30/3/2004
Two exhibitions
Union, London
Derek Root. The exhibition will consist of two series of paintings, both made simultaneously during the past year and a video projection. 'To Delphi', an exhibition of recent and new works by London-based photographer Rut Blees Luxemburg. The exhibition upholds and partakes in the deliberate or blatant ambiguity of the oracle. The artist is shaping the partial signs from different journeys transmitting heightened perceptions into a coherent, if ambiguous, response.
Derek Root
31/03/04 – 08/05/04
UNION PROJECTS announces the first solo exhibition in the UK for the Canadian artist Derek Root.
The exhibition will consist of two series of paintings, both made simultaneously during the past year and a video projection.
Gallery One will consist of eight minimal paintings with encaustic monochrome surfaces, that are ethereal and evocative in mood. The seduction of these layered surfaces and the slight palette suggest a reference to modern art history and design.
Gallery Two comprises five small figurative portrait paintings, which are reminiscent of vintage illustrations often seen in early learning text-books. The softly drawn portrayal of each subject evokes an innocence of a particular era, which interpreted in modern contemporary society can be read with irony. Root has injected extra humour into some of these works by subtly distorting the proportions of the figure so as to suggest a melancholic protagonist.
In the lower gallery, Root will be showing a recent video piece entitled 'Heavy Winter' which is documentation of an artificial snowstorm synchronized with an audio recording of the poem 'Aubade' by Phillip Larkin.
Derek Root lives and works in Vancouver, Canada.
Recent exhibitions include Confidence, Linoping Contemporary Art Museum, Linoping, Sweden, Hyims, Scrims and Accompaniments, Monte Clark Gallery, Vancouver and Drawing the World: Masters to Hipsters, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver.
UNION PROJECTS presents a changing programme of month-long exhibitions showcasing work by international contemporary artists, which run in parallel to the main gallery space at 57 Ewer Street
Private view 30/03/04 6 – 9pm
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Rut Blees Luxemburg 'To Delphi'
31/03/04 – 12/06/04
Union is pleased to announce the opening of 'To Delphi', an exhibition of recent and new works by London-based photographer Rut Blees Luxemburg.
The exhibition 'To Delphi' upholds and partakes in the deliberate or blatant ambiguity of the oracle. The artist is shaping the partial signs from different journeys transmitting heightened perceptions into a coherent, if ambiguous, response.
Various cities such as Dakar, Swansea and London become the sites where loose associations of time, myth and dirt collide, fuse into new expressions and contemporary interpretations. The work 'The Conception of Perseus', a golden splash on a garage door, recalls the Greek myth of the heroic medusa-vanquisher, conceived by a confined Danaë through Zeus coming down as a 'golden shower'.
Linking the works is also the artist's interest in spaces under construction. Referring to Ucello's painting of the Battle of San Romano, the work 'The Battle' captures a luminous structure that has been transformed into an ambivalent hybrid with a similarity drawn between the structure of the glistening metal and the sharp perspective formed by the shiny staves in the historical painting.
The exhibition 'To Delphi' includes a part of the artist's collaborative opera 'Liebeslied/My Suicides'. The opera is based on the artist's photographic series of the same title, with a libretto by philosopher Alexander Garcia Düttmann and a score by composer Paul Clark.
Rut Blees Luxemburg lives and works in London. Recent solo exhibitions include 'Phantom' at Tate Liverpool, 2003 and 'ffolly', an exhibition and publication commissioned by the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea and ffotogallery, Cardiff. The complete opera 'Liebslied/My Suicides' will be performed at the ICA in October, 2004.
Private view 30/03/04 6-9pm
For more information please contact +44 (0)20 7928 3388 or by email
Image: a work by Derek Root
OPENING HOURS
MONDAY-FRIDAY 10 AM-6 PM, SATURDAY 12-5 PM
UNION, 57 EWER STREET, LONDON SE1 0NR
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