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13/11/2014

Two Exhibitions

Spruth Magers, Berlin

Louise Lawler
No Drones

Over the last 30 years, Louise Lawler has been making photographs that depict views of objects and artworks in their everyday working environments, shifting the emphasis from the subject itself to vantage points, framing devices and the modes of distribution that affect the reception of an artwork. For No Drones, Lawler will exhibit a group of ‘tracings’, a series that she developed for her exhibition at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, in 2013. Traced directly from her photographs, and made in collaboration with the artist and children’s book illustrator Jon Buller, the ‘tracings’ are black-and-white line drawings that are converted to a vector graphic and printed on a vinyl that is adhered directly to the wall. Each edition exists as an adaptable digital file that can be printed at any size. The particular group of tracings exhibited on this occasion, for instance, have been produced to adapt to the large walls of the Berlin gallery. A ‘tracing’ takes material form only when exhibited, and it can be destroyed and remade in a different size for its next presentation. Some of the works in the show are editions of 10, while others are unlimited editions.

The largest work in the show is Pollock and Tureen (traced) (1984 / 2013), a ‘tracing’ of Lawler’s iconic photograph Pollock and Tureen (1984). The original work is a medium-sized photograph, just under a metre wide, that portrays a decorative piece of porcelain placed on a shelf beneath the expressive splatters of a Pollock. Pollock and Tureen (traced) has been enlarged to almost ten metres to occupy a substantial section of one of the long gallery walls. At this scale, many of the lines in the vector drawing start to behave less predictably, often taking on a form of their own when viewed up close. Viewed from afar, the picture again coheres into a recognisable image. Each ‘tracing’ becomes both a representation of a previous artwork and an ephemeral installation in a particular space, expanding the conceptual foundations of pictures. Writing in the Museum Ludwig catalogue, Philip Kaiser describes the ‘tracings’ as ‘skeletons’ that explore ‘the extreme ends and corners of pictures and their contexts.’

Lawler will also exhibit a group of works called ‘traced and painted’, a further extension of the ‘tracings’. These small-scale prints on paper are hand-painted by the artist, creating works that bring to mind pages torn from illuminated manuscripts or children’s colouring books. Pollock and Tureen (traced and painted), Third (1984 / 2013 / 2014,) is the same tracing used in large-scale wall vinyl but condensed to 20 x 25 cm, with a subtle strip of greenish-gold across the middle of the image.

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Robert Elfgen
I wish my pictures

Biographical experiences and everyday observations serve as the point of departure for Robert Elfgen’s works. With humour and irony, he takes a playful approach to the relationship between production and utility in art, nature and society. The artist frequently works for an extended period with formal leitmotifs, which he derives from nature. Belonging to these series are animals that are made of wooden inlays and mounted on a monochrome background, abstract-geometrical paintings, which imitate the architecture of beehives, or milky, semi-transparent surfaces, and backgrounds that are reminiscent of different atmospheric conditions in nature. The works combine artisanal execution with improvisation. Age-old artistic techniques such as glass engraving, marquetry, metal etchings and relief printing are juxtaposed with used materials, found objects, chance occurrences, and mechanical bricolages.

Elfgen includes the architecture of the exhibition site in the overall concept, and a recurrent approach is the play with real and illusionistic space in both his collages and installations. Echoing sacred art and architecture, the artist creates a symbolic totality that is conveyed by physical movement, and which makes it possible to experience the private mythology he develops. Transitional situations, social threshold rituals, the cycle of nature and shifts between the material and immaterial states, all provide the motifs for his symbolic, often whimsical visual worlds. When the viewer enters one of his installations, the sculptures, assemblages, collages and films are linked associatively and transformed into spatial allegories, whose themes are the (productive) relationship between nature and human beings.

Robert Elfgen studied first with John Armleder at the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Braunschweig before transferring to the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he completed his studies as a master scholar of Rosemarie Trockel. He lives and works in Cologne. Solo exhibitions include the upcoming presentation at Oldenburger Kunstverein (2015), development, Sprüth Magers Berlin (2012), des bien ich, Sprüth Magers Cologne (2008), expedition, westlondonprojects, London (2006), and 1 + 1 = 3 Elfgen — Technik, Bonner Kunstverein (2005). Moreover, he participated in group exhibitions at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg and Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz (2013-14), Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen (2012), Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe (2011), Paul Thek — Werkschau im Kontext zeitgenössischer Kunst, ZKM Karlsruhe (2007-2008), and Kunstverein Kassel (2006) among others.

Image: Louise Lawler, Life After 1945 (Faces), 2006/2007, Cibachrome (mounted on museum box)

Press Contact:
Silvia Baltschun sb@spruethmagers.com

Opening reception: November 14, 2014, 6pm – 9pm

Sprüth Magers Berlin
Oranienburger Straße 18 - D-10178 Berlin
Hours: Tue - Sat, 11 am - 6 pm
Opening Times of the Gallery: Tue – Sat, 11 am – 6 pm

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