Art Cologne 2006

ART COLOGNE OPEN SPACE DOUGLAS ALLSOP

FAIR BOOTH JILL BAROFF STEPHAN BAUMKÖTTER HARTMUT BÖHM FRANK GERRITZ JAMES HOWELL JULIA MANGOLD WINSTON ROETH BEAT ZODERER

NOVEMBER 1 - 5 2006 MESSE KÖLN

DOUGLAS ALLSOP

ART COLOGNE OPEN SPACE 2006 For Open Space at Art Cologne 2006, Douglas Allsop has chosen a set of works that was recently exhibited at the Centre d’Arts in Lille.

The artist notes: My recent works present a site specificity that is architectural.

These works were designed to echo the two-column space of the Centre d’Arts, Lille. They present an integral set of horizontal and vertical variants formed from the ratios of 1-5 and 1-10. They capture an inverted mirror world that changes with our perception. They question the way we look and what we want to see.

Governing all of this is my concern with what it means to look at, look through, or be reflected in the art object. Seeing - the desire to see - is both literally and figuratively reflected back upon the viewer.

Reflective Editor Three Vertical Rectangular Holes, Parallel Patern, V 12 H19, 2006 Cast acrylic sheet, hardened steel pins 120 x 300 x 0.5 cm

JILL BAROFF

Jill Baroff’s series of “Tide Drawings” are often described as patterns of place. At Art Cologne we will present two recent works depicting the tidal change that occurred during the Hurricane Isabelle in 2003. The underlying data of both works are the same and are derived from water level readings at six-minute intervals along the coast. The numerical data can take the shape of grids, horizontal stacks of lines or circle-drawings, as depicted on the opposite page. On the following page, the installation of six works depicts the tidal changes over six consecutive days. The varying format of each drawing emphasizes the self-structuring methodology that determines each work.

The artist lives and works in Brooklyn New York, she regularly exhibits in the US and Europe. Recent installations include group exhibitions at the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart and the Kunstverein Eislingen, as well as an exhibition entitled “The Shape of Time” at the Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim in Neuhaus, Germany. The artist’s second solo show with the gallery is scheduled for Spring 2007.

Hurricane Isablle, 2006 Ink on Japanese gampi mounted on rag 81.25 x 81.25 cm

Hurricane Isablle, The Outerbanks, NC Sep 15-20, MMIII, 2005 Ink on Japanese gampi mounted on rag 15. 36.8 x 36.8 cm, 16. 33 x 33cm, 17. 25.4 x 25.4 cm, 18. 33.6 x 33.6 cm 19. 74.9 x 74.9 cm, 20. 45.7 x 45.7 cm

STEPHAN BAUMKÖTTER

Stephan Baumkötter’s paintings remain in a state of infinite reflection. Each painting is a carefully constructed assemblage of colour-spaces. Baumkötter applies paint to the canvas using a variety of coloured oil-sticks; colours are mixed directly on the canvas and merged into modulating layers of paint. At first glance, finished paintings often appear monochrome, slowly revealing their subtly changing character as different colours and tones appear from underlying layers. It is this ambiguous quality of the work that afford Baumkötter’s paintings an animated appearance.

Stephan Baumkötter has recently completed a residency at the Albers Foundation in Bethany. During 2007, new works by Stephan Baumkötter will be the subject of a series of exhibitions in Cologne, London and Stