Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Gilbert Hsiao, Gallery Sonja Roesch, Houston, TX, September 12-October 31, 2009
Click here for GIlbert Hsiao
Click here for Gallery Sonja Roesch
Gilbert Hsiao’s work explores the mechanics of visual perception. The viewer perceives oscillation through the illusion of a continuous wave produced by the physiological experience of space and movement. Meticulously layered stripes in tightly woven structures create a musical rhythm and repose.
To determine the final form of the work, Hsiao considers the shape and the proportions of the painting’s support as a method of organizing pictorial space. The result is a continuously moving surface, which is reinforced through the shape of the painting. Metallic and fluorescent paint is applied with a vintage compressor less sprayer, creating a textured surface that makes these paintings an absorbing experience whether viewed close up or from a distance.
(from the press release of the exhibtion)
Click here for Gallery Sonja Roesch
Gilbert Hsiao’s work explores the mechanics of visual perception. The viewer perceives oscillation through the illusion of a continuous wave produced by the physiological experience of space and movement. Meticulously layered stripes in tightly woven structures create a musical rhythm and repose.
To determine the final form of the work, Hsiao considers the shape and the proportions of the painting’s support as a method of organizing pictorial space. The result is a continuously moving surface, which is reinforced through the shape of the painting. Metallic and fluorescent paint is applied with a vintage compressor less sprayer, creating a textured surface that makes these paintings an absorbing experience whether viewed close up or from a distance.
(from the press release of the exhibtion)
Light and Movement Portrayed: A Tribute to the Art of Anthony Poon, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, August 22-October 25, 2009
Playing With Color and Movement
By SONIA KOLESNIKOV-JESSOP (Times Herald Tribune)
Published: September 8, 2009
SINGAPORE — “Everything can be simplified in the basic shapes of lines and angles,” Anthony Poon once said. That spirit of experimentation, characteristic of the abstract art movement in the 1960s and 1970s, is highlighted in a major retrospective of the work of the late Singaporean artist. The show explores how Poon methodically developed his style, eventually finding a distinctive voice with relief painting.
“Light and Movement Portrayed: A Tribute to the Art of Anthony Poon,” which runs until Oct. 25 at the Singapore Art Museum, features works representing the artist’s different phases, from his formative years painting in an Abstract Expressionism style to his embrace of Optical Art, subsequent innovations in relief painting and final venture into sculptural works.
While earlier Singaporean artists had generally adhered to the renditions or representations of the physical world in their paintings, Poon pushed for the use of abstraction and is generally regarded as a forerunner of the modernist art movement in Singapore, said Kwok Kian Chow, director of the National Art Gallery in Singapore (set to open in 2013) and the former director of the Singapore Art Museum.
Born in 1945, Poon studied at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts between 1961 and 1964, and his early works, like “Fishing Village” (1966), show the influence of Cheong Soo Pieng, one of Singapore’s pioneer modern painters and one of his teachers at the academy.
“You can see this in the elongation of the necks and limbs, this is classic Soo Pieng, as well as the subject matter, a fishing village,” said Ong Zhen Min, the curator of exhibition.
However, the semi-abstract “Jobless Son” (1966), with its vibrant hues of blue and graduation of greens, already hints at the young artist’s interest in color.
In 1967, Poon went to Britain to further his studies. Amid the vibrant London art scene of the 1960s, which was then breaking away from Abstract Expressionism and experimenting with the styles and movements that responded to it, his eyes opened up to a new world of theories. These ranged from Geometric Abstraction and Hard-Edge painting, in which abrupt transitions are made between areas of different colors; to Color Field, where solid colors are spread to create a flat plane with no brushstrokes; and finally, to Optical Art.
By the time Poon returned to Singapore in 1971, his practice had changed profoundly to embrace this new form. This is most evident in the first series after his return, the Kite Series. Here he used “shaped canvas” — a term describing supports that departed from the traditional rectangular format and emphasized the work as an object. In these paintings, the artist took an almost mathematical approach, first using graph paper to ensure the complete symmetry of the repeated, precisely arranged shapes that would create an optical effect of moving patterns. “He was very clear-cut in what he wanted and had very set ideas about what the perfect ratio should be,” Ms. Ong said, adding that Poon’s undulating repetitions somewhat recall the work of modular constructivist sculptors like Erwin Hauer and Norman Carlberg.
“Many artists at the time were interested in seeing if they could match technological development with the art world,” she said. “They were quite inspired by whatever technological innovations were happening. In the case of Anthony Poon, you can see this in his Colour Frequency Wave Series, which started in the late ’70s and explored the curvilinear form of a frequency wave.”
Throughout his Wave series, Poon strictly adhered to the systematic use of colors — titling his works using the codes of paint color charts (e.g. CR for cadmium red). This makes the technical aspects of his practice a key point in the interpretation and appreciation of his works, Ms. Ong said.
In 1983, Poon won a local art competition with one of his Wave paintings, helping to raise his profile and make him a sought-after artist for public commissions.
A large part of the retrospective focuses on the artist’s three-dimensional Wave relief series, which he started in the mid-’80s. Here Poon created a sculptural effect of sinuous wave patterns by using aluminum strips under the stretched canvas. If a viewer is standing at a distance and directly in front of the painting, it looks two dimensional, but if the viewer moves from one side to the other, the metal strips that push the canvas forward transform it into an attractive sculpture. The artist reinforced the 3-D image with painted shadow effects, but the paint is so evenly applied it looks as if it has been air-sprayed.
“He actually never told anyone how he managed to create the 3-D effect; it was a trade secret for a very long time,” said Ms. Ong. Poon’s wife and daughter agreed to explain the technique for the purposes of the exhibition.
From the three-dimensional relief Wave series, it was a natural progression for the artist to move on to metal sculpture, and from the early 1990s until his death in 2006 he mainly focused on that medium, creating numerous, giant twirls of steel, inspired by the movement of dance and ribbons. Interestingly, his late sculptures show a newfound texture, which Ms. Ong suggested indicates that “he was trying to go full circle, as he’d started with brush strokes and that was a way of putting them back in.”
Monday, October 19, 2009
Douglas Melini, It Flows Over Us Without Meaning, Minus Space, Brooklyn, New York, October 24-December 25, 2009
Matthew Deleget: Where did the paintings in your exhibition at MINUS SPACE begin?
Douglas Melini: Well, you were actually involved in the dawn of the new work. As you know during the summer of 2007, I had just finished preparing work for your exhibition Machine Learning and as fate would have it, my studio flooded, destroying close to a year’s worth of paintings, most of which were set for your exhibition. For me it was a pretty traumatic event. You know, it’s one of those things that can result in a number of outcomes. One can retreat and become very angry or negative, maybe even bitter over something like this, or one can engage with it and make sense of the situation, create meaning out of it. And for me, my studio practice is way too valuable to let this type of event take me in any direction other than forward.
For years I’ve been interested in folk arts and crafts, and it’s played a significant role in my painting practice in some form or another for the last 12 years. When I began to think about making new paintings after the flood, I began to consider the idea of a talisman and how it might function in relationship to painting. At the time I wasn’t quite sure how it would function, but I knew that I was headed in that direction. Shortly after I finished the earliest versions of the paintings, I visited a friend down in North Carolina in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I saw many barns in the countryside dotted with large geometric images and they actually looked close to the images that I was painting. Neither of us was sure exactly what these images on the barns represented, but I remembered the hex signs that the Pennsylvania Dutch had used as protective symbols for they’re barns and figured that they were being used in a similar way.
My studio practice has always been about letting personal events and experiences filter into my work in one way or another and I liked the idea of an abstract painting having talismanic powers. I know that the idea of a painting as a talisman may seem like a leap of faith or something, but making paintings requires a belief in something that’s not necessarily tangible. One has to have faith in the practice, a kind of focus or trust in the act of painting, hoping that it will all eventually lead somewhere. To be truthful things were happening in a very organic way and I was just trying to pay attention to everything. It all seemed to make sense to me. I guess that’s how the paintings for MINUS SPACE began.
Click here or the rest of this interview at Minus Space
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
SNO 51, Syndey Non Objective, Sydney, Austrailia, August 1-August 30, 2009
John Aslanidis, Gilbert Hsiao and Susie Rosmarin
Click here for installation shots
John Aslanidis
Susie Rosmarin
Gilbert Hsiao
At SNO, in August, the persistence of the visual field has its tempo compressed to the point of blowing a fuse. Although the works in this show share many similar traits and promote similar attitudes towards painting, its power, and it's affective role, the three artists in SNO 51 have their own distinct interests.
