22/4/2010
Mexican Blanket
Museum 52, London
Helen Marten, Jost Munster, Mariah Robertson
Underpinned by a fetishised interest in materials and the handmade, Helen Marten's work has both a stuck-together-with-spit kind of aesthetic, and the slick, shiny gloss of industrial manufacture: smooth surfaces alternate with ruinous arrangements, and architectural nods sit alongside trashiness, fragility, obsessiveness and a kind of graphic erotica.
Helen Marten graduated from the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in 2008 and was the recipient of the Boise Travel Scholarship, 2008. Recent exhibitions include 'Wicked Patterns' at T293, Naples, 2010, 'Fake Modern', Camden Arts Centre, 2010, 'Boule to Braid', Lisson Gallery 2009 and is participating in the upcoming Tatton Park Biennal.
Jost Münster's works experiment with colour and the painted surface exploring the reaches of representation. Working from his urban surroundings, Münster strips away pictorial detail, flattens and collages surfaces with abstract, mosaic-like, colour swatches and backgrounds. Using shapes and silhouettes derived from the interplay between architecture and the painterly aspects of the everyday, Münster forges a new and subtle vocabulary of forms and references.
Jost Münster was born in Ulm, Germany. He studied at The Fine Art Academy in Stuttgart and Goldsmiths College in London. He currently lives and works in London. He has exhibited in both Europe and the US, with a recent solo exhibition at Museum 52 London and the Kunstverien Friedrichshafen, Germany. An upcoming review of his solo exhibition 'Ground Control' will be published in ArtForum, May 2010.
'I've been trying to figure out what's rules are really necessary and what is cultural baggage that needs to be examined or just dropped.
Decapitated Structure: remove 'image' from the top of the hierarchy of the process of photography; make all 'support' components of equal value to the 'subject". Hopefully this will leave visual evidence of all stages of the process in the final piece, i.e. the physicality of the paper, the chemical irregularities, and the image dynamically interacts with its frame. No one is invisible; everyone is onstage. No one is wearing all black like they don't exist changing scenery between performances by the opera divas.
I like to put things together that don't belong for quick example representations and abstractions. There is so much image potential inherent to the photographic process, The answer is always in the disasters, the flaws; then you have to fluctuate back and forth between flaws and order, discipline and chaos. Materials lead the way.' M. Robertson 2010
Mariah Robertson's work has been exhibited extensively including two solo exhibitions at the renowned artist run gallery Guild and Greyshkul, NY and a recent group show at Sikkema Jenkins, New York. Her work was recently included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, NY and the LA County Museum of Art, CA. Robertson's work has been included in multiple publications, including: Art In America, Art Forum, Art Review and The New York Times.
Image: Mariah Robertson
Preview Friday 23 April 6 - 8pm
Museum 52
52 Redchurch Street London E2 7DP
Wednesday - Saturday 11am - 6 pm
or by appointment