Jeff Grant
08 Mar - 19 Apr 2013
JEFF GRANT
Sun on field
8 March 2013 - 19 April 2013
ANDREAS GRIMM MUNCHEN is pleased to announce the third solo exhibition by New York and Berlin based artist Jeff Grant (born 1975 in Potsdam, New York). Sun on field showcases new drawings, sculptures as well as a video installation. The artist is present.
The title Sun on field refers to a stereotype in landscape painting, but unlike its bright connotation the first gallery space is darkened, its walls painted black. The darkness is interrupted by a two-channel video projection in the corner of the room, depicting a pack of hyenas moving around (Hyena shift, 2013). They emerge from a bright white glow, running around each other in slow-motion only to disappear again into a stark brightness.
The next room on the other hand is light-flooded. On the right wall, two landscapes, Sun on field and Yellow light on sun and field, are installed.
The first work is a floral motive that is partially covered with a circle of yellow translucent acetate, suggesting the title of the work. Yellow light on sun and field appears as a twisted version of the former work: The same yellow sheet is installed directly onto the wall, letting a circular and a rectangular sheet, clippings of a book showing rape fields, shine through. Apparently one sees what one reads: Sun on field, a yellow circle and rectangle. Or is it supposed to be an abstract collage of various materials? On the left wall there are two images of a ceremonial Aztec skull installed with colorful pins, which the artist photographed in Mexico City as a tourist. The classic memento mori motive seems to look at the viewer with bullet-shaped eyes as well as jagged and sharpened teeth. The pins pierce the images at the exact same spot where holes have been drilled into the skulls. It is doubtful what is more disturbing: The one-eyed skull with its sad, loyal look or the bight yellow but lonely landscapes.
The rear section of the gallery display drawings that refer to Jeff Grants earlier work: faces and head shapes that are not drawn in detail, but irritate with colored dots, suggesting a circular motion. These drawings are exhibited together with some other landscapes that play with the presence and absence of clouds depending on the photographic angle. These works are not only connected to the others through their ephemeral nature as well as the obvious link between the colorful needles in the skulls and the bold points in the drawings but also by the disparate use of pictorial elements.
Jeff Grant’s work plays with deception and disappointment, expectations and their refraction.
Sun on field
8 March 2013 - 19 April 2013
ANDREAS GRIMM MUNCHEN is pleased to announce the third solo exhibition by New York and Berlin based artist Jeff Grant (born 1975 in Potsdam, New York). Sun on field showcases new drawings, sculptures as well as a video installation. The artist is present.
The title Sun on field refers to a stereotype in landscape painting, but unlike its bright connotation the first gallery space is darkened, its walls painted black. The darkness is interrupted by a two-channel video projection in the corner of the room, depicting a pack of hyenas moving around (Hyena shift, 2013). They emerge from a bright white glow, running around each other in slow-motion only to disappear again into a stark brightness.
The next room on the other hand is light-flooded. On the right wall, two landscapes, Sun on field and Yellow light on sun and field, are installed.
The first work is a floral motive that is partially covered with a circle of yellow translucent acetate, suggesting the title of the work. Yellow light on sun and field appears as a twisted version of the former work: The same yellow sheet is installed directly onto the wall, letting a circular and a rectangular sheet, clippings of a book showing rape fields, shine through. Apparently one sees what one reads: Sun on field, a yellow circle and rectangle. Or is it supposed to be an abstract collage of various materials? On the left wall there are two images of a ceremonial Aztec skull installed with colorful pins, which the artist photographed in Mexico City as a tourist. The classic memento mori motive seems to look at the viewer with bullet-shaped eyes as well as jagged and sharpened teeth. The pins pierce the images at the exact same spot where holes have been drilled into the skulls. It is doubtful what is more disturbing: The one-eyed skull with its sad, loyal look or the bight yellow but lonely landscapes.
The rear section of the gallery display drawings that refer to Jeff Grants earlier work: faces and head shapes that are not drawn in detail, but irritate with colored dots, suggesting a circular motion. These drawings are exhibited together with some other landscapes that play with the presence and absence of clouds depending on the photographic angle. These works are not only connected to the others through their ephemeral nature as well as the obvious link between the colorful needles in the skulls and the bold points in the drawings but also by the disparate use of pictorial elements.
Jeff Grant’s work plays with deception and disappointment, expectations and their refraction.