VARDA CAIVANO, MARIETA CHIRULESCU, GERDA SCHEEPERS
3 Positions on Painting
Opening reception with the artists
Thursday, May 3, 2012
7 - 9 p.m.
Exhibition dates
May 4 - June 6, 2012
In the exhibition 3 Positions on Painting we present young artists whose works lay open contemporary painting strategies. The exhibition is affiliated with the gallery program, which includes established painters such as Katharina Grosse, Karin Sander, Marthe Wéry, and Eva Hesse.
The classic concept of painting is only the superficial connection linking the three painters here, who allow themselves to be guided by notions of space, music, or digital processes. In this way, they design their own innovative categories. By dissolving the boundaries separating the genres of photography, painting, and installation, the three painters alter the visual habits of the viewer.
Marieta Chirulescu reworks existing material with the help of modern reproduction techniques. Photographs, photocopies, pictures found on the Internet, screen shots, scanned glass plates, or even just the blank image from the copy machine serve as the basic material. In the work process the artist subjects each image to a unique procedure: photocopies are applied to canvas and painted over with oils, Laserchrome prints are transferred to slides, or black-and- white photographs from archives are scanned and printed. In this way Chirulescu appropriates “foreign” images, allowing them to develop new lives of their own, while they tell of the conditions behind the production of images. Her digital (scanner) or analogue (copy machine) images are combined on various levels with analogue painting, creating new visual forms along the way.
Gerda Scheepers appropriates space in her paintings. It is the subject of her works, and the site where the work is carried out. Often they are interiors, floor plans, or sketchy allusions to real spaces, which open up a new, imaginary space. The individual scenes taking place in Scheepers' paintings are organized like collages on the canvas and then arranged in relationship to each other in the space. This allows an open-ended narrative to develop: the figures in the paintings and the objects in the space enter into a dialogue. Furthermore, she goes beyond the classic notion that a painting is a panel painting: Scheepers covers canvas in fabric and arranges them like installations in the space.
Varda Caivano describes herself as an old school painter. Her paintings - all in oil on small canvases - linger on the threshold of representationalism, yet remain abstract. Paint is applied in impasto layers on the canvas, emphasizing the physical presence of the paintings. The artist describes her process as a continuing dialogue with historical Modernist positions. Playing a role here are artists who found parallels in music for their experiments with abstract painting, such as Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and František Kupka. For Caivano music embodies the kind of multi-dimensionality that she also seeks in her paintings. The paint takes on the function of an instrument, which is capable of intoning a variety of pitches.
Marieta Chirulescu, b. 1974 in Sibiu, Romania, lives and works in Berlin. Solo shows: White Cube, Bermondsey, London (2011); Kunstverein Nuremberg (2011); Works from the Sammlung Martin, Neues Museum, Nuremberg (2011); Kunsthalle Basel (2010); Galerie Micky Schubert, Berlin (2010); Projektraum Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin (2009); Kunsthalle Mainz (2009).
Gerda Scheepers, b. 1979 in Tzaneen, South Africa, lives and works in Berlin. Solo shows: Center, Berlin (2011); Mary Mary, Glasgow (2010); Sprüth Magers, Berlin (2009); Micky Schubert, Berlin (2008); Art Cologne Preis für junge Kunst 2006 in der Artothek, Cologne (2007); Art Cologne 2006 (New Talents Program), Sprüth Magers, Cologne / Munich / London (2006); Bonner Kunstverein, Peter Mertes Stipendium (2006).
Varda Caivano, b. 1971 in Argentina, lives and works in London. Solo shows: Victoria Miro Gallery, London (2011); Tomio Koyama Gallery, Kyoto (2009); Galerie Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf (2007); Chisenhale Gallery, London (2007); Kunstverein Freiburg (2006); Victoria Miro Gallery, London (2005).