John Aslanidis is inspired by the pulsation of electronic music and its implications of infinite duration. Thus his paintings appear to be fragments of entities without bound. Aslanidis requires from his paintings a visual equivalency to sonic resonance, and believes painting is capable of creating perceptual attributes normally assigned to music.
Gilbert Hsiao's work is essentially intuitive in its making. Although the method and process appear firmly fixed, the making of a painting is not a planned event. Often there are more or less steps than may have been anticipated. Hsiao requires the same intuitive approach from the viewer. He refuses to guide the experience of the work's reception, leaving the responsibility of 'meaning' entirely in the hands of whoever his audience may be.
Susie Rosmarin’s practice draws upon fractal geometry and employs complex mathematical method. Inspiration for this is in part drawn from Diophantus’s Arithmetica, the renowned third century text on numerical equations. Rosmarin is equally inspired by the geometry of nature, textile production, architecture and the dynamism of urban space in general.
Click here for installation shots
John Aslanidis
Susie Rosmarin
Gilbert Hsiao
At SNO, in August, the persistence of the visual field has its tempo compressed to the point of blowing a fuse. Although the works in this show share many similar traits and promote similar attitudes towards painting, its power, and it's affective role, the three artists in SNO 51 have their own distinct interests.
John Aslanidis is inspired by the pulsation of electronic music and its implications of infinite duration. Thus his paintings appear to be fragments of entities without bound. Aslanidis requires from his paintings a visual equivalency to sonic resonance, and believes painting is capable of creating perceptual attributes normally assigned to music.
Gilbert Hsiao's work is essentially intuitive in its making. Although the method and process appear firmly fixed, the making of a painting is not a planned event. Often there are more or less steps than may have been anticipated. Hsiao requires the same intuitive approach from the viewer. He refuses to guide the experience of the work's reception, leaving the responsibility of 'meaning' entirely in the hands of whoever his audience may be.
Susie Rosmarin’s practice draws upon fractal geometry and employs complex mathematical method. Inspiration for this is in part drawn from Diophantus’s Arithmetica, the renowned third century text on numerical equations. Rosmarin is equally inspired by the geometry of nature, textile production, architecture and the dynamism of urban space in general.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Kosmos, IS Projects, Leiden, The Netherlands, June 6-July 5, 2009
Brent Hallard, José Heerkens, Gilbert Hsiao, Caroline de Lannoy and Giles Ryder
José Heerkens
José Heerkens
Monday, May 11, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
David Malek, Smith Stewart, March 4-April 12, 2009, New York, NY
For Smith Stewart,click here
For the website of David Malek, click here
Smith-Stewart is pleased to present the US solo debut of New York artist
DAVID MALEK. The exhibition features twelve new paintings.
For Smith-Stewart, Malek produced a series of geometric abstractions in
a dynamic color palette that fill an entire wall in the gallery from floor to
ceiling. Here Malek is exploring a certain optical phenomenon, where the
after-image of one painting extends across the surface of the surrounding
paintings. The installation induces an electric encounter of color
interactions, which not only play out within each individual painting, but
from picture to picture.
David Malek’s body of work is informed by an intensive interest in light and
color and an extensive examination of utopian invention and cosmic
perception. The imagery in Malek's paintings is informed by chemistry,
physics and astronomy, science fiction films and the graphics and visual
vocabulary associated with certain sub-genres of pop-music.
David Malek was born in 1977 in Springfield, IL and currently is based in
Brooklyn, New York. He received a MFA from Hunter College CUNY, NY in
2006. In 2008, his work was included in “Recent Acquisitions, Gifts and
Works from Various Exhibitions” at White Columns, New York, curated by
Bob Nickas.
For the website of David Malek, click here
Smith-Stewart is pleased to present the US solo debut of New York artist
DAVID MALEK. The exhibition features twelve new paintings.
For Smith-Stewart, Malek produced a series of geometric abstractions in
a dynamic color palette that fill an entire wall in the gallery from floor to
ceiling. Here Malek is exploring a certain optical phenomenon, where the
after-image of one painting extends across the surface of the surrounding
paintings. The installation induces an electric encounter of color
interactions, which not only play out within each individual painting, but
from picture to picture.
