Tobias Putrih
dal 18/9/2003 al 19/11/2003
Segnalato da
18/9/2003
Tobias Putrih
Max Protetch, New York
Solo exhibition, sculptural works
Max Protetch Gallery is pleased to feature Slovenian artist Tobias Putrih's first solo exhibition in the United States. Putrih has shown widely in Europe, and was included in Manifesta 4, an exhibition of site-specific projects at the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, and most recently Unlimited at ArtBasel 2003; in December2003 he will have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana. The opening reception at Max Protetch Gallery, on September 19, will feature music by Audiodregs recording artist Lineland.
For Divide, Tobias Putrih creates sculptural works that embody carefully chosen, divergent trends in 20th Century Modernism: industry vs. the avant-garde, geometric structure vs. expressionistic form, and especially the idealogical differences between American and European versions of Modernist architecture and design. For Putrih, these differences found their most direct confrontation in a 1952 Museum of Modern Art exhibition, "2 Houses: New Ways to Build". The 'two houses' in question are Buckminster Fuller's Geodesic Dome and Frederick Kiesler's Endless House, and the contrast between the architects' aims and techniques (repetitive, mass produced forms vs. expressionistic, metaphysical constructions) provided Putrih with a historical model and impetus for his thoughts.
The works in the exhibition are commentaries on technological progress, but they are handmade with humble, everyday materials, and so they also seem to come from a space where technology and science are at their most elemental, where an individual confronts his or her reality and attempts to make sense of it. The objects, which each stand on their own with a sense of humor and subtle dramatic flair, are very much in dialogue with the ideas they engage, and so they also interact in a profound way with one another and their surrounding environment.
with live music by LINELAND (Audiodregs Records)
Max Protetch * 511 W. 22nd Street * New York