"Paint as Figure" Exhibition

Thomas Erben Gallery

poster for "Paint as Figure" Exhibition

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Thomas Erben presents an exhibition featuring the work of five young painters. The human form is intensely present throughout the show, with bodies sometimes breaking apart into abstract materiality, yet holding together as each artist balances urgency with precision. While based in different countries – China, Japan, Switzerland and the USA – these painters connect in their exploration of the medium’s relation to subject matter.

Kohei Akiba’s paintings are intense and bold, with thickly applied paint creating a physical presence extending from the painted surface. Working in oil on canvas, he often focuses on the human face, either in pale and chalky black and white, or in jarring color. The figurative is pushed to the edge of abstraction, and though the colors may be far from natural, there is a markedly carnal quality to these paintings. In comparison, Akiba’s works on paper might seem toned down at first glance, but they pulsate with the same fierce energy of inner life being thrust to the surface. In his deeply personal work, the artist lets the abject intermingle with the sincere.

In 1994, Jonathan Delachaux created three imaginary characters – Vassili, Johan and Naima – life-size puppets whose daily life and experiences ever since have formed the subject matter of his paintings. Beginning in an impulse to document the passing of time within his art, Delachaux has interacted with these characters, letting them age as he ages, mixing their lives with those of his friends and himself. Each work takes on the energy from a performance with his subjects, which he photographs, then paints with colors separated in reverse, on plastic foil. Once the result is transferred onto canvas, the lives of Vassili, Johan and Naima exist in the intersection between performance, photography and painting.

There is a tension in the paintings of Jennifer Packer, between the people and objects represented, and the viewer. Subjects defy the privileged gaze of their audience, lounging languidly with a complete lack of interest in being watched or observed. In Packer’s own words, “In a painting like Ottoman (Cushion), even the objects can feel exhausted of their purpose.” This need to challenge conventions of what painting does and how it relates to its subjects is supplanted, however, by her obvious fascination with the medium, and her resulting skill as a painter. Balancing between the figurative and the fractured, Packer lets shapes blend and flow into each other, with edges simultaneously precise and dissolving. Every surface is articulated with a combination of harshness and beauty, where light and emptiness play as important a role as the paint itself.

Schandra Singh's large-scale oil paintings executed on linen depict locals and vacationers at far-flung, exotic locales. Built of faceted shapes as if their muscles and fascia were exposed, the figures are confrontational and aggressive. Bordering on the grotesque, and profusely detailed, Singh’s subjects are both victims and perpetrators of a visual culture gone mad. Merging morbidity with beauty, her work interrogates the psychological and political implications of leisure in an era of global crisis.

The distinct and rough materiality in the work of Zheng Wei stems from his background as a printmaker. Each painting is based in the solidity of wood carving, but then veers off - into a colorful excess of paint; an assemblage of jagged metal objects; a violent collage of broken bones and blood. Accessories of rock and punk culture – such as chains and razors - are common elements, and this esthetic permeates the work. Wei mixes his materials liberally, studding carved boards with nuts and bolts, collaging hair, paper and string with cassette tapes, scissors, shoes. As technical skill is channeled through youthful recklessness, Wei’s work reverberates in a place between craft and manufactured rebellion.

[Image: Kohei Akiba "Untitled" (2012) oil on canvas, 18 x 15 in.]

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Schedule

from February 28, 2013 to April 06, 2013

Opening Reception on 2013-02-28 from 18:00 to 20:30

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