Dredgers on the Rail

Freedman Fitzpatrick, Los Angeles, California, USA
26 de julio de 2015 – 5 de septiembre de 2015

An encrusted pillar. A standing, lodged and vertical oak. Pierced through the body from above by a concrete column, entwined, locked and locking worlds together.

Provoking the limits of a form, contort or melt to move through. A patch of undead chia, a feigned arability, retreating from or pushing into life. Distant landscapes point at conflicting realities.

A coral swamp pulses in a violent thrust. Disorientation in a synthetic maze born from a path, trapped in place and presenting solace as if it were some kind of raft leading ahead in an effervescent flow.

Between the bait and the mouth. Iridescent jaws pierce water, leaping outwards and crashing to disperse a mist. Eyes sink to water level, a duplicitous vantage point. The flesh of mud on toes, slowly letting go into a tread, a submergence into a drifting dive.

A cocoon, one or many bodies nesting, a feverish molt. A chrysalis waiting to hatch and swarm. A reason for caution, care of the fragile panoply’s latent hatchling. A sign of a new inhabitant.

Sirens and tricksters, a languid social flesh of aggregate forms adorned at the end of a morass. A palace complex becomes an alcoved cell, a prison and a dwelling, forever dislocated in the depths. The light is a bait beckoning, to dive into a darkness, provoked by an angler.

Constrained and afloat, a body conflicted, twisted and spit out, dizzied in the rip. The net of an Other pulls and drags, caught and entwined, a moment of buoyancy in a departure. A hidden world of copycats reflecting an image of yourself. A piercing agent, the gradation of diminishing light. Vacating a bounded rationality to swim and build in an entropic swirl, and then coming home.

–

Midway through the exhibition, the work “Scattered A, Scattered K” (2012-2015), a collaboration by Das Institut and Allison Katz, will be removed from the gallery and brought to an off-site burial ground, left to decompose, and replaced by a video documenting the final passage of this work’s material life, which was first exhibited at Family Business in 2012 and then in Gaylen Gerber’s solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2013).

In exhibition:

MATHIS ALTMANN (b. 1987, Munich; lives in Zurich) graduated with a BFA from Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zurich in 2012. His solo exhibition at Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg opens in September 2015. He is a recipient of the 2015 Swiss Art Awards. Recent solo exhibitions include: Marbriers 4, Geneva (2014), Freedman Fitzpatrick, Los Angeles (2014); Pro Choice at Shananay, Paris (2014); Graff Mourgue d‘Algue, Geneva (2012); and Coalmine, Winterthur (2011). His work has been featured in group shows at Kunsthalle Bern (2015); Centre National d’art Contemporain, Grenoble (2014); Kunsthalle Freiburg (2013); Kunstmuseum Basel (2012); and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2011).

DAS INSTITUT was founded in 2007 by Kerstin Brätsch (b. Hamburg, lives in New York) and Adele Röder (b. 1980, Dresden, lives in London). They have exhibited at such venues as Kunstraum München (2014); NAK Aachen (2014); Frac Aquitaine, France (2014); Kunsthalle Baden Baden (2014); PS1 Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013); Städtische Galerie Nordhorn (2013); Kunstverein Frankfurt (2013); Museum for Contemporary Art Taipei (2013); Deste Foundation, Athens (2013); ICA London (2012); Halle für Kunst Lüneburg (2011); Kölnischer Kunstverein (2011); Centre d’art contemporain, Parc Saint Léger, Pougues les Eaux (2010); 54th Venice Biennial (2011); Swiss Institute, New York (2009); and Kunsthalle Zurich (2009) et. al. They will have a solo exhibition at the Serpentine in London in 2016.

ROCHELLE GOLDBERG (b. 1984, Vancouver; lives in New York) graduated with a MFA in Sculpture from Milton Avery School of the Arts, Bard College, Annandale-On-Hudson in 2014. Recent solo exhibitions include: Federico Vavassori, Milan (2015); Quark Prize, Geneva (2015); and Eli Ping Frances Perkins, New York (2014). She has exhibited in group exhibitions at: Murray Guy, New York (2015); Clifton Benevento, New York (2015); Tomorrow Gallery, New York (2015); BedStuy Love Affair, Brooklyn (2015); Plymouth Rock, Zurich (2015), Mitchell-Innes and Nash, New York, (2014); the Swiss Institute, New York (2013); Cleopatra’s, New York (2013); and Clearing, Brooklyn (2012).

