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until 22.07. | #1429ARTatBerlin | dr. julius | ap presents from 22nd June 2017 the exhibition “KICKIN’ THE TIRES” by the artists Matthew Deleget (US) and Natalie Reusser (CH).
Matthew Deleget [b. 1972, Hammond, Indiana, US] is a multi-talented artist active in the American reductive art scene. As an artist, curator, lecturer, author, and co-founder of the legendary gallery MINUS SPACE in Brooklyn, New York, he has devoted his career to promoting the visibility and relevance of the minimal-conceptual approach in contemporary art.
Deleget’s own work incorporates his extensive knowledge of current and past trends of this artistic approach, but does not simply borrow aesthetic or formal ideas. Deleget’s work is persistently radical, conceptually sharp, and sometimes even severe and provocative. His visual statements invitenon-figurative art and artists not to shut out current social and political realities, but rather to reflect on them in subtle ways that challenge viewers to think for themselves, thereby stimulating individual, independent analysis of the contemporary world in general. “[…] my work absorbs, digests, and reacts to what I see and hear around me daily in my environment—urban culture, corporate government, news propaganda, unwinnable wars, religious
fundamentalism, unconscionable materialism, and more. I am interested in attacking the problem of reductive abstraction from every possible vantage point,” Matthew Deleget wrote in 2012 in conjunction with his contribution to FutureShock OneTwo, an international group show at dr. julius | ap.
The first extensive exhibition of Deleget’s work in Berlin was in 2015, in the joint show “Related Lines”with Hartmut Böhm. For this 2017 duo show he completed five new pieces in the series broken monochrome paintings, whose titles comment directly on the current situation in the United States in the wake of Trump’s rise to power.
In varied and unconventional ways, Natalie Reusser [b. 1988 in Bern, Switzerland] strives to overcome inherited conceptions of visual art, and painting in particular. Her approach developed out of a fundamental engagement with the materiality of canvas and paint, through which the textile qualities of the supporting material increasingly became the focal point. Since then she has explored all kinds of textiles and fabrics, working inventively to develop personal methods of handling and treatment, as well as experimenting with techniques specific to each material. “My strategy is to confront materials in as unprejudiced a way as possible. My investigation of these fabrics—through looking, deconstructing, adding, imitating,
transforming, and combining—exposes characteristics and qualities that transcend the fabric’s intended function. I therefore see my method as a constant dialogue with the unknown,” Reusser explains.
This method has led to works ranging from paint layered and worked on linen or other common fabrics, to assemblages, to objects made of glass- or carbon fibers. Reusser also experiments with gesso and clay, oil- and acrylic paint, and with unconventional modifications of materials. The application of materials from the high-tech industry, such as carbon-, glass-, aramide-, or Dyneema fabric, for new purposes often leads to innovative results, which the artist then appropriates and uses as a starting point for her next project.
Following Reusser’s participation in START-UP!, this duo-show with Matthew Deleget is the first major opportunity to see her refreshing, surprising art at dr. julius | ap.
Vernissage: Thursday, 22nd June 2017, 7 to 9 p.m.
Exhibition period: Thursday, 22nd June to Saturday, 22nd July 2017
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Image caption: Matthew Deleget – Confident Liar, 2017. Acrylic on panel hit with a hammer, 24 x 20 inches – 61 x 51 cm
Exhibitions Berlin Galleries: Matthew Deleget + Natalie Reusser – KICKIN’ THE TIRES – dr. julius | ap | ART at Berlin