David Malek’s body of work is informed by an intensive interest in light and
color and an extensive examination of utopian invention and cosmic
perception. The imagery in Malek's paintings is informed by chemistry,
physics and astronomy, science fiction films and the graphics and visual
vocabulary associated with certain sub-genres of pop-music.
David Malek was born in 1977 in Springfield, IL and currently is based in
Brooklyn, New York. He received a MFA from Hunter College CUNY, NY in
2006. In 2008, his work was included in “Recent Acquisitions, Gifts and
Works from Various Exhibitions” at White Columns, New York, curated by
Bob Nickas.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Ludwig Wilding Und, Hedrichs Kunsthandlung, Berlin, Germany, March 14-May 3, 2009
Featuring Ludwig Wilding with Bettina Albrecht, Horst Bartnig, Hartmut Böhm, Victor Bonato, Andreas Brandt, Gunter Brus, Erich Bucholz, Stefanos Gazis, Hans Geipel, Hansjörg Glattfelder, Agnes Immelmann, Kerstin Gnauck, Joachim Griess, Susanne Knaack, Karoline Koeppel, Arnulf Letto, Simone Letto, Mario Monden, Franz Mon, Aiga Müller, Rafael Perez, Karin Radoy, Wolfgang Reindel, Klaus Staudt, Karola Schindler, Karl Siegel, Regine Strehlow-Lorenz, Ben Vautier, Günter Weseler
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Böhm LeBLanc Staudt, Bartha Contemporary, London, England, February 6-April 5, 2009
For the website of Hartmut Böhm, click here
For the website of Walter LeBlanc, click here
For the website of Klaus Staudt, click here
For the website of Bartha Contemporary, click here
Harmut Bøohm
Walter LeBlanc
Klaus Staudt
For the website of Walter LeBlanc, click here
For the website of Klaus Staudt, click here
For the website of Bartha Contemporary, click here
Harmut Bøohm
Walter LeBlanc
Klaus Staudt
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Neo-Minimalism; The Triangle Gallery, Calgary, Alberta, January 9 - February 25, 2009
David Burdeny, Marjan Eggermont, Eve Leader, Laurel Smith, Christopher Willard, Paul Kuhn, Time Zuck, Catherine Burgess, Tanya Rusnak
Christopher Willard
Christopher Willard
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Minus Space, PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, MoMA, Long Island City, NY, October 19, 2008-January 19, 2009
For Minus Space and links to most of the artists below, click here
Participating Artists: Soledad Arias, Shinsuke Aso, Marcus Bering, Hartmut Böhm, Richard Bottwin, Sharon Brant, Michael Brennan, Henry Brown, Vicente Butron, Bibi Calderaro, Melanie Crader, Mark Dagley, Julian Dashper, Christopher Dean, Matthew Deleget, Lynne Eastaway, Gabriele Evertz, Daniel Feingold, Kevin Finklea, Linda Francis, Zipora Fried, Daniel Göttin, Julio Grinblatt, Billy Gruner, Terry Haggerty, Lynne Harlow, Gilbert Hsiao, Andrew Huston, Simon Ingram, Kyle Jenkins, Mick Johnson, Steve Karlik, Sarah Keighery, Danny Lacy, Andrew Leslie, Daniel Levine, Sylvan Lionni, Lotte Lyon, Gerhard Mantz, Rossana Martinez, Juan Matos Capote, Douglas Melini, Manfred Mohr, Salvatore Panatteri, Dirk Rathke, Karen Schifano, Analia Segal, Edward Shalala, Tilman, Li-Trincere, Jan van der Ploeg, Don Voisine, Douglas Witmer & Michael Zahn
Douglas Melini
Douglas Melini
Max Bill: Das Absolute Augenmass, New Documentary Film by Erich Schmid
Click here for the home homepage of this film (in Enligh, German and French). The home page includes a detailed synopsis (essential for those of us who don't understand German) and a trailer.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Galerie Teufel, New DVD Release by Christian Asbach
Great new documentary featuring the late gallerist Heinz Teufel and artists Horst Bartnig, Manfred Mohr, Andreas Brandt and Zdenek Sykora.
