Robert Holyhead
02 May - 07 Jun 2014
ROBERT HOLYHEAD
(catalogue)
2 May – 7 June 2014
We are delighted to inaugurate a solo exhibition with works by Robert Holyhead during the Gallery Weekend Berlin, which will be on view from May 2 until June 7, 2014 in Goethestraße 2/3, Berlin-Charlottenburg.
At first sight Holyhead's work appears intimate and contemplative. No ultimate conclusion can be defined. Seemingly unfinished fragments of colour are revealed through broken or half finished grids and geometric shapes. Deconstruction comes to mind as paint, with a precise viscosity, might move on the surface, being isolated in a washed colour. Edges perform a specific role with incredible precision in the pristine appearance of the paintings and a certain fluidity emerges between one form and the sharpness of another.
»I'm trying to bring in this thing called painting rather than this thing called abstraction. [...] I need to see the work as an inquiry into painting. There is a fine line between precision and hindering the painting. I am trying to show the little glitches or punctuations which aren't gratuitous in any sense but which aren't so restrained. [...] I am trying to present something familiar that is full of un-familiarity, maybe something like adopting a new language. Viewers may already recognize something outside of the paintings, something based on the outside world, on a skewed geometry, for example. [...] My work doesn't have any particular reference points outside of itself, yet external influences creep in as I make it. As such, my painting presents both a type of personal language and some familiarity with the world.«
Robert Holyhead, London, July 2010 in Robert Holyhead, Karsten Schubert and Ridinghouse, 2010
The exhibition presents a new group of oil paintings which continue Holyhead's involvement with contemporary forms of abstract painting. The small sized, unicoloured works build an immediate dialogue among each other and provide space for questions of colour, shape, balance and disorder. By leaving parts uncovered or even wiping the paint off the canvas, the artist develops a complex arrangement of white shapes and forms within the coloured surface. Thus, every single composition becomes a continuous interaction between the seen and the withheld, a balance between negative and positive spaces.
Holyhead often plays with the intensity of the applied colour and together with strongly visible brush marks they determine the structure of the canvas and give the works a certain dynamic. Especially in paintings as Untitled (Held), 2014, or Untitled (Eye), 2014, this dynamic turns into an intense movement, evoking images of swirls or waterfalls.
This is the first solo exhibition of Robert Holyhead with Galerie Max Hetzler.
Simultaneously the gallery will be presenting an exhibition of new works by Richard Phillips in Bleibtreustraße 45, Berlin-Charlottenburg.
Furthermore, we are happy to announce the inauguration of a new space in Paris, starting on May 17, 2014 with a solo show by Albert Oehlen.
Robert Holyhead, born 1974 in Trowbridge, lives and works in London. Holyhead studied at the Manchester Metropolitan University and the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London. His work was presented in several solo and group exhibitions, for example at Karsten Schubert, London (2012, 2010 and 2009); at PEER, London (2012); at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham; at the Ulster Museum, Belfast; at the Tate Britain, London, (2012) and at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2009). His work features in the permanent collections of Institutions such as The Arts Council (London) and the Tate Gallery (London).
(catalogue)
2 May – 7 June 2014
We are delighted to inaugurate a solo exhibition with works by Robert Holyhead during the Gallery Weekend Berlin, which will be on view from May 2 until June 7, 2014 in Goethestraße 2/3, Berlin-Charlottenburg.
At first sight Holyhead's work appears intimate and contemplative. No ultimate conclusion can be defined. Seemingly unfinished fragments of colour are revealed through broken or half finished grids and geometric shapes. Deconstruction comes to mind as paint, with a precise viscosity, might move on the surface, being isolated in a washed colour. Edges perform a specific role with incredible precision in the pristine appearance of the paintings and a certain fluidity emerges between one form and the sharpness of another.
»I'm trying to bring in this thing called painting rather than this thing called abstraction. [...] I need to see the work as an inquiry into painting. There is a fine line between precision and hindering the painting. I am trying to show the little glitches or punctuations which aren't gratuitous in any sense but which aren't so restrained. [...] I am trying to present something familiar that is full of un-familiarity, maybe something like adopting a new language. Viewers may already recognize something outside of the paintings, something based on the outside world, on a skewed geometry, for example. [...] My work doesn't have any particular reference points outside of itself, yet external influences creep in as I make it. As such, my painting presents both a type of personal language and some familiarity with the world.«
Robert Holyhead, London, July 2010 in Robert Holyhead, Karsten Schubert and Ridinghouse, 2010
The exhibition presents a new group of oil paintings which continue Holyhead's involvement with contemporary forms of abstract painting. The small sized, unicoloured works build an immediate dialogue among each other and provide space for questions of colour, shape, balance and disorder. By leaving parts uncovered or even wiping the paint off the canvas, the artist develops a complex arrangement of white shapes and forms within the coloured surface. Thus, every single composition becomes a continuous interaction between the seen and the withheld, a balance between negative and positive spaces.
Holyhead often plays with the intensity of the applied colour and together with strongly visible brush marks they determine the structure of the canvas and give the works a certain dynamic. Especially in paintings as Untitled (Held), 2014, or Untitled (Eye), 2014, this dynamic turns into an intense movement, evoking images of swirls or waterfalls.
This is the first solo exhibition of Robert Holyhead with Galerie Max Hetzler.
Simultaneously the gallery will be presenting an exhibition of new works by Richard Phillips in Bleibtreustraße 45, Berlin-Charlottenburg.
Furthermore, we are happy to announce the inauguration of a new space in Paris, starting on May 17, 2014 with a solo show by Albert Oehlen.
Robert Holyhead, born 1974 in Trowbridge, lives and works in London. Holyhead studied at the Manchester Metropolitan University and the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London. His work was presented in several solo and group exhibitions, for example at Karsten Schubert, London (2012, 2010 and 2009); at PEER, London (2012); at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham; at the Ulster Museum, Belfast; at the Tate Britain, London, (2012) and at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2009). His work features in the permanent collections of Institutions such as The Arts Council (London) and the Tate Gallery (London).