COLORLAND

COLORLAND August 2nd EXTENDED UNTIL SEPTEMBER 21. Opening Reception Saturday August 2, 12-6 pm works by: Gabriele Adomaityte, Greg Bogin, Ethan Cook, Allan McCollum, Anselm Reyle, Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra, Jana Schroeder, Pauline Shaw, Maximilian Schubert, Wolfgang Tillmans, Anke Weyer Like an optical amusement park, Colorland is situated in a realm that celebrates joy, and exuberance. That realm sometimes exposes anxieties in general, but also keenly reflects on those associated with increasing mechanical or digital dependency. The artists here utilize perhaps the most fundamental form of visual communication. Eschewing representational form, yet rooted in a singular reality, color becomes a dominant elocutor, to convey that which is often incommunicable. Ultimately, we are buoyed by the fearlessness of imagination. In his seminal treatise “Abstraction and Empathy” Wilhelm Worringer wrote: “abstraction arises from feelings of alienation and anxiety in the face of a chaotic world —when we create abstract art we are projecting a psychic attitude toward the cosmos.” …And color opens the door

Gabriele Adomaityte’s work transforms a world of digitization into painterly compositions utilizing objective information input. From there, Adomaityte slows down the translation turning mnemonic devices into analogue dialects that are embedded with cultural memory. Greg Bogin’s eponymously titled work Colorland is human-created-flawed facsimile that hearkens to a machine-made aesthetic. Quoting from a catalog first presenting the series of works, Bogin is quoted “My affinity for household appliances, automobiles, toys and my use of systems formalism and color derives from a childlike need to organize objects in my daily life”. Ethan Cook works primarily in woven canvas and handmade paper. The paintings are colored fabric panels that have been hand woven on a four-harness loom, stitched together, and stretched. The loom, action that is both quick and unpredictable, sometimes produces idiosyncrasies; a pulled thread or skipped knot, creates textures that reveal that the works are indeed, handmade. Alan McCollum tears apart definitions of unique artifacts and mass production, questioning how objects attain cultural value. McCollum’s Surrogate Paintings are uniquely produced yet intended to seem manufactured, focusing on both the process of labor and the value of authorship. The Perfect Vehicle sculptures all bear the same shape of a Chinese ginger jar, a traditional vessel that has been copied and reproduced for centuries. Always thickly painted in a hue of commercial ,acrylic latex paint, the vessels are made of cast glass-fiber-reinforced concrete, and have no opening, utterly eliminating the typical use-value that one might expect of a vase. McCollum describes his work as “an homage to the idea of one thing standing for another.”

According to Anselm Reyle, “Art always tells something about the time in which it was created.” Reyle’s sculptures frequently incorporate chrome optics, alongside other materials like bronze, aluminum, and wood. The chrome elements, mostly repurposed from found objects, contribute to his signature style; re-deconstructing and reassembling familiar visual elements with unconventional methods. Modernism, pop art, and industrial aesthetic converge, using materials like discarded foils and shiny surfaces to create “guilty pleasures” that reflect the times. In Colorland, we are delighted to finally be able to present Gerhard Richter’s monumental “Strip” painting. The Strip series saw Richter broach new territory in his six-decade-long enquiry into the nature of abstraction. Taking one of his favorite paintings—Abstraktes Bild (724-4) from 1990—the artist created a digital replica which he divided vertically and stretched horizontally using computer software. Magnified and distorted beyond recognition, the results distil order and logic from the chaos of the original canvas, revealing the microscopic structures latent in its DNA.

In the work on linen, Untitled, 1978 ,Richard Serra used only paintstick, a dense vehicle for pigment, on Belgian linen, to create an immersive and tactile surface. Melting and reshaping paintsticks into blocks for expedited application, allowing him to use his whole body in the process of grinding the pigment into the linen. The results are a textured surface of viscous pigment, highlighting the process of creation itself.Pauline Shaw meditates on the relationships between body and spirit, cultural and ancestral history, and science and mysticism. The work consists of a large-scale felted tapestry made of wool, silk, and other fibers. The seemingly abstract imagery derives from the artist’s extensive research into memory and MRI scans, mapping personal memories as well as neural and bodily abnormalities and degeneration.The resulting compositions attempt to create a gateway to a sort of genetic memory

Jana Schroeder is known for a practice grounded in irreducible and frenetic painting techniques. A devoted formalist, she produces paintings which are largely governed by the action of the paint itself, resulting in webs of languid, curling brushstrokes that guide viewers’ roving eyes. Schroeder has the eye of a meticulous colorist, creating a many-layered web that advances towards and recedes from the viewer. Muddling distinctions between painting and sculpture Maximilian Schubert creates objects that seem to glow from within. He creates works composed entirely of layer upon layer of poured, translucent polyurethane Employing the old master technique of glazing he, uses thin layers of paint impart color, depth and luminosity to a surface evocative of sunsets tinged by smog, or daybreak in purgatory.

Wolfgang Tillmans experimented with enlarging and distorting his own photographs with a photocopier, delighted by the inherent possibilities of chance involved. He made cameral-less works by folding photographic paper in various ways, running paper through a dirty processing machine, or applying chemicals to the paper. In the series Mental Images, Tillmans created vibrant images by placing colored string lights on the lightsensitive photographic paper. Although the human brain naturally struggles to find reason and narrative within an abstract image, Tillmans’s intention is simply that color and shape be implemented as a mode of expression, devoid of agenda. Anke Weyer’s muscular, colorful canvases offer a gateway to a punkish, prelingual energy. Working en plein air on a platform in her backyard, Weyer prefers the uncontrollable context in which she paints. A relationship to the natural world is evident and embraced from weather’s effect on materials, to the ever-shifting quality of natural light. Embracing chance and accident in her works, Weyer delivers an unrestrained, fulsome approach to nonfigural painting. The Gallery hours are Friday – Sunday 12 – 6 pm. for more information, please email us at Andes@leokoenig.com. For more information on the artists please see the linksbelow:

https://www.gratin.com/gabrielle%20adomaityte.html

https://buchmanngalerie.com/artists/greg-bogin

https://www.miergallery.com/artists/ethan-cook

https://www.petzel.com/artists/allan-mccollum

https://gagosian.com/artists/anselm-reyle/

https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/gerhard-richter

https://gagosian.com/artists/richard-serra/

https://www.naranjo141.com/paulineshaw

https://www.skarstedt.com/artists/jana-schroder

https://offparadise.com/artists/maximilian-schubert/

https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/wolfgang-tillmans

https://canadanewyork.com/artists/anke-weyer