Click here for trailer
For information, contact galerie-teufel@rekordproduktion.de
Click here for trailer
For information, contact galerie-teufel@rekordproduktion.de
Sunday, December 7, 2008
New American Abstraction, 1960-1975, Gary Snyder, New York, NY, November 8-December 20, 2008
Richard Anuszkiewicz, Karl Benjamin, Leon Berkowitz, Ilya Bolotowsky, Hilton Brown, Lawrence Calcagno, Clarence Carter, Francis Celentano, Roy Colmer, Gene Davis, Thomas Downing, Paul Feeley, Frederick Hammersley, Ward Jackson, Tadaaki Kuwayama, Lyman Kipp, Beatrice Mandelman, Howard Mehring, Rakuko Naito, Ray Parker, Milton Resnick, Max Schnitzler, Vivian Springford, Albert Stadler, Sidney Wolfson, Jack Youngerman
Roy Colmer
Roy Colmer
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Tadesky/Four Optic Visionaries, New York Times Review, October 10, 2008
TADASKY
Sideshow
319 Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Through Oct. 19
FOUR OPTIC VISIONARIES
D. Wigmore Fine Art
730 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan
Through Nov. 15
The eye-opening mini-retrospective at Sideshow is Tadasky’s first New York solo since 1969. What makes that stretch between shows especially remarkable is that he started out with such a bang. In 1964, three years after Tadasky came to the United States from Japan, the Museum of Modern Art purchased two of his circular Op Art paintings, and he was included in MoMA’s famous 1965 exhibition of perceptual abstraction “The Responsive Eye” with Frank Stella, Larry Poons, Bridget Riley and others.
Tadasky, who was born in 1935 and whose full name is Tadasuke Kuwayama, has not lacked for attention lately as Op Art has been resurrected by contemporary-art curators as an object of serious interest. He was included in “Extreme Abstraction” at the Albright Knox Art Gallery in 2005 and “Optic Nerve: Perceptual Art of the 1960s” at the Columbus Museum of Art in 2007.
Tadasky’s paintings from the 1960s look terrific. There are eight at Sideshow, and D. Wigmore’s group show has nine more, along with works from the ’60s by three other artists who were in “The Responsive Eye”: Richard Anuszkiewicz, Sue Fuller and Mon Levinson.
Using Japanese brushes and a simple rotating device, Tadasky created targetlike compositions of concentric rings on square canvases. Varying colors and the width of the rings, he produced uncanny, fluctuating effects of light, color and three-dimensionality. The paintings are hypnotic, and they have a Pop Art-like graphic punch.
Tadasky has continued to produce circular compositions in recent years, but he has veered away from Op Art. Paintings from 2008 at Sideshow are spacy and mystical, but they don’t compete with his captivating works from the ’60s. KEN JOHNSON
Friday, October 10, 2008
Four Optic Visionaries, D. Wigmore Gallery, New York, NY, through November 15, 2008
Sue Fuller, Mon Levinson, Tadesky, and Richard Anuskiewicz
For Joanne Matera's excellent and comprehensive report of this show, click here.
For D. Wigmore lick here.
Mon Levinson, White Moving Planes with Shadows, 1965-1968
21 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches, Plexiglas and mixed media constructio
Richard Anuskiewicz, Rosafication, 1970
60 x 60 inches, acrylic on canvas
Tadesky, D-154A [Black and White], 1966
68 x 68 inches, acrylic on canva
Sue Fuller, String Composition #55, 1953
22 1/8 x 22 1/8 inches, Polypropylene thread construction
For Joanne Matera's excellent and comprehensive report of this show, click here.
For D. Wigmore lick here.
Mon Levinson, White Moving Planes with Shadows, 1965-1968
21 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches, Plexiglas and mixed media constructio
Richard Anuskiewicz, Rosafication, 1970
60 x 60 inches, acrylic on canvas
Tadesky, D-154A [Black and White], 1966
68 x 68 inches, acrylic on canva
Sue Fuller, String Composition #55, 1953
22 1/8 x 22 1/8 inches, Polypropylene thread construction
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Tadasky, Optical Visionary; 1965-2008, Sideshow Gallerly, Brooklyn, NY, September 13-October 19, 2008
For the website of Tadasky, click here
For the website of Sideshow Gallery, click here.
Untitled, 2007, 42" x 42"
For the website of Sideshow Gallery, click here.
Untitled, 2007, 42" x 42"
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