Urs Frei
27 Apr - 01 Jun 2013
URS FREI
27 April – 1 June 2013
Urs Frei’s work operates in a cyclical fashion. It tells of material processes, of decay and restoration, of constant transformations and recombinations.
In constant additions of color, material, and form, the works in this exhibition at Galerie Mark Müller create a spatial image that in careful groupings presents virtual extracts of this cyclic quality: a series of pipe-shaped wall objects, cardboard rolls stuck into one another, and wooden slats covered in carpet, stretches to the left of the entrance with rectangular pieces of canvas, which, hung flush, form a vertical format. A collection of wooden boards cut into X shapes forms a proper series in regular intervals on the next wall. And a large piece of canvas, spread out across the wall with nails, is painted with circles that take up the size and shape of the wood board on the right with its floral feel, that serve in their original, uncut stage as a stencil.
Colorful acrylic paint covers all the objects in an unmistakable, gestural application.
This invasive painting, dripped from a funnel or repetitively applied with brushstrokes, stencils, or rough wood printing, uses various supports. It spreads, covering pieces of canvas, wood surfaces and material found objects, thus blurring the lines separating painting and object in its play with the support.
The paint, applied unmixed, does not serve to represent a concealed subject.
Instead, it is simply another material in an unbiased system of combination and continuation that refers concretely to the act of producing: the piece of canvas can be segmented and reassembled. The theme of segmenting surfaces also resurfaces in the partially flat, clearly marked application of paint. The wooden stencils used, original aids in production, are now shown cut and painted as wall objects The wood works even include the tops of wood boxes, relics from the transportation of Frei’s works to the Venice Biennale, now repurposed as supports of painting.
In this way, the works are testimony, remains, and yet material for the artistic activity, that lustfully skirts all striving towards closure. In the structured hanging, they become end products for a moment until they are reintegrated into Urs Frei’s processual work.
Julia Schmidt
27 April – 1 June 2013
Urs Frei’s work operates in a cyclical fashion. It tells of material processes, of decay and restoration, of constant transformations and recombinations.
In constant additions of color, material, and form, the works in this exhibition at Galerie Mark Müller create a spatial image that in careful groupings presents virtual extracts of this cyclic quality: a series of pipe-shaped wall objects, cardboard rolls stuck into one another, and wooden slats covered in carpet, stretches to the left of the entrance with rectangular pieces of canvas, which, hung flush, form a vertical format. A collection of wooden boards cut into X shapes forms a proper series in regular intervals on the next wall. And a large piece of canvas, spread out across the wall with nails, is painted with circles that take up the size and shape of the wood board on the right with its floral feel, that serve in their original, uncut stage as a stencil.
Colorful acrylic paint covers all the objects in an unmistakable, gestural application.
This invasive painting, dripped from a funnel or repetitively applied with brushstrokes, stencils, or rough wood printing, uses various supports. It spreads, covering pieces of canvas, wood surfaces and material found objects, thus blurring the lines separating painting and object in its play with the support.
The paint, applied unmixed, does not serve to represent a concealed subject.
Instead, it is simply another material in an unbiased system of combination and continuation that refers concretely to the act of producing: the piece of canvas can be segmented and reassembled. The theme of segmenting surfaces also resurfaces in the partially flat, clearly marked application of paint. The wooden stencils used, original aids in production, are now shown cut and painted as wall objects The wood works even include the tops of wood boxes, relics from the transportation of Frei’s works to the Venice Biennale, now repurposed as supports of painting.
In this way, the works are testimony, remains, and yet material for the artistic activity, that lustfully skirts all striving towards closure. In the structured hanging, they become end products for a moment until they are reintegrated into Urs Frei’s processual work.
Julia Schmidt