Barbara Gross

Silvia Bächli

09 Jun - 31 Aug 2010

© Silvia Bächli
Untitled (Nr. 387), 2010
SILVIA BÄCHLI

9.6.2010 - 31.8.2010

The Barbara Gross Galerie is very pleased to present Silvia Bächlis fifth solo-exhibition, the first one at our new space. The show will feature gouaches on paper, most of them accomplished this year. The various-sized drawings will be positioned in the space by the artist herself.

Some motifs can be identified, a hanging light bulb, a womans silhouette, four fingers on a hand.
Other motifs evade this sort of determinability. Descriptions are at the tip of the tongue, but can only convey an idea, a memory of something seen, or of something familiar. Subtle, vertical strokes with delicately painted heads indicate florals; horizontal lines create the impression of landscapes. Some pictures let loose from mimetic representation. These compositions are non figurative, and feature dense brush strokes, seeming to cascade down from the upper edges of the paper, varied by horizontals and diagonals.

Bächlis art is distinguished by its reduction in artistic means. The hues of brush strokes run the course from deep black to transparent gray. Translucent lines overlap and intertwine, indicating
spatiality. The spectrum of grays absorb color, changing carefully from red to blue to soft green. In order to paint her large works on paper, Bächli lays them out on the floor. Her brush moves in a single, controlled, continual stroke, tracing the space covered by the body in motion.

An open dialogue originates through the multifaceted motifs and various formats in Bächli?s presentation. The indefinite is next to a figure, abstract grids abut landscapes; monumental adjacent to a miniature, density side-by-side with delicacy. Differing spaces in-between the drawings create an intriguing rhythm, whose open structure heightens the intensity and presence
of each individual drawing.
 

Tags: Silvia Bächli