Month: October 2008

ELIF URAS


ELIF URAS DRAWING DISCONNECT

kirkhoff is proud to present Drawing Disconnect, a solo exhibition of new paintings and Iznik Çini sculptures by Elif Uras.
Elif Uras was born in Ankara, Turkey, and lives and works between New York and Istanbul. Urasʼs
work explores the collision of civilizations, especially in relation to the stereotypes and prejudices which thrive in both the East and the West.
In Urasʼs decadent world, veiled women, belly dancers and nudes co-exist with developers,
religious fundamentalists and suicide bombers. Her engagement with politics, economics, and the
culture of leisure, excess and hedonism is revealed in cinematic tableaux punctuated with brilliant color and contemporary detail. In the architecture, interiors and landscapes depicted, oriental arabesques and Islamic ornamentation weave into Western painterly traditions with references to the Rococo, History Painting, Art Nouveau, Symbolism and Surrealism, and to artists as diverse as Fragonard, Ingres, Hogarth, Goya, Klimt, Otto Dix and Hundertwasser.
Multiple prespectives also prevail in the manner with which Uras deals with space in her work.
Perspective is pushed up to its limits, resulting in a dreamy and indeterminate perception of the
world. Mirrors, reflections, paintings within painting, make it difficult to distinguish what is inside or outside.
The Painting The Great Divergence alludes to the recent construction bubble and the growing gap
between the rich and poor. It presents a bifurcated space where harpies toil as workers while an
industrialist and his family are settled comfortably and conveniently separated from the activity as their future unfolds in the pictorial space. Another work, Half Asleep responds to the Mohammed cartoon protests and depicts a Western couple caught in a waking dream of fire and destruction.
The painting Secular, at first sight a seemingly innocuous bath scene in the genre tradition, is populated by an unabashedly naked central female figure surrounded by women covered with headscarfs and long jackets.
The traditional Turkish tea glass, a ubiquituous symbol of leisure in the Middle East, inspires the form of the four Iznik Çini sculptures which are also presented here. They were produced at
the Iznik Foundation in Turkey, where Uras has a residency. Iznik is historically famous for its
unique pottery and tiles that adorned the palaces, mosques and baths of the Ottoman Empire
and were widely imitated in Europe. With these works, Uras transposes her narratives onto three
dimensional surfaces while incorporating the vocabulary of the Iznik tradition.
Elif Uras received her Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University in 2003. Her work was
included Greater New York 2005 at P.S.1/MoMa, New York. Uras has mounted solo exhibitions
at Smith-Stewart, New York, Galerist, Istanbul, Gavlak, West Palm Beach and Kenny Schachter/
ROVE, New York. Her work has also been exhibited at Proje 4L/Elgiz Museum of Contemporary
Art, Istanbul, Mary Boone Gallery, New York, Greene Naftali, New York and Andrew Kreps,
New York. In Denmark, she previously exhibited work at the Absolute Summer Show in 2005 at
Kirkhoff.

MANHATTAN/PARIS


V1 Gallery presents
MANHATTAN/PARIS
A solo exhibition by Søren Behncke AKA Papfar

V1 Gallery proudly presents Manhattan/Paris, Søren Behncke’s third solo exhibition at V1.

It’s a long way from America’s Manhattan to Europe’s Paris. Especially when Paris is a tiny whistle-stop in a remote part of Denmark – a bracket so small that it hardly qualifies as a town. Steel is replaced with straw, hustle and bustle with hillbillies, urban with outback and graffiti with gardens.

Like an artistic Jacques Cousteau, Søren Behncke submerges himself into the lacuna between Manhattan, US, and Paris, Jutland, to explore the frame of public art. Søren’s expedition begins in New York, where he creates and exhibits three cardboard sculptures. Afterwards they traverse the Atlantic Ocean to the small village on the west coast of Denmark. And finally they end up in V1 Gallery in the local metropolis Copenhagen.

Manhattan/Paris turns its periscope towards the human activity in urban space and the urban activity in the human mind. The globetrotting cardboard figures show how surroundings shape a work just as much as the artist does. And the features of street art are established just as much by the street as the work itself.

Paris/Manhattan challenges site specific clichés whether they concern the idea of nationality or life style. Thus Søren likens the idea of H. C. Andersen with the idea of the mandatory country car, majestic lions are related to cocky canines and Manhattan/Paris hover somewhere between local and global.

Alongside the story of art, architecture and the urban human being Manhattan/Paris also turn into a selection of small poetic portraits of the frail and fleeting life. Time takes its toll on the cardboard sculptures that decay and crumble only to survive in the stories about them.

Manhattan/Paris consists of painting, drawing, collage, photo, collage, sculpture and video installations.

Søren Behncke is one of Denmark’s most popular artists. He is mostly famous for his intelligent installations in the public sphere. With his tongue placed firmly in the cheek Søren withers the borders between realism and surrealism, and he directs the viewers’ attention towards everyday surroundings.

Concurrent with Manhattan/Paris at V1 Gallery the contemporary art museum ARoS Aahus Kunstmuseum opens a Søren Behncke retrospective.

V1 Gallery