until 28.10. | #4039ARTatBerlin | Galerie Thomas Schulte shows from 14 September 2023 the solo exhibition “Norte Abierto” with paintings by the artist Juan Uslé.
Repetitions and variations radiate across a series of new medium-scale paintings by Juan Uslé in Norte Abierto at Galerie Thomas Schulte. Opening on the occasion of Berlin Art Week, the exhibition marks the artist’s ninth solo exhibition at the gallery.
In elongated, vertical canvases comprising horizontal rows of stacked brushstrokes, Uslé’s paintings are full of oscillations: gradients in a state of flux. As well as contradictions: they are paced and structured though meandering, marked by lyrical turns. The environments they open up are woven from continuous, processual paths that are nonetheless susceptible to sudden shits, interruptions and moments of pause. This openness and continuity filters through the works in the exhibition.
In accumulations of time, color, gestures and signs, the repetitional continuity of the works gives way to a richly layered fabric, a constellation of experiences and sensations. We can peer through the cracks and slippages, soak up the reflections that bounce off the surface, follow the threads that construct the whole—line by line, row by row. Like screens, they offer glimpses into another layer of reality, another place, which only unfolds as we navigate through. What Uslé guides us towards is something submerged, hidden—lying just behind, or just beyond, and continuing just out of view.
Parallel to Uslé’s works, an installation by Willem de Rooij will be on view in the gallery’s Corner Space.
Juan Uslé, born 1954 in Santander, Spain, has developed a rich painterly oeuvre that operates in the space between pure abstraction and emotionally intense subjective expression. Since the early 1980s he sought to create paintings informed—on a meta-narrative level—by his personal experience, while also reflecting the fundamental rules of his pictorial vocabulary. Juan Uslé received his training at the Escuela Superior de Belles Artes San Carlos in Valencia. He participated in the 51st Venice Biennale (2005) and exhibited at documenta 9 in Kassel (1992). In 2002, he was awarded Spain’s National Art Prize.
His painting and photography has been presented in numerous individual exhibitions in the US and Europe, including Bombas Gens Centre d’ Art, Valencia (2021), Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela (2014), Kunstmuseum Bonn (2014), Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma (2010), Fundación Bancaja, Valencia (2008), Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga (2007), and “la Caixa” Foundation, Barcelona (2006). He was also in numerous group exhibitions including Guggenheim Museo Bilbao (2022/2023), Centro Botín, Santander (2021), Zeit Contemporary Art, New York (2021), Columbus Museum of Art Columbus, Ohio (2019), Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama (2017), Museo Picasso, Málaga (2016), Fundación Luciano Benetton, Venice (2015), Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid (2013), Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2010), Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2009), MUDAM Luxemburg (2008). His work is part of various public collections, including Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Museo Reina Sofía, MOMA, Pompidou, “la Caixa” Foundation, MUMOK, MIGROS, Musée d’Art Moderne Luxembourg, SMAK, Tate Modern, Moderna Museet, New York Public Library, Serralves Museum, Museum Morsbroich, Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Marugame Hirai Museum, and Saatchi Collection. Juan Uslé lives and works in New York City and Saro in Cantabria, Spain.
Opening: Thursday, 14 September 2023
Exhibition dates: Thursday, 14 September until Saturday, 28 Oktober 2023, Tuesday – Saturday , 12 p.m. – 6 p.m.
To the Gallery
Caption title: Juan Uslé, “Ahí vivía yo”, 2023, Vinyl dispersion and dry pigment on canvas, 198 x 112 cm | 78 x 44 1/8 inches
Exhibition Juan Uslé – Galerie Thomas Schulte | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galleries | ART at Berlin