This exhibition comes from an idea that is more compelling to experience than it is to explain. An artist’s material decisions sometimes generate a sense of mystery which evades language and speaks directly to the senses. Given the quasi-academic rhetoric that propels much of the art world, I wondered how I could make a show around this deceptively simple concern. Materiality is also very difficult to translate in photographs, especially when these are ‘professional’, hyper-neutral images. Most of the time you just have to believe. In developing this show I focused on the specific materiality that is crucial to each of these artists’ work and tried to present them in a way that lets the works speak to each other.
Recently I’ve been looking at subreddits where people share their “hauls”. The process of purchasing unauthorized replicas of pieces by iconic fashion brands over the internet is complex, but conforms to a pattern: you choose what you like, you ask for photos, you do a QC (Quality Check) with other members of your subreddit, and then—when enough users say “GL” (Green Light)— you order it. Scrolling through hundreds of photos of nearly identical shoes, bags, jackets, and belts made me realize that this process also goes on with contemporary art. Installation shots are fine for casually browsing exhibitions, but purchasing a work involves a more elaborate process of verification. A gallery will often send an interested collector a PDF with detail shots and sometimes even a video that shows the texture of the work under consideration. All of this media makes the case that this object will satisfy the desires of the client. It’s easy to forget that in this system of exchange, digital images are claims—but not proof—of the material qualities that stimulate our senses.
Although they inform each other, commerce and culture are not the same. The processes that have developed to facilitate a purchase are not the same as those which expand our experience of the world. The works in this show draw as much power from what they withhold as from what they reveal. This trait does not lend itself to the compression and impatience of our era, but perhaps we need some of what they offer. I invite you to dwell in the many textures and effects that happen in your eyes and head when looking at these works, and to sit with the questions that they provoke.
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Isabelle Andriessen (The Netherlands, 1986). In 2017–18 Andriessen was an artist in residence at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. She has had solo exhibitions at CAN – Centre d’Art Neuchâtel (2021); De Pont Museum, Tilburg (2021), and palace enterprise, Copenhagen (2022). Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at Moderna Museet, Malmö (2022), FRONT International, Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art (2022), GAMeC, Bergamo (2021); the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2020); the 15th Lyon Biennial (2019); the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2018); Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2018); and CAB Art Center, Brussels (2017).
Isabelle Andriessen investigates ways to physically animate inanimate materials in order to provide them with their own metabolism, behavior and agency - doing so her sculptures perform over the course of several exhibitions. In Andriessen’s work the current state of the work is never the same, as most of her pieces are changing while being on view. Her sculptures are a window into science-fictional other worlds governed by material entities that appear to be passive or dormant, yet their output reveals a darker agenda.
Peter Brock (USA, 1986) is an artist and writer based in Brooklyn working predominantly with the medium of painting. He attended Bard College and Staedelschule and worked for Carol Bove for several years. He writes frequently for publications such as Flash Art, Art-Agenda,Texte Zur Kunst, and The Brooklyn Rail.
In the last years he has been solely focusing on his own practice and developed an strange technique where he pours aqua-resin over aluminum panels and then treats them with pigments, oil or graphite. The works have tons of layers that are then sanded away, creating a very special smooth surface that is at the same time very rich. These paintings work as windows to a very unique abstract landscape that relates also in their format to the screens of computers, iPads or any device that we have nowadays in our daily life.
Arto Rta (Belgium, 1997) graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2021. Next to his artistic practice he co-runs Boo 2, a project space in Amsterdam.
In his work Arto is interested in different layers of libido and how that can be translated in an abstract language. Through the language of painting and video his works immerse us in a world where our eyes can not focus on anything specific and everything seems to be in a strange liquid and unfocus state.
Elza Sile (Latvia, 1989) combines mental imagery with analytic divisions and builds up an interwoven vocabulary of psycho-spatial typologies in flux. In 2019, Sile graduated from ZHdK Zurich. Recent solo exhibitions include at KIM? Contemporary Art Center (Riga, 2022); PHILIPPZOLLINGER (Zurich, 2021); unanimous consent (Zurich, 2020) and Kulturfolger Zürich (2020). She has participated in numerous two-person and group shows, such as at Centre d’art Pasquart (Biel, 2022); Haus Konstruktiv (Zurich, 2022); Misako & Rosen (Tokyo, 2022); KIM? Contemporary Art Center (Riga, 2020); Kunsthalle Zurich (2020); Hamlet (Zurich, 2020) and Galerie Kirchgasse (Steckborn, 2020). In 2020, Sile was a receipiant of the Werkschau Prize Zurich and in 2021, of the art stipend City of Zurich. In 2022, Sile completed a residency at ISCP New York.
Arto Rta
Wash, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
46 x 35 cm
18.1 x 13.7 in
Wash, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
46 x 35 cm
18.1 x 13.7 in
Peter Brock
The Limited Sphere, 2021
Oil and graphite on aqua-resin on aluminum panel
60,1 x 76,2 cm
24 x 30 in
The Limited Sphere, 2021
Oil and graphite on aqua-resin on aluminum panel
60,1 x 76,2 cm
24 x 30 in
Isabelle Andriessen
Cryo-rite, 2021
Ceramic, nickel sulphate, stainless steel
112 x 45 x 51 cm
44.1 x 17.7 x 20.1 in
Cryo-rite, 2021
Ceramic, nickel sulphate, stainless steel
112 x 45 x 51 cm
44.1 x 17.7 x 20.1 in
Isabelle Andriessen
Cryo-rite, 2021
Ceramic, nickel sulphate, stainless steel
112 x 45 x 51 cm
44.1 x 17.7 x 20.1 in
Cryo-rite, 2021
Ceramic, nickel sulphate, stainless steel
112 x 45 x 51 cm
44.1 x 17.7 x 20.1 in
Isabelle Andriessen
Cryo-rite, 2021
Ceramic, nickel sulphate, stainless steel, aluminium, epoxy, water cooler, python pump
112 x 45 x 51 cm
44.1 x 17.7 x 20.1 in
Cryo-rite, 2021
Ceramic, nickel sulphate, stainless steel, aluminium, epoxy, water cooler, python pump
112 x 45 x 51 cm
44.1 x 17.7 x 20.1 in
Isabelle Andriessen
Cryo-rite, 2021
Ceramic, nickel sulphate, stainless steel
112 x 45 x 51 cm
44.1 x 17.7 x 20.1 in
Cryo-rite, 2021
Ceramic, nickel sulphate, stainless steel
112 x 45 x 51 cm
44.1 x 17.7 x 20.1 in
Peter Brock
The Limited Sphere, 2022
Oil and graphite on aqua-resin on aluminum panel
123 x 86 cm
48.4 x 33.8 in
The Limited Sphere, 2022
Oil and graphite on aqua-resin on aluminum panel
123 x 86 cm
48.4 x 33.8 in
Peter Brock
The Limited Sphere, 2021
Oil and graphite on aqua-resin on aluminum panel
60,1 x 76,2 cm
24 x 30 in
The Limited Sphere, 2021
Oil and graphite on aqua-resin on aluminum panel
60,1 x 76,2 cm
24 x 30 in
Arto Rta
This Gourmand Black Hole Eats One Sun a Day, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
210 x 129 cm
82.6 x 50.7 in
This Gourmand Black Hole Eats One Sun a Day, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
210 x 129 cm
82.6 x 50.7 in
Elza Sile
Black G.O.D Bonfire, 2023
Acrylic and gelatin on coated plaster bandage
55 x 66 cm
21.6 x 26 in
Black G.O.D Bonfire, 2023
Acrylic and gelatin on coated plaster bandage
55 x 66 cm
21.6 x 26 in
Elza Sile
Lush Wheat Star /EasternEuropean Federation, 2023
Acrylic and gelatin on coated plaster bandage
55 x 45 cm
21.6 x 17.7 in
Lush Wheat Star /EasternEuropean Federation, 2023
Acrylic and gelatin on coated plaster bandage
55 x 45 cm
21.6 x 17.7 in
Elza Sile
Sushi Set Camouflage, 2023
Acrylic and gelatin on coated plaster bandage
70 x 6 cm
27.5 x 2.3 in
Sushi Set Camouflage, 2023
Acrylic and gelatin on coated plaster bandage
70 x 6 cm
27.5 x 2.3 in
Peter Brock
The Limited Sphere, 2021
Oil and graphite on aqua-resin on aluminum panel
30,5 x 22,8 cm
12 x 9 in
The Limited Sphere, 2021
Oil and graphite on aqua-resin on aluminum panel
30,5 x 22,8 cm
12 x 9 in
Arto Rta
Mauve, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
210 x 129 cm
82.6 x 50.7 in
Mauve, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
210 x 129 cm
82.6 x 50.7 in
