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30/10/2008

Benjamin Cottam

Schlechtriem Brothers, Berlin

Schlechtriem Brothers is pleased to present Benjamin Cottam in his first solo show in Germany, featuring new drawings and paintings.

In Cottam's drawings, tiny portraits of notoriously irreverent celebrities, and self-portraits of the artist, hover amidst their pages, nearly escaping into the white. The ghostly images, done in silver and gold point, focus intently on the faces of the subjects. Some portraits, so encroached upon by the soft halo of grey erasure marks, reveal mere fragments of a face, giving them a specter-like presence.

In the new silverpoint drawing Untitled-Amy Winehouse 2008, the slight snarl, half focused eyes, and ratty hair of the songstress seem somehow ruttier than usual. The erasure marks become both a haloing mist and grime. Cottam's drawing becomes a push and pull between the delicacy in which it is crafted, and the harshness of the subject he portrays.

Pete Doherty – Can't Stand Me Now #? 2008, from the silverpoint series Pete Doherty, shows Doherty and band mate Carl Barat (of The Libertines) in mid lyric, sans microphone. With mouths nearly touching, the two floating faces seem angelic, sanguine – even romantic in their execution. Where Winehouse accentuates an edge, Can't Stand Me Now #? is enveloped by a softness – a fluency in nuance that can be seen throughout Cottam's work.

In his goldpoint series of self-portraits, Cottam portrays himself in varied states of expression. In Self-Portrait #5, the artist's face and hair barely breaks from the marks around it, offering an expression that can be pinned as neither lust nor desperation. The self-portraits provide us with limited information, creating distance rather than intimacy between artist and viewer.

Cottam's series of black untitled paintings seem, at first glance, an exercise in minimalism. The new 15 x 15 cm oil on copper paintings are a deep, reflective black, and deceiving if not given time to engage with. As the viewer allows his or her eyes to adjust, fully realized portraits glance outward, masked by layer upon layer of dark glazes.

In untitled-skyscape 2008, Cottam makes an unanticipated, but pleasing break from the course of his prior works. In his new, full color, oil on aluminum diptych, Cottam turns placid skies sinister. On the right, a pale blue sky is streaked once with the faint white of tear gas. On the left, the skyline of a town, the sky marked three times by gas. There is an absence of protesters or any evidence of a human form; the unseen and hidden are prevalent themes throughout Cottam's work.

Benjamin Cottam has been featured at group shows including the 4th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art, and at Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland. He has had numerous solo shows throughout Europe and America. His work is included in the collections of MoMA and Whitney Museum of American Art. He lives and works in New York City.

Image: Untitled - (Amy Winehouse), 2008, silverpoint on prepared paper

Opening reception October 31st, 6 - 9 pm

Schlechtriem Brothers
Kleine Kurstrasse1 10117 Berlin

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