Florian Schmidt
dal 3/5/2012 al 15/6/2012
Segnalato da
3/5/2012
Florian Schmidt
Zach Feuer Gallery (new location), New York
Spot. The artist features sculpture and three separate but interconnected 'painting' series: Immunity, Hold and Ribbon. Small scraps of paper have been pasted onto the sculpture.
Zach Feuer Gallery is pleased to present SPOT, an exhibition of new work by Florian Schmidt that consists of sculpture and three separate but interconnected 'painting' series: Immunity, Hold and Ribbon.
The title of the exhibition shares its title with a sculpture or 'construction' that fills the center of the gallery and consists of 32 parts that are divided into four sections. Small scraps of paper have been pasted onto the sculpture. These bits of paper, which were taken from wall calendars filled with painting reproductions, interrupt the white paint that dominates the construction. The monochrome colors found in these fragments mirror the colors used in Schmidt's paintings.
The sculpture, which can be seen as either an open or closed form, serves as an empty frame from which the rest of the exhibition can be viewed. In SPOT, Schmidt posits the viewer in space, by allowing the viewer to enter the construction. Encouraging one to view the paintings in the exhibition through the construction transforms the viewer into an active part of the exhibition.
Viewing SPOT from this vantage relates to how Schmidt constructs his paintings. The correlation between the center of the individual work and its periphery is key. In the Ribbon series, for example, Schmidt first joins two canvases and next cuts circles in each. He then connects the periphery of the circles to each canvas. Every subsequent action that follows relates back to the empty circles resulting in a composition that can be seen as an infinite loop unfurling around these first cuts. Like SPOT, the Ribbon works are severely limited in palette to black and white with the exception of one added color, which spotlights or emphasizes the colored element.
SPOT may also extend to how the artist applies color to elements in the Immunity series. These works are composed of rudimentary shapes of contrasting materials, including white and black foam core and painted cardboard, that have been repurposed from previous composition. Schmidt nails and staples these remnants together before adding paint to specific components. By 'erasing' the color fragments with a light paint applied in painterly brushstrokes, Schmidt does not eliminate but illuminates these chosen elements.
Florian Schmidt was born in 1980 in Austria and lives and works in Berlin. This is his second exhibition at Zach Feuer Gallery.
Image: Florian Schmidt, Untitled(Hold)11, 2011. Acrylic gel, vinyl, lacquer, cardboard, colored cotton, wood, 84.25 x 60.63 inches, 214 x 154 cm
Reception for the Artist: May 4th, 6-8
Zach Feuer Gallery
548 West 22nd Street - New York, NY 10011
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10-6