Tag: London
Lara Schnitger ‘damned women’:
Strange girls //
Simon Keenleyside
In the Company of Alice
Sergej Jensen //
ROOM DIVIDER
HEAD //
Mick Peter
Mick Peter’s work is derived from his interest in monumental sculpture and emblems of stupidity, producing objects with athromorphist personalities as scratchy paradoxes in lumpen matter. Using the traditional techniques of a sculptor Peter cuts, carves and hollows out material, but disrupts the integrity of this formalist process by coating the surfaces with cement or pigmented latex to create a more illusionary quasi-painted appearance. This appearance alludes to Peter’s interest in drawing, and illustration, taking inspiration from the homogenous and anti-realistic colour processes of the ‘comix’ phenomenon of the 60s and 70s, but also ties in with the old fashioned ideals of early abstract modernist sculptors. His more recent sculpture draws from a broad catalogue of literary and theoretical references transposing the incongruity and strangeness of politically charged narratives.
For his solo exhibition at Cell Project Space Peter will present a new version of The Nose, an installation project made for ‘La Salle de Bains’, Lyon earlier this year. Using the 19th century writer Nikolai Gogol’s story of the same name and Dmitri Shostakovich’s opera adaptation as emblems for the project the work explores the jarring absurdity of the former and the performance history and sceneography of the latter. The original story recounts an incident in which a Russian official wakes one morning to find that his nose is missing from his face; he later encounters the nose riding around St Petersburg in a carriage, dressed as a government official. While The Nose was regarded as a humorous but trivial anecdote for almost a century, later 20th century critics considered it to be a social satire on Russian culture, a Marxist critique of socioeconomic class, or a psychosexual fantasy, and a meta-narrative about the process of storytelling. In this ambitious floor to ceiling installation Peter integrates his anthromorphist treatment of human form into the schematic environment of the gallery itself. By combining a new cement wall relief with rubber objects the environment alludes to the cartoon-like aftermath of a rehearsal where music stands are left drooping towards the floor and The Nose has left the building.
‘The Nose: Epilogue’ is Mick Peter’s first solo show in London since ‘Fortescue Avenue/ Jonathan Viner’ in 2007. Recent projects include The Changing Room Stirling, ‘Dr Syntax versus the Paperweights’ (2010), Galerie Crèvecoeur, Paris, ‘The Lumber Room’ (2009), Zoo Galerie, Nantes & Generator Projects, Dundee, ‘Harmonielehre’ (2009), CAPC, Bordeaux, ‘Insiders – pratiques, usages, savoir-faire’ (2009) and Museé d’Art Contemporain Lyon, ‘N’importe Quoi’ (2009).
James White // Max Wigram Gallery
Max Wigram Gallery is proud to announce an exhibition of new paintings by James White.
The works continue White’s archiving of the minutiae of modern life. His black and white oil paintings on plywood panels are composed from the snapshots the artist takes of the objects that surround him.
Like the cinematic ‘cutaway shot’, White’s images are deliberately emptied of any dramatic content of their own; our focus momentarily rests on an intimate group of objects that silently resonate within a grander scheme. In refusing to acknowledge a wider visual world, White’s exacting gaze suggests an external narrative in much the same way that the simple image of a drinking glass might when scrutinized within the context of a crime scene photograph.
Rather than merely celebrating the inherent beauty of the banal, White’s paintings are iconic, subtle reflections on the quotidian. Despite the sense of intimacy within the work, the artist equally distances the viewer from the scenes he represents. This detachment is intensified by the characteristic absence of colour and the presentation of the paintings encapsulated in Perspex box-like frames.
The paintings in the show derive from photographs taken mainly in hotel rooms and the artist’s studio. Both locations exacerbate the sense of isolation and quiet respite from the day to day. 2.40 am (Berlin Hotel) and 2.45 am (Berlin Hotel) show personal objects scattered around a hotel room where the artist is spending a sleepless night. These personal belongings are the only reminders of the artist’s presence in the room, the sole evidence of the occupier within an otherwise totally impersonal space.
Hangers (home) and Hangers (away) show the inside of two wardrobes, one in the artist’s home, the other in a hotel. In each painting, a single empty coat hanger dominates, reinforcing a feeling of absence and dislocation.
Burgerbox shows the remains of lunch in the artist’s studio. Here, and in Milk and Stuff and The Radio, we are reminded of the solitary nature of life in the studio. Removed from any significant action, the featured objects are however witnesses to the artist’s activity. Rendered immaculately, with impeccable attention to detail, these simple still lives conjure up human presence through its very absence.
White (b. 1967, UK) lives and works in London. Solo shows include: c/o Atle Gerhardsen, Berlin (2009); Goss Michael Foundation, Dallas; Max Wigram Gallery (2007). Exhibitions in 2010 include: ‘Realism- The Adventure of Reality’, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich (Germany); Dawnbreakers’, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton. Group exhibitions include: The Saatchi Gallery (New Blood, 2004); The New Art Gallery, Walsall (Blue, 2000); Fig-1 (Atoll, 2000) and Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York (solos in 1997 and 2000). In 2006, he was a prize winner in the prestigious John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize.