ANDRE BUTZER

Posted on 2018-04-09

Distanced from subject matter, narrativity and the subjective, Butzer now delves deep into pictorial questions related to colour and light. Despite presenting a body of work dominated by paintings that are entirely black, though not monochrome, with their respective nuances, tonalities and subtle appearances of whitish hues, for Butzer black is part of the road he has embarked on towards the essential. Far from how they might be interpreted, these paintings do not constitute either a beginning or an end. They are vast painted surfaces in search of a spiritual balance which consciously flees from both idea and corporality. The painter himself has stated, with regard to earlier works, a prelude to the ones on display here, that “I did not need ideas, I wasn’t looking at anything specific, but rather the painting emerged on its own”, alluding to a certain faith or intuition that is present in his actions.

Opposite – Installation view

Exhibition runs through to May 26th, 2018

Galería Heinrich Ehrhardt
San Lorenzo, 11
28004 Madrid
Spain

www.heinrichehrhardt.com

  

PATRICK DEMARCHELIER: 1992 – 2017

Posted on 2018-04-09

In this exhibition of photographs, Patrick Demarchelier again demonstrates his mastery of the medium. Whether portraiture or fashion, his subjects convey poise, style, and intelligence. His awless technique, together with his innovative imagination, elevates his work to an art form. This exhibition features work never shown before. In a career that has spanned over four decades he has maintained his position at the pinnacle of his profession by his consummate taste, meticulous technique and engagement with the changing currents of the culture.

Opposite – Karlie Kloss, Feast for the Eyes, New York, Vogue, 2009

Exhibition runs through to April 14th, 2018

Staley-Wise Gallery
560 Broadway
New York
10012 NY

www.staleywise.com

  

PAULO NIMER PJOTA – MEDLEY

Posted on 2018-04-09

Continuing his research into the iconographic structures that comprise the collective imagination of art history and inhabit the universe of mass culture, the artist uses metal plates and raw canvas as a support for the constellations of images that surround him, an exercise of appropriation and co-relations.

At a first glance, the set of Western icons that move through popular and erudite culture are part of the artist’s purpose to bring together the maximum amount of references that represent institutional authority. The icons are drawn in a hyper realistic way and bring to mind stickers that have been glued on metal plates that are often found in the streets. The mobility of these stickers reveals the fluid values and interpretations these icons can have whether they are sacred or ordinary. Placing them in a new context results in a rhythmic temporal displacement that include images of Sumerian gods and cartoon characters from the 90s.

In the work Cada cabeça uma sentença, three god’s heads from different periods of antiquity are painted with a specific blue pigment from Chefchaouen, a city in the north of Morocco. Inhabitants of the city, that is known for being covered in the blue paint, believe that the color brings them closer to God, the same God who is responsible for the ‘sentence’ that lends its title to the work.

Opposite – Nem Tudo Que Reluz é Ouro, 2018


Exhibition runs through to May 17th, 2018

Mendes Wood DM
Rua da Consolação 3368, Jardins
SP, 01416 000 São Paulo
Brazil

mendeswood.com

  

T.U.R.F. – SHIR KHAN PRESENTS BLACK JUKEBOX 2

Posted on 2018-04-09

Kukuza by T.U.R.F. from the album Shir Khan Presents Black Jukebox 22.

T.U.R.F. are two Dutch friends, dj’s and producers joined by their love of old records from a wide range of genres. Last year they released their debut EP on Apparel Music, which got support from artists like Roy Davis Jr, Soul of Hex, Frits Wentink, Black Loops and many others.

shir-khan-presents-black-jukebox-22

  

ANJA NIEMI – SHE COULD HAVE BEEN A COWBOY

Posted on 2018-04-09

In her latest series, She Could Have Been A Cowboy, Niemi continues her investigations of the self. This time she turns the lens to a life lived under the constraints of conformity. Every day her fictional character finds herself trapped in the same pink dress, but what she really wants is to be a cowboy, dressed in fringe and leather, riding horses in the Wild West. Through this series of photographs with multiple layers and possible interpretations, Niemi delivers her most political work to date. Niemi says, “The story is not really about being a cowboy. It’s about wanting to be another.” The exhibition is accompanied by a new monograph of the same name, published by Jane & Jeremy.

In order to visualize the imaginary world of her character Niemi had to experience it for herself. Alone in a rental car, dressed as a cowboy, Niemi visited and photographed all the places on her character’s annotated maps. She hiked up and down the mountains of America’s national parks and rode a horse on the same field John Wayne filmed one of his famous horse battles. Always trying to be what her character would have wanted, unafraid and unaffected by others. Niemi works alone, photographing, staging and acting out the characters in all of her images.

Opposite – The Fall, 2018

Exhibition runs through to April 14th, 2018

Steven Kasher Gallery
521 West 23rd Street
New York
10011 NY

www.stevenkasher.com

  

GEDI SIBONY – THE KING AND THE CORPSE

Posted on 2018-04-09

For over two decades, Gedi Sibony has excavated the discarded byproducts of commerce and, through subtle interventions and specific installation, transformed the pedestrian into the lyrical. For his fifth show at Greene Naftali, The King and the Corpse, Sibony simultaneously magnifies and contracts this gesture, extracting and restaging a single, large scale structure from the built environment he has long mined for details. With the exhibition’s central maneuver, Sibony proffers a reconsideration of the found object: unbounded by scale, yet still an itinerant entity redefined by its placement in the exhibition space. Consisting of four sculptures, The King and the Corpse heightens the social implications of a hallmark of Sibony’s practice—the residual and derelict mechanisms and vessels of production—availing it not only to art historical legacies, but to social issues of power and capital.

The exhibition is titled for its central sculpture, The King and the Corpse, which consumes the volume of the ground floor space. The King and the Corpse originates as a castoff of the commercial landscape, a dispossessed, prefabricated building.

Opposite – The Spell Blinder, 2018

Exhibition runs through to May 5th, 2018

Greene Naftali
508 West 26th Street
NY 10001
New York

www.greenenaftaligallery.com