Andro Wekua
12 Mar - 05 Jun 2011
© Andro Wekua
Sneakers 1, 2008
Installation view Gladstone Gallery, New YorkCourtesy: the artist and Gladstone Gallery
Sneakers 1, 2008
Installation view Gladstone Gallery, New YorkCourtesy: the artist and Gladstone Gallery
ANDRO WEKUA
March 12 - June 5, 2011
In his installations, sculptures, collages, paintings and films, Andro Wekua (born in Sochumi, Georgia, in 1977) links collective and personal memories to create haunting, in part disturbing representations. He combines motifs he finds in magazines or photo albums in painterly fashion and with pastings into complex, kaleidoscope-like collages. The search for a way to deal with the past and present is the focus of his work. Wekua overlays things he has experienced and others that have been passed on to him on both a visual and narrative level. His often dramatically staged installations attest to his interest in narratives. Naturalistically reproduced albeit alienated figures seem to be frozen in situations – similar to a video still – revealing only a moment of a more complex whole. A key is provided by the calculated mood, usually melancholy or oppressive, which gives the viewer a vague idea of the context.
At Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Andro Wekua will have his largest exhibition to date, showing many new sculptures including a work group that conjures up the heavily destroyed and abandoned buildings of Sochumi, the city where he was born. In a new film, he blends science fiction and horror elements.
In collaboration with Kunsthalle Vienna and Castello di Rivoli in Turin, Kunsthalle Fridericianum will publish a catalogue consisting of several volumes that visually alludes to American horror and science fiction magazines.
March 12 - June 5, 2011
In his installations, sculptures, collages, paintings and films, Andro Wekua (born in Sochumi, Georgia, in 1977) links collective and personal memories to create haunting, in part disturbing representations. He combines motifs he finds in magazines or photo albums in painterly fashion and with pastings into complex, kaleidoscope-like collages. The search for a way to deal with the past and present is the focus of his work. Wekua overlays things he has experienced and others that have been passed on to him on both a visual and narrative level. His often dramatically staged installations attest to his interest in narratives. Naturalistically reproduced albeit alienated figures seem to be frozen in situations – similar to a video still – revealing only a moment of a more complex whole. A key is provided by the calculated mood, usually melancholy or oppressive, which gives the viewer a vague idea of the context.
At Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Andro Wekua will have his largest exhibition to date, showing many new sculptures including a work group that conjures up the heavily destroyed and abandoned buildings of Sochumi, the city where he was born. In a new film, he blends science fiction and horror elements.
In collaboration with Kunsthalle Vienna and Castello di Rivoli in Turin, Kunsthalle Fridericianum will publish a catalogue consisting of several volumes that visually alludes to American horror and science fiction magazines.