Galerie Stefan Röpke, Cologne

Claire Kerr
“Eclipse”, 2014
5,9 x 7,9 inches / 15 x 20 cm
oil on gesso panel
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Stefan Röpke, Cologne
 
 
CLAIRE KERR
Should we have stayed at home and thought of here?
 
September 5 - October 11, 2014
 
Galerie Stefan Röpke is pleased to present “Should we have stayed at home and thought of here?”, an exhibition of new paintings by Claire Kerr, her first in Germany, on view September 5 - October 11, 2014.
 
It is not difficult to be immediately awed by Claire Kerr’s paintings at first glance. The incredible precision in their diminutive scale is evidence of her virtuosic abilities as a technical artist. With the detail of every crease, crack and shadow and their pristine porcelain-like surfaces, the paintings are sensitive and poetic beyond what one would classify as photo-realistic painting.
 
The style Kerr has chosen as her vehicle of expression might easily place her in classical and traditional light, comparing her all the way back to French and English landscape artists and further to the Dutch masters. And although she does allude to the great history of art before her, the perspective she takes is based on current interests and questions, and on how technology and quotidian life affects the way we consume these histories, how they inform our visual experiences. The subject matter of her paintings may be still-lifes or landscapes, and even portraits, but at the same time they are not, for instead they are commentaries on how we perceive these traditions in today’s environment. This places Claire Kerr’s work firmly within context of contemporary art and its conceptual concerns.
 
The body of work Kerr has created for this show manifests what she had been thinking about while working on them; “the strange, ambiguous borderlands between a conceptual, imagined object and its materialization", and the title she has chosen for the exhibition reflects this very mind-set as well.
 
“Molecule (limonene)” is a painting of a chemical compound model, a scientific object created to visualize something we recognize more easily as a familiar odor present in many cleaning products and air fresheners. And “Falling Man (after Hubert Robert)” might be a direct copy of a 18th century painting were it not for the precise recreation of the craquelure that age has left on its surface, and thus placing focus on “time” and its effects. As with these works, it is in the subtle details that the conceptual depth shines through in all of Kerr’s paintings.
 
Claire Kerr was born in Northumberland, England and lives and works in Dublin, Ireland. She is represented in London by Purdy Hicks Gallery where she has had numerous exhibitions. There will be an opening preview on September 5 at 6:00pm - 10:00pm in conjunction with the DC Open Galleries weekend events. The artist will be present.
 
For more information and images of the works included in the exhibition please feel free to contact the gallery.
 
 
GALERIE STEFAN RÖPKE
St. Apern-Straße 17-21
50667 Cologne
Germany
T: +49 022125 55 59
 
GALERIE STEFAN RÖPKE
 
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