JUAN JOSÉ GURROLA (b. 1935 Mexico City, d. 2007) was primilary known as a theater and film director, poet, playwright, architect, translator, actor, and set designer. His career began in experimental theater in 1957. He directed and designed sets for more than 200 plays and operas from such diverse luminaries as John Ford, Ionesco, Picasso, Klossowski, E.E. Cummings and Nino Rota amongst others. Gurrola also developed a prolific career as an artist, mainly as a painter, performer and in non-objectual art (a term used in Mexico in the 60´s to describe alternative practices), collaborating with figures such as James Metcalf, Victor Fosado and David Hockney. In 1962 Gurrola and a numerous group of collaborators founded the independent theatre company “Estudio de Investigaciones Escénicas A.C.” He was recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Grant (1960-1963), the British Council (1964), and the Guggenheim Foundation (1972). In 2004 the Mexican Government awarded him with the National Arts Price. His work, Monoblock – an eclectic mix of poor theater, performance, poetry reading, and pantomime – was presented this past July at the Los Angeles County Musuem of Art (LACMA).

JULIEN NGUYEN (b. 1990, Los Angeles; lives in Frankfurt) graduated from the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Städelschule, Frankfurt in 2015, where he studied under Michael Krebber, and received a BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2012. Recent solo exhibitions include: Neue Alte Brücke (2013 and 2014) and Kunstverein München (2014). His work has been featured in group exhibitions at MMK Frankfurt (2015); Grand Century, New York, (2015); Vilma Gold, London (2014); Project Native Informant, London (2014); What Pipeline, Detroit (2014); and Neue Alte Brücke (2014).

ALLISON KATZ (b. 1980, Montreal; lives in London) received her BFA from Concordia University and her MFA in Painting from Columbia University (2008). She has exhibited internationally with solo exhibitions at BFA Boatos, Sao Paulo (2014); Laura Bartlett, London (2013); Johan Berggren, Malmö (2013); Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome (2012); and 1857, Oslo (2012). She has participated in group exhibitions at: Sculpture Centre, New York (2014); South London Gallery (2014); Sikkema Jenkins, New York (2013); Algus Greenspon, New York (2013); Office Baroque, Antwerp (2013); Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York (2011); Galerie Emmanuel Layr, Vienna (2012); and Swiss Institute, New York (2009), et al.

MARGARET SALMON (b. 1975 in Suffern, New York; lives in Glasgow) creates filmic portraits that weave together poetry and ethnography. Focusing on individuals in their everyday habitats, her films capture the minutiae of daily life and infuse them with gentle grandeur, touching upon universal human themes. She received an MFA in Photography from the Royal College of Art, London in 2003. She won the first Max Mara Art Prize for Women in 2006. She has had solo exhibitions at Office Baroque, Brussels (2014); Witte de With, Rotterdam (2007); and Whitechapel Gallery, London (2007), among others. Her work was featured at the Venice Biennale (2007) and the Berlin Biennale (2010), as well as in group exhibitions at: Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2014); Kunstverein Nürnberg (2013); Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneve (2011); Hayward Gallery, London (2011); Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2011); Kunsthalle Basel (2008); and Barbican Art Gallery, London (2005).

OSCAR TUAZON (b. 1975 in Seattle; lives in Los Angeles). Recent solo museum exhibitions include: Consortium Dijon (2015); Ludwig Museum, Kassel (2014); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2013); ICA London (2010); Kunsthalle Bern (2010); Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (2009); Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Louis (2008); and Palais de Tokyo (2007). He has participated in group exhibitions at: Arnolfini, Bristol (2014); Museum Ludwig (2013); Whitney Museum of American Art (2012); 54th Biennial, Venice (2011); CAPC, Bordeaux (2011); Le Magasin, Grenoble (2011); Migros Museum for Contemporary Art, Zurich (2010); Midway Contemporary, Minneapolis (2010), et. al.

http://freedmanfitzpatrick.com

Courtesy of the artists and Freedman Fitzpatrick, Los Angeles; House of GAGA, Mexico City; Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt; Office Baroque, Bruxelles; Maccarone, New York and Los Angeles.