Jeff Grant
08 Jan - 19 Feb 2011
JEFF GRANT
Points
8 January 2011 - 19 February 2011
ANDREAS GRIMM MUNCHEN is pleased to announce the second solo exhibition in Munich by New York-based artist Jeff Grant. The exhibition will contain drawings, collages and an installation made in 2010.
“My work is untrustworthy but honest.” (Jeff Grant)
The title of the exhibition (“Points”) refers to the artist’s recurring use of points and circles in his drawings. In the eight exhibited head-drawings, dim contours evoking the idea of human heads are adorned with colourful points and swirling circles that become abstract eyes and mouths (i.e. “Head with dot holes 1”). Jeff Grant describes his own work as “a study of the co-existence of determined facts and shifting, ambiguous definitions.” It seems like those head-like shapes deliver the “determined facts,” whereas the seemingly “shifting” points and circles constitute an “ambiguity,” the uncertainty of human identity.
In his two exhibited animal-drawings (“Horse with nine circles as a chain” and “Cow with four circles at bulges”) Jeff Grant takes a different approach. The accurate and anatomically correct outlines of the cow and horse stand in opposition to the uncertain contour of the human heads. And while the points seem to shift uncontrollably in the drawings of human faces, they are firmly and orderly contained within the outlines in the animal drawings. One can regard Grant’s work as a reflection of 21st century human subjects who swirl around like the dots in the head-drawings, struggling to constitute an identity while being more and more removed from restrictive forces such as nature (unlike animals) or religion. In his words, the animal-drawings are about “tracking down their [the animals] center.” (Grant)
Jeff Grant makes use of the fact that the word “point” itself has multiple meanings, as it can also refer to an arrow which has “a point, its tip, it acts a gesture of pointing, and it indicates a point, a specific location.”(Grant) The artist’s use of arrows in his drawings (i.e. “Paper hole circles and arrows”) as well as in his installation (“Yellow bow arrow”) can be regarded as an attempt to guide viewers in a certain direction. However, the “Yellow bow arrow” is made out of a flexible (modifiable) yarn that is neatly tied in a bow. On the one hand the artist contrasts the precision of the actual arrow with a seemingly instable construction and on the other hand the simplicity of the arrow symbol with a decorative element at its point. “Where there is supposed to be a point, a flourish seems to confuse or distort it.” (Grant)
This playful manipulation of expectations unites all of Grant’s works exhibited here. They are about the inextricable interdependence of conditions such as “instability, elusiveness and fragility” that coexist with “anything solid, specific and precisely defined.” (Grant)
Points
8 January 2011 - 19 February 2011
ANDREAS GRIMM MUNCHEN is pleased to announce the second solo exhibition in Munich by New York-based artist Jeff Grant. The exhibition will contain drawings, collages and an installation made in 2010.
“My work is untrustworthy but honest.” (Jeff Grant)
The title of the exhibition (“Points”) refers to the artist’s recurring use of points and circles in his drawings. In the eight exhibited head-drawings, dim contours evoking the idea of human heads are adorned with colourful points and swirling circles that become abstract eyes and mouths (i.e. “Head with dot holes 1”). Jeff Grant describes his own work as “a study of the co-existence of determined facts and shifting, ambiguous definitions.” It seems like those head-like shapes deliver the “determined facts,” whereas the seemingly “shifting” points and circles constitute an “ambiguity,” the uncertainty of human identity.
In his two exhibited animal-drawings (“Horse with nine circles as a chain” and “Cow with four circles at bulges”) Jeff Grant takes a different approach. The accurate and anatomically correct outlines of the cow and horse stand in opposition to the uncertain contour of the human heads. And while the points seem to shift uncontrollably in the drawings of human faces, they are firmly and orderly contained within the outlines in the animal drawings. One can regard Grant’s work as a reflection of 21st century human subjects who swirl around like the dots in the head-drawings, struggling to constitute an identity while being more and more removed from restrictive forces such as nature (unlike animals) or religion. In his words, the animal-drawings are about “tracking down their [the animals] center.” (Grant)
Jeff Grant makes use of the fact that the word “point” itself has multiple meanings, as it can also refer to an arrow which has “a point, its tip, it acts a gesture of pointing, and it indicates a point, a specific location.”(Grant) The artist’s use of arrows in his drawings (i.e. “Paper hole circles and arrows”) as well as in his installation (“Yellow bow arrow”) can be regarded as an attempt to guide viewers in a certain direction. However, the “Yellow bow arrow” is made out of a flexible (modifiable) yarn that is neatly tied in a bow. On the one hand the artist contrasts the precision of the actual arrow with a seemingly instable construction and on the other hand the simplicity of the arrow symbol with a decorative element at its point. “Where there is supposed to be a point, a flourish seems to confuse or distort it.” (Grant)
This playful manipulation of expectations unites all of Grant’s works exhibited here. They are about the inextricable interdependence of conditions such as “instability, elusiveness and fragility” that coexist with “anything solid, specific and precisely defined.” (Grant)