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David Risley Gallery: HENRY KROKATSIS & HELEN FRIK - 10 Dec 2011 to 21 Jan 2012 Current Exhibition |
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Henry Krokatsis
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Henry Krokatsis Part Time Paradise Exhibition: December 10 – 21 January. Preview: Friday December 9. 17.00 – 20.00 David Risley Gallery is proud to present “Part Time Paradise”, an exhibition of new works by Henry Krokatsis. Krokatsis’ mirrors exist in a carefully considered and exquisitely measured space: a space between. These works are composed solely of the bevelled, faintly ornamental mirrors that were mass-produced and ubiquitous to British suburban interiors between the 1920s and the 1960s. These relics are now found almost exclusively in junk shops, yet through Krokatsis’ works they have been reconfigured and expanded to reference the high-status interiors of Europe’s grandest Rococo houses, with their cabinets de glaces and pier mirrors. These works reference minimalism via their geometry, austerity and lack of gesture. Yet they simultaneously embrace arbitrariness, material history and the narrative reward of subject matter, which are among the artistic qualities that minimalism systematically sought to eradicate. And of course these works may exist among the home’s basic functional objects, for in them a viewer may straighten their tie or check their teeth. Yet they cannot shake the implications of art. They insist on aesthetic fascination, causing a viewer to oscillate between looking into the reflection and looking at the subtle material differences of the reflective surfaces. These material transitions and passages may be thought of as painterly effects, and this painterliness is amplified by the use of the mirror backs. These reverse surfaces were originally painted arbitrary colours to protect the reflective coating on the front, and the turning of these glasses brings to mind both the engraved backs of Etruscan mirrors and the Jewish tradition of facing mirrors to the wall during mourning. In short, Krokatsis’ mirrors absorb exactly as much meaning as they reflect. It is in this hypnotizing, liminal space that viewers may situate themselves, then revel. Henry Krokatsis (UK, 1965) has an MA from Royal College of Art, London, UK. He has shown at the Hayward Gallery, London (UK) and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (IT). Krokatisis is represented in the collections of David Roberts Art Foundation (UK), Zabludowicz Art Trust (UK), New Art Gallery Walsall (UK) as well as the Government Art Collection (UK). - Helen Frik Frik Collection, Ceramics museum wing Exhibition: December 10 – 21 January. Preview: Friday December 9. 17.00 – 20.00 This exhibition brings 20 years of Helen Frik's ceramic practice together for the first time. The 80 or so works will be presented in an apartment interior constructed expressly for their display. Helen Frik responds to clay as an artist rather than a ceramicist. Clay is another medium in her armoury, a string to her bow. Her memories of observed details in museums, stately homes, kitchens and books mix with genres of things — a toast rack or a Roman cooking pot — as she makes what she refers to as associative translations. She compares the virgin block of clay to the blank sheet of paper, and clay modelling to drawing. The objects she makes develop through the joys of investigation. Frik takes an all-around approach, unusual in the ceramic world. She has no aim to perfect a niche technique, and her approach is catholic, magpie. She has a splendid disregard for the preconceptions, orthodoxies and history of the medium. It is, for her, another outlet for the things in her head and her hands. The results are joyous: useful, useless. The apartment interior constructed for the display of, The Frik Collection, Ceramic Museum, has been gathered and curated by Tina Seidenfaden Busck of The Apartment, Copenhagen. www.apartment.dk Helen Frik (UK, 1960) lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She has shown widely around the world and has had solo shows at Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and Stedelijk Museum. Frik has works in the collections of Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague (NL), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (NL), City of Amsterdam (NL). For further information or press pictures please contact Naja Rantorp: [email protected] David Risley Gallery Bredgade 65A DK-1260 Copenhagen T: +45 26163671 [email protected] www.davidrisleygallery.com |
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