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25/1/2007

Alexander Gorlizki

Kudlek van der Grinten, Koln

Works on Paper

As from 1st January 2007 the two Cologne galleries Martin Kudlek and van der Grinten will be doing joint business under the new name of Kudlek van der Grinten Galerie. Each gallery started out in 1999 - since then they have established an ever firmer hold in both the regional and international fields of contemporary art. The sustained cooperation has steadily grown over time and found its expression in common art-fair appearances over the past three years. Against this background of collaborative experience on the one hand and individual success on the other the idea of uniting both enterprises finally developed in 2005. The deciding factors for the current merger are individual levels of recognition, contacts in the different fields of the art world and the establishment of artistic standpoints. Proclaimed goals are accelerated growth, higher flexibility and the linking of potentials.

Alexander Gorlizki will inaugurate the new Kudlek van der Grinten Gallery with Works on Paper, his third solo show in Cologne. These paintings and drawings made over the past two years continue his practice of collaborating with and commissioning artists and artisans from different practices, in this case artists from India involved in the tradition of miniature paintings. Gorlizki started a studio in Jaipur, India 10 years ago with the master painter Riyaz Uddin and the current work builds on and subverts a traditional pictorial language whilst maintaining a staggering level of skill and detail within an art-form that has evolved over the past 500 years. Gorlizki's field of interest brings together a wide number of different cultural influences. Following Joseph Albers' dictum that "one plus one equals three," the artist draws together apparently disparate elements that create a third entity, greater than the sum of its parts. Elephant legs are painted as bright pink knots that evolve into plant forms that are superimposed on photographs of American Abstract expressionists. Photographs of pigeons are partially painted in the colours of Edward Lear's parrots, cartoon icons are integrated with minimalist grid patterns on 200 year old paper. Some of the work is figurative and narrative whilst other images are entirely based on abstract forms and patterns. Gorlizki weaves in irony and humour, stirring a pool of the subconscious into his unmistakable pictorial language. He creates works that are mythical and banal, mysterious and very obvious. Gorlizki was born in London in 1967. He lives and works in New York.

Kudlek van der Grinten
Schaafenstrasse 25 - Cologne
Hours: tue-fri 11-6 p.m. and by appointment
Free admission

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