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until 23.12. | #3686ARTatBerlin | Galerie Max Hetzler shows from 04. November 2022 (Openning: 04.11) the exibition by the artist Darren Almond.
We are pleased to present A Distant Silence, a solo exhibition of new works by Darren Almond at Galerie Max Hetzler, at Bleibtreustraße 45 in Berlin.
The exhibition explores Almond’s longstanding fascination with abstract ideas such as time, space, history and memory, and plays with the relationships between these concepts. Inspired by the vastness of nature, the cosmos and the perpetual cycle of being, new paintings from the ‘Mono-Lith’ and ‘Counter’ series of works are on view, as well as one of Almond’s ‘Train Plates’.
In the ‘Counter’ paintings, Almond uses numbers to represent space and time. In one work, for example, images of the night sky are abstracted into a multi-part composition in which fragmented numbers float on a dark, indigo ground. Here, the number zero – the only integer – has a special significance: it symbolises a celestial pole and functions as a focal point that is simultaneously empty and infinite as well as containing everything and nothing. Another painting in the series shows a golden frieze of six panels over which fragmented numerals in shades of indigo, ultramarine and emerald green are spread. The work pays homage to Ogata Kōrin’s 18th-century (c. 1701-05) six-panel folding iris screens, which feature spring irises in ultramarine and green against a lush gold background. Inspired by the reverence for nature in Japanese culture, Almond’s works also allude to the open architectural structures of Japanese temples, whose form frames the sky to allow for the contemplation of the rising and setting moon and sun.
The gestural paintings in the ‘Mono-Lith’ series can also be understood as landscapes. The works have evolved from Almond’s photography series ‘Fullmoon’, which since 1998 has shown landscapes in moonlight and long exposure times to capture what the artist calls “light in the darkness”. The title of the ‘Mono-Lith’ works refers to the quasi-lithographic process by which they are created. Almond presses indigo dyes over a relief surface that lies beneath a raw canvas. The resulting images are Darren Almond, Night Walker, 2022 simultaneously animated by emptiness and gesture, evoking the harmony of Eastern calligraphy. Thus, references to waterfalls, grassy fields or desert landscapes emerge in these subtle paintings.
The title of the exhibition comes from another work on show. A Distant Silence, 2022, is made of bronze and belongs to Almond’s ‘Train Plate’ series. It refers in part to John Cage’s 1952 composition 4’33” and moreover to the importance of space and silence in Japanese culture. The patina and inscription of the work evoke an omnipresent silence that acts as a counterweight to the dominant politics and information overload of the digital age. What unites these diverse works is the omnipresent interest in the infinity of the earthly and heavenly universe. The landscapes cannot be captured in traditional images. Rather, they are meant to harmonise us with the silence and stillness of darkness and remind us of the transience of existence.
Darren Almond (*1971, Wigan, United Kingdom) lives and works in London. In 2005 he was nominated for the Turner Prize, and in 1996 he received the Art & Innovation Prize from the Institute of Contemporary Art, London. The artist’s work has been shown in solo exhibitions at international institutions including Jesus College, Cambridge (2019), Villa Pignatelli-Casa della Fotografia, Naples (2018), Mudam, Luxembourg (2017), Museum Sinclair Haus, Bad Homberg (2016), SCAI the Bathhouse, Tokyo (2016), Kunsthaus Graz (2015), Domaine de Chaumont-sur Loire (2012), Villa Merkel, Esslingen (2011) and FRAC Haute Normandie, Sotteville-lès-Rouen (2011). His work has been shown in several group exhibitions, most recently at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One), Edinburgh (2019); Leeds Art Gallery (2019); Kunsthaus Zürich (2019); Dojima River Biennale, Osaka (2019); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2019); Centre Pompidou-Metz (2018); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebaek (2018); Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2018); ThyssenBornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna (2017); and Royal Academy of Arts, London (2015).
Darren Almond’s works are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris, the Fondation Beyeler, Basel, the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, the FRAC Auvergne, Clermont Ferrand, the FRAC Haute Normandie, Sotteville-lès-Rouen and the Kramlich Collection, San Francisco, among others; Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal; Museum Folkwang, Essen; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Palm Springs Art Museum; Tate Gallery, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna; unt Queensland Art Collection, Brisbane.
Openning: Friday, 4. November 2022 – 18:00 until 20:00
Ausstellungsdaten: Friday, 4. November – Friday, 23. Dezember 2022
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Image caption: Darren Almond, Night Walker, 2022
Extibition Darren Almond – Galerie Max Hetzler | Contemporary Art – Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin – Exibitions Berlin Galerien – ART at Berlin
