown in Zurich, question issues dealing with visual perception. Berg is a trained sculptor and ceramic and glass artist and makes use of new innovations as well as traditional techniques to create his sculptures. The clear geometry of his iridescent concave-mirror objects seems to be in flux and ever-changing depending on the point of view. Berg artfully employs optical illusions and reflections to create imaginary spaces. By encouraging a dialogue with his sculptures, he challenges our customary ways of seeing and viewing – questioning and expanding our preconceived notions of sensory experience.
English artist Kate Dineen’s rich, reverberating monochromes are inspired by her frequent trips to India. She utilizes the age-old tradition of Araash, a form of fresco painting using layers of pigment, marble powder and lime. The time-consuming process of manually applying layer after layer results in the strong organic character of her sculptures leaving traces on the smooth monochrome surface. These traces – scars and irregularities – characterize the individuality and uniqueness of each work. Dineen’s sculptures, which are reduced to minimal forms and monochromes, are powerful blocks of pure colour endowed with a mesmerizing presence.
Swiss artist Kathy Müller-Moser covers her figurative sculptures with a skin made of a multitude of small round mirrors, which like a kaleidoscope, reflect the sparkling lights and colours of their surroundings. The glamorous first impression is misleading as a closer look reveals several broken mirrors, referring to the vulnerability and fragility of our existence. The artist follows up on the themes of her earlier sculptures, which address the difficult transition between childhood and adolescence. In their isolation the seemingly cute creatures appear particularly lonely and vulnerable. They reflect the challenges children and youths are facing when trying to come to terms with their identity and draw attention to their search for meaning in today’s multi-faceted consumer society.
Klari Reis’s installation, consisting of a multitude of hand-painted petri dishes, offers the viewers a kaleidoscope of intense colours and organic forms. These seemingly clinical and microscopically enlarged artistic organisms come to life in all shapes and colours. The American artist alludes to our ambivalent dependency on the highly technological worlds of biochemistry and life sciences but finds a playful and poetic interpretation of these issues in her artistic expression. Reis uses the creative process in both painting and science as metaphors for one another, viewing art as science and science as art. Her works intend to provoke curiosity for exploring and documenting natural and artificial worlds with a sense of wonder and hope.
Over the past years, Austrian artist Robert Schaberl has developed a series of paintings devoted to circles – or ‘central forms’ as the artist calls them – and colour. He continuously probes the layering and transparency of the applied colours and to what extent light and changing points of view will alter the intensity of the colours and our perception of them. His newest artworks are painted on glass, which allows a stronger agency of light, in order to intensify the transparency and the intensity of the colours. The use of Iriodin pigments endows the paintings with an even stronger elusive and mesmerizing quality as the colours keep changing depending on the point of view of the observer.
Despite their rigid geometry, Gülay Semercioglu’s monochrome works exude a sensuous attraction and the fascinating play of light and colour brings the work to life. The Turkish artist strings her canvases with a dense mesh of fine, gleaming wires, which elicit a trompe-l’oeil effect giving the two-dimensional objects a sculptural quality, thereby exploring the boundaries between imagination and reality. Although her method recalls geometric and abstract concerns of artists such as Malevich, her work also refers to a history closer to home: the history of the production of textile and carpet weaving. By interrogating traditional women’s handicraft, Semercioglu belies the conventionally feminine with a resolute form and content, and offers an interesting point of departure.
American artist Bill Thompson’s glossy monochrome objects combine sculpture and painting in a new minimalist art form. The organic sculptures are laboriously handcrafted, made of polyurethane foam. His deep, lustrous finishes are, again, the result of a long process of applying numerous coats of paint to each piece, interspersed with sanding and polishing, until not the slightest blemish remains. The glossy shapes are mysterious and beautiful – each unique in form and colour. There is something alien, yet entirely familiar about them and only a closer look from all sides allows for a spatial experience and interaction with these cloud-like wall sculptures. The luscious sheen of the curvilinear works acts as a lens, which engages and reflects its surrounding environment triggering a dialogue between viewer and painting.
Opening Reception: Thursday, 10 December 2009, 6–8pm
For further information please contact:
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Talstrasse 58, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland
Tel +41 44 210 02 02 Fax +41 44 210 02 15 info@kashyahildebrand.org |
