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Gladstone Gallery 515 West 24th Street: Jan Vercruysse: Works 1990 - 2011 - 21 June 2012 to 3 Aug 2012 Current Exhibition |
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Jan Vercruysse, Places (I.1): FULL HOUSE, NINES FULL OF SIXES
multi coloured steel 39 figures, 76 1/4 x 144 3/8 in |
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"Jan Vercruysse: Works 1990-2011" Curated by Anne Pontégnie 515 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011 June 21 - August 3, 2012 Opening June 20, 6 - 8 pm Gladstone Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by Belgian artist Jan Vercruysse, curated by Anne Pontégnie. The exhibition will encompass a selection of Vercruysse’s works created between 1990 and 2011 and will be the artist’s first exhibition in New York since 2009. Vercruysse began his career as a poet and in 1974 he stopped writing in order to concentrate on the visual arts, though poetry and the presence of language remain a central influence in his work. Curatorial Statement: I have conceived of this exhibition as an homage to Vercruysse’s distinguished oeuvre. Featuring a selection of sculptures from each of Jan Vercruysse’s distinct bodies of work from the last two decades, the exhibition comprises a unique glimpse into the artist’s continually unfolding logic and his meditations on recurring themes. The show features sculptures from the TOMBEAUX, M(M), Les Paroles, and PLACES series, which explore notions of memory, monuments, and loss. From 1987 until 1994, Jan Vercruysse developed a series named TOMBEAUX. TOMBEAUX (T. 184) (1990), is made of cobalt blue glass sheets and adapts itself to the architecture in which it is installed. TOMBEAUX Extrait (1991), is a trombone made of blue cobalt glass. In both cases, the artist infuses the use of the object – shelves and trombone – with a different power of invocation, what Vercruysse calls “memory as an active energy”. From 1992 to 1998, Vercruysse worked on the M(M) series, using three different prototypes of the piano form to produce wooden forms of each. From these Vercruysse created a mould, followed by hollow, plaster, ‘positive’ forms. All are legless pianos resting on beams. The M stands for Memory, Monument, and Momentum. Here, M (M 3) (1992), M (M 7) (1992), and M (M 8) (1993) echo the musical elements found in TOMBEAUX extrait and in Les Parole [Letto]. Developed between 1998 and 2001, Les Paroles [Letto] takes the shape of a lectern. Standing half open, the painted wooden structures both conceal and reveal, combining flatness and volume. Inside the structures, Vercruysse sometimes places musical partitions and at other times marbles, as in Les Parole [Letto] III (1999), presented here. Marbles introduce the ‘game’ element and thus relate to the next series: PLACES. In 2005, Vercruysse started a new work, also developed through a series, called PLACES. Where the TOMBEAUX works were ‘empty’, PLACES concentrate ‘meanings’, ‘things that happened’, ‘parts of lives’. A first group of works, PLACES I, comprises the hands of the five cards of the Poker card game. A second group of works, PLACES II, is based on the image of commemorative plaques, often embedded in the floors of churches or found in archeological sites. In this case, the artist replaces the traditional inscriptions with the four suits of playing cards. A third group of works, PLACES III, introduces text. The characters in the Roman alphabet, which would typically appear on commemorative plaques, are here replaced by the symbols commonly found in a deck of playing cards. Vercruysse composed the works in his latest series, PLACES [Lost], from a limited number of objects: wine crates, billiards cues, and pallets. The objects are combined, cast in bronze, and often painted. Together, these objects become their own site. Since the 1980s, Jan Vercruysse has worked to redefine the language of contemporary sculpture. His works, at once poetic and playful, philosophical and meditative, display an uncommon precision, which helps them resist interpretation to open new modes of thoughts and enjoyment. For further information, please contact Abby Margulies +1 212 206 9300 or [email protected] New York gallery hours beginning June 18: Monday – Friday, 10am – 6pm Brussels hours: Tuesday – Friday, 10am – 6pm, Saturday, 12 – 6pm |
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