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Until 23.12. | #3687ARTatBerlin | Galerie Max Hetzler shows from 04. November 2022 (Openning: 04.11) the exhibition by the artist Navid Nuur.
Galerie Max Hetzler presents the solo exhibition STEP BY STEP by Navid Nuur, on view at Galerie Max Hetzler, Bleibtreustraße 15/16 in Berlin.
The exhibition brings together new works as well as works from recent years that show Nuur’s lifelong fascination with marbling and his ongoing exploration of the subject. From a young age, Nuur felt a spiritual force emanating from marble and was preoccupied with the question of why the material remained in the background in the form of decorative panelling or marbled manuscript bindings, rather than as a pure art form. This investigation of supposed truths is an essential part of Nuur’s work: by questioning preconceived ideas, the artist probes (in)conscious thinking about the small, inconspicuous processes in our material world.
The exhibition reaches back to Nuur’s early experiments with marbling and its visual properties. In his large-scale painting Untitled, 2015, the intricate, swirled pattern of marble is mimicked with gesso, a paint mixture traditionally used as a primer for canvases. By presenting a prepared, yet technically unfinished surface, the artist leaves room for our own imagination to project ideas onto a canvas that remains forever trapped in a liminal ‘in-between’ state. This same introspection can be found in a series of works on paper, When Meaning gets marbled, 2015, where Nuur has created works that reference the long tradition of “marbled paper”, a material that has historically served as a background for sacred writings in both Eastern and Western cultures. Here the artist uses liquid graphite, a medium that behaves like ink but when dried looks like pencil. He thus blurs the boundaries between different media to present marble paper in a new light.
Nuur’s in-depth exploration of marbling in recent years has led to the creation of a new body of work entitled Mono no aware ness. From a journey that the artist compares to a “trip on the water” using only his intuition as a compass, the result is a sea of colour and movement, with swirling lines that shift and merge under the viewer’s gaze. Carefully planned yet open to chance, the present works are the result of a labour-intensive and time-consuming process. Working with multiple layers of paint, Nuur suspends each in a transparent liquid, which he manually Navid Nuur, Mono no aware ness, 2010- 2022, photo: jhoeko with induced vibrations and custom-made tools. The individual layers of paint are then transferred onto a curved metal plate. After several passes of the paint application, the numerous layers lose their individuality and merge into a symposium of colour worlds. Bordering on randomness but deliberately crafted, this series of works captures fleeting moments in solid form. Nuur sensed this duality, the stasis of transience, reflected in written form in the Japanese phrase “mono no aware”. This phrase, which can be translated as “the pathos of things” or “an empathy towards things” and also encompasses the English term “aware”, gives the works their title.
Alongside this new group of works, a series of “Wind Maps” will also be shown. These visual diagrams serve as the artist’s starting point for the marbled works. The sketches on tracing paper indicate the colour palette, the movements of the water and the tools used for the individual layers of paint. Like musical improvisation, these maps emerge from the artist’s unconscious stream of thought and act as a guiding force in an unpredictable artistic process that is itself entirely exposed to the inner workings of colour and material transformation. The poem accompanying the exhibition, STEP BY STEP, was written by Nuur following the production of his first marbled works and is a lyrical reflection on his intense time in the studio.
Navid Nuur (*1976, Tehran) lives and works in The Hague, Netherlands. Nuur studied at the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam and at Plymouth University. Nuur’s work has been recognised in solo exhibitions at international institutions, including Kunstmuseum Den Haag; Marta Herford Museum, Herford (both 2020); NDSM Werf, Amsterdam (2019); Be-Part, Platform for Contemporary Art, Waregem (2017); DCA Dundee Contemporary Arts; Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest (both 2014); Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht; Parasol Unit, London (both 2013); Matadero, Madrid (2012); Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen (2011); Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent; Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel; and De Hallen Museum, Haarlem (all 2009).
Navid Nuur’s works are represented in renowned collections, including the Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem; Kunsthaus Zürich; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, among many others.
Openning: Friday, 4. November 2022 – 18:00 until 20:00
Ausstellungsdaten: Friday, 4. November – Friday, 23. December 2022
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Image caption: Navid Nuur, Mono no aware ness, 2010–2022, photo: jhoeko.
Exhibition Navid Nuur – Galerie Max Hetzler | Contemporary Art – Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin – Exhibitions Berlin Galerien – ART at Berlin
