NYAB Event - Ann Veronica Janssens Exhibition

Ann Veronica Janssens Exhibition

Bortolami

[Image: Ann Veronica Janssens "Canicule" (2015) Aluminum with platinum coating 39.37 x 31.5 x 0.79 in.]

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Bortolami presents a solo exhibition of Ann Veronica Janssens, coinciding with her show at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas.

Using light as her primary material, Janssens manipulates negative spaces to create interactive experiences. Sharing similar concerns with Light and Space artists (like sensory phenomena, translucence, and ambience), Janssens focuses on challenging viewers’ perceptions. Her luminous installations create gradient zones between light and shadow, and opacity and transparency.

The exhibition begins with an eight-foot fluorescent light piercing the wall, evoking the dull lighting of office spaces and school classrooms. The light accompanies visitors as they pass from the entrance to the main gallery, linking the two different spaces with shared luminosity.

Inside, Janssens presents a mound of blue glitter, echoing the sweeping gestures of action painting while adopting the floor as another work surface. Two platinum structures, seemingly floating from the wall, flank the space. They both block visibility and reflect one’s gaze. A set of gilded California blinds hangs on the far wall, both precious and mundane in its material and function.

In the third room, Janssens installed an iconic haze sculpture that materializes light into a star-shaped form. This materiality, however, is evasive. Its palpability is purely visual. Janssens’ intervention provides the minimum conditions necessary for the viewer to experience light as a solid, yet intangible, object.

Ann Veronica Janssens (b. 1956 in Folkestone, UK) lives and works in Brussels. Her work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including WIELS - Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels (Belgium), the Espai d’art contemporani in Castelló (Spain), the Museum Morsbroich in Leverkusen (Germany), the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin (Germany), the Kunstverein München (Germany), the Musée d’Orsay in Paris (France), the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco (USA), the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham (UK), the Kunsthalle Bern (Switzerland) the Beppu project (Japan) , Museo Cappella Sanseverro, with Nord Project, in Naples (Italy) and Unlimited at Art Basel (Switzerland).

In 1999, she co-represented Belgium at the Venice Biennale with fellow artist Michel François.

Ann Veronica Janssens’s exhibition at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas opens on January 21, 2016. Currently on view at S.M.A.K in Ghent (Belgium) is a two-person exhibition with Ayşe Erkmen.