Alex Olson, Tania Pérez Córdova and Florian Schmidt
10 Sep - 08 Oct 2011
ALEX OLSON
TANIA PEREZ CORDOVA
FLORIAN SCHMIDT
10 September - 8 October, 2011
Laura Bartlett Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition by Alex Olson, Tania Pérez Córdova and Florian Schmidt.
The works in the exhibition lie on the borders of abstraction, in a rich territory where surfaces propose but do not assert readings. Narrative is held at bay, and mark making offers itself as both material and sign. The exhibition presents work by three artists working in diverse mediums. They have in common an attention to process and surface, the architecture of what’s beneath is as significant in the reading of the work as its final identity.
Alex Olson's paintings are built using multiple layers, each playing a role in the legibility of the resultant facade. Paint maintains its material clarity, but, while marks lead to interpretation, there remains a tension between perception and recognition, texture and text. These works place an emphasis on painting as surface, proposing exteriors that engage with a viewer's presumptions and projections. Working with oil paint and very thin stretchers, Olson explores different strategies with each work that them asserts a distinct identity.
The works by Florian Schmidt engage with a painterly attention to surface, using materials such as canvas, cardboard and wood to broaden his examination of painting by cultivating a subtle poetry inspired by chance. Some of the structure is left exposed, suggesting the provisional and the in-between. Often re-using fragments from exhibited artworks, Schmidt invites the viewer to retrace the artist’s process and to question how the media of painting and sculpture are determined and defined. Schmidt’s two sculptures in the exhibition are made from acrylic, vinyl, lacquer, cardboard and wood, and unfold as one moves around the work.
Tania Pérez Córdova’s works investigate the edges of absence, the material and the immaterial, the making and the making sense. Córdova is interested in the sequential nature of her work, how one work might lead to another. There is a crossover between the way things are made and named, seen and shown. The gallery will show four new works, two unique silkscreen prints on plywood, a digital print on silk and a plywood wall sculpture.
Alex Olson (b.1978, USA)
Selected exhibitions include; Lisa Cooley, New York, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, No Swan So Fine, curated by Joanna Fiduccia, Michael Benevento, Los Angeles, Emerge Selections 2011, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois, Ooga Booga Reading Room, Swiss Institute, New York.
Florian Schmidt (b. 1980, Austria)
Selected exhibitions include; New Galerie de France, Paris, (solo) Andreas Huber, Vienna, Galerie Ben Kaufmann, Berlin, Collaboration, Autocenter, Berlin-Germany, Halbjahresgaben, Tanzschule, Munich-Germany, Hansjoerg Dobliar/Florian Schmidt, barMALEREI, Vienna, Austria, Paper, Scissors, Stone (curated by Gyonata Bonvicini), Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm, Sweden, La Petite Histoire, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna-Austria
Tania Pérez Córdova (1979, Mexico City, Mexico)
Selected exhibitions include; How To work ( more ) for less, Kunsthalle Basel , Basel Switzerland (2011) ); Horario Triple A, Casa del Lago , Mexico City, Mexico ( 2011 ); How to Work , Kunsthalle Basel, Basel ,Switzerland (2011); Oceanfront Nights, Tamayo Museum Program for Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami (2010); Carrie on or Stow Away , Gambia Castle, New Zeland ( 2010); This Place you see has no size at all, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris ( 2010); The Spiral House, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (2007).
TANIA PEREZ CORDOVA
FLORIAN SCHMIDT
10 September - 8 October, 2011
Laura Bartlett Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition by Alex Olson, Tania Pérez Córdova and Florian Schmidt.
The works in the exhibition lie on the borders of abstraction, in a rich territory where surfaces propose but do not assert readings. Narrative is held at bay, and mark making offers itself as both material and sign. The exhibition presents work by three artists working in diverse mediums. They have in common an attention to process and surface, the architecture of what’s beneath is as significant in the reading of the work as its final identity.
Alex Olson's paintings are built using multiple layers, each playing a role in the legibility of the resultant facade. Paint maintains its material clarity, but, while marks lead to interpretation, there remains a tension between perception and recognition, texture and text. These works place an emphasis on painting as surface, proposing exteriors that engage with a viewer's presumptions and projections. Working with oil paint and very thin stretchers, Olson explores different strategies with each work that them asserts a distinct identity.
The works by Florian Schmidt engage with a painterly attention to surface, using materials such as canvas, cardboard and wood to broaden his examination of painting by cultivating a subtle poetry inspired by chance. Some of the structure is left exposed, suggesting the provisional and the in-between. Often re-using fragments from exhibited artworks, Schmidt invites the viewer to retrace the artist’s process and to question how the media of painting and sculpture are determined and defined. Schmidt’s two sculptures in the exhibition are made from acrylic, vinyl, lacquer, cardboard and wood, and unfold as one moves around the work.
Tania Pérez Córdova’s works investigate the edges of absence, the material and the immaterial, the making and the making sense. Córdova is interested in the sequential nature of her work, how one work might lead to another. There is a crossover between the way things are made and named, seen and shown. The gallery will show four new works, two unique silkscreen prints on plywood, a digital print on silk and a plywood wall sculpture.
Alex Olson (b.1978, USA)
Selected exhibitions include; Lisa Cooley, New York, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, No Swan So Fine, curated by Joanna Fiduccia, Michael Benevento, Los Angeles, Emerge Selections 2011, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois, Ooga Booga Reading Room, Swiss Institute, New York.
Florian Schmidt (b. 1980, Austria)
Selected exhibitions include; New Galerie de France, Paris, (solo) Andreas Huber, Vienna, Galerie Ben Kaufmann, Berlin, Collaboration, Autocenter, Berlin-Germany, Halbjahresgaben, Tanzschule, Munich-Germany, Hansjoerg Dobliar/Florian Schmidt, barMALEREI, Vienna, Austria, Paper, Scissors, Stone (curated by Gyonata Bonvicini), Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm, Sweden, La Petite Histoire, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna-Austria
Tania Pérez Córdova (1979, Mexico City, Mexico)
Selected exhibitions include; How To work ( more ) for less, Kunsthalle Basel , Basel Switzerland (2011) ); Horario Triple A, Casa del Lago , Mexico City, Mexico ( 2011 ); How to Work , Kunsthalle Basel, Basel ,Switzerland (2011); Oceanfront Nights, Tamayo Museum Program for Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami (2010); Carrie on or Stow Away , Gambia Castle, New Zeland ( 2010); This Place you see has no size at all, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris ( 2010); The Spiral House, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (2007).