Christopher Chiappa "Gott Ist Tot"
Kate Werble Gallery
This event has ended.
The title of Christopher Chiappa’s new exhibition, “Gott Ist Tot” refers to a Nietzschean project born from his determined effort to stop making art 10 years ago. The exhibition is comprised of a single installation of 74 works shown as a three-dimensional painting relief covering one entire gallery wall and spilling onto the floor.
A decade ago, Chiappa moved from his apartment into his studio, "I was at an existential crossroads – I hated everything about showing my work and I decided I would stay away from it all.” But the practical considerations of a bare studio unwittingly fueled a new, irrationally exuberant project. “I badly needed a table and some chairs so I decided to make an object that was both a table and a chair. It felt outside of anything I had done before.” He began making stools.
The form is derived from the iconic Weber grill, offering a spherical canvas with which to experiment with color and line. Each work is unique, hand made, and worked on over years of building and breaking down layers of paint and resin. Initially, the works were monochromatic colors like single, freestanding spots but Chiappa then began dipping them in huge vats of oil-based enamel, creating overlapping blocks of color. The process eventually had no linear formula but became one of destruction and reworking.
Both the installation and the individual works exist in a liminal space, negating the initial nihilism and opening a new area in which to proceed. Chiappa describes “I tricked myself into making paintings by not letting my ego know that I was, in fact, painting or making artwork.”
Christopher Chiappa, (American, born in 1970 in West Chester, PA), has held solo exhibitions at Kate Werble Gallery, NY; Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, NY; and Jessica Fredericks Gallery, NY. His work has additionally been shown at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA; Western Bridge, Seattle, WA; Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA; Andrea Rosen Gallery, NY; Modern Art, London, UK; James Cohan Gallery, NY; Exit Art, NY; and François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. He currently lives and works in Long Island City, NY.
[Image: Poster image for “Gott Ist Tot” (2012)]
Media
Schedule
from November 10, 2012 to December 22, 2012
Opening Reception on 2012-11-10 from 18:00 to 20:00