Darren Almond
Marc Quinn
Patricia Low Contemporary, St. Moritz
Dates for both exhibitions: 28.12.2011 - 05.02.2012
Opening: 27.12.2011, from 6 pm onwards
During the opening the world renowned Alphorn musician Eliana Burki will give two perfomances.
Patricia Low Contemporary (Gstaad, Geneva, St. Moritz) is pleased to announce the opening
of their new gallery in St. Moritz on December 27th, 2011 with two exhibitions featuring works
by Darren Almond and Marc Quinn.
Exquisite beauty is an unworthy description of the visual power and extremity of Almond and
Quinn's work; their images' hyper-perfection challenges the very boundaries of cognition to
address abstract themes of time's infinite dimension, the fleeting transience of existence, and
the fragility of the human condition. Adopting traditional genres of landscape and still life, the
subject of nature in their photographs, paintings, and sculptures, becomes an aberrant construction,
measured through the artificial instruments of technology, morality, and cultural
idealism.
Almond's landscape photographs transpose romanticized wilderness scenes to the realm of
the supranatural. His geography is sourced from the far-flung reaches of fantasy - the exotic
outposts of art history's mythology made famous by the likes of Friedrich, Cezanne, Turner,
and Hongren; or non-places - such as Antarctica and Siberia - which loom at the fringes of
collective consciousness. For Almond's ongoing Full Moon series, his arduous excursions to
these remote locations are dictated by lunar pull. Each image was shot during the peak of
the moon's cycle - the precise place and moment, imbued with mysticism and ritual, is captured
in prolonged exposure, collapsing space and time with an eerie ambience of predestination.
Quinn's practice poignantly articulates the liminal spaces between life and death, the physical
and metaphysical, supreme beauty and silent unnamable horror. In Quinn's still life paintings,
memento mori portent gives way to the spell of instant gratification: fruits and florae
rendered with too-immaculate finish, their exotic bounty epitomizes pornographic temptation.
Through the meticulous presentation, materiality, and detail of his works, the pinnacles of
artistry become conveyors of vanitas, bridging the gulf between unattainable desire and longing
and its luxurious, bitter sweet sublimation. His accompanying flower sculptures similarly
dazzle with their strange virtuality, their exquisite ephemerality implausibly immortalized in
bronze.
Darren Almond (born 1971 in Wigan, UK) lives and works in London, UK. Recent solo shows
include: Darren Almond at Patricia Low Contemporary, St. Moritz, Switzerland, 2011; Nocturne
at Villa Merkel, Esslingen am Neckar, Germany, 2011; Darren Almond ...between here
and the surface of the moon, times 2, at FRAC Haute-Normandie, Rouen, France and at
FRAC Auvergne, Clermont Ferrand, France, 2011; The Principle of Moments at White Cube,
London, UK, 2010. Recent group shows include: Mysticism at Helmhaus, Zurich, Switzerland,
2011; The Wilderness at Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL, 2011; Just With Your Eyes I
Will See, Fonds d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, France, 2009.
Marc Quinn (born 1964 in London, UK) lives and works in London, UK. Recent solo shows
include: Marc Quinn at Patricia Low Contemporary, St. Moritz, Switzerland, 2011; All of Nature
Flows Through Us at Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker, Norway, 2011; MARC QUINN at The Platinum Tower, Beirut, Lebanon, 2011; Allanah, Buck, Catman,
Chelsea, Michael, Pamela and Thomas at White Cube, London, UK, 2010. Recent
group shows include: Penelopes Labour - Weaving Words and Images, Fondazione Giorgio
Cini, Venice, Italy, 2010; 21st Century: Art in the First Decade, Queensland Art Gallery/
Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia, 2010; Drawing Space, Galerie Thaddaeus
Ropac, Salzburg, Austria, 2010.