In 'Coryllis erscheine', Flad's volumetric objects explore the theoretical potential of scientific models and reflect the artist's fascination with utopian science fiction inspired organisms. In his work, references to Brancusi's Endless Column, Giuseppe Penone's work with wood and John McCracken's minimalist reduction of immaculate high gloss surfaces are consciously combined and fused with influences from design, architecture and Bionics.
Galerie Reinhard Hauff is pleased to announce the exhibition „Coryllis
erscheine“ by Berlin artist Wolfgang Flad (*1974). The artist’s
dynamic works - contrasting geometrically precise with amorphous,
organically fluid forms - were last presented at the Galerie Reinhard
Hauff in 2007. Since then, Flad’s sculptures have entered the
collections of institutions such as the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and the
Kunsthaus Zürich. In “Coryllis erscheine”, Flad ‘s volumetric objects
explore the theoretical potential of scientific models and reflect the
artist’s fascination with utopian science fiction inspired organisms.
Flad uses modest materials such as sandpapered plywood, painted planks
and a malleable mixture of paper and glue. In a complex process of
transformation, elimination and adaptation, the artist constructs
skeleton-like frameworks where fine and heavy, light and dark, fragile
and robust forms combine to contradict perceived weight and mass. The
artist doesn’t disguise the identity of his raw material but is
intrigued by its capacity to take on characteristics of classical
materials of sculpture such as bronze, iron and stone.
In Flad’s work,
references to Brancusi’s Endless Column, Giuseppe Penone’s work with
wood and John McCracken’s minimalist reduction of immaculate high
gloss surfaces are consciously combined and fused with influences from
design, architecture and Bionics – the study of mechanical systems
that function like living organisms. Within the current debate on
Bionics, its significance for transposing various solutions used in
technique and in nature to applications in architecture and design,
such as various types of support media for example - the complex
sculptures of Wolfgang Flad could also be viewed as a visual
translation of (bio-) chemical models combined with a re-
interpretation of the 1950’s different experiments with sculptural
form. For Flad, the notion of using recycled wood and shredded paper
with recycled ideas, sketches, theories and plans for the scaffolding
of his sculptures corresponds to his view that art as nature
constantly renews itself.
Opening Friday, 29.01.2010, 7 - 10 pm
Galerie Reinhard Hauff
Paulinenstr. 47, D-70178 Stuttgart
Fr 1 - 6 pm, Sat 11 am - 3 pm and by appointment
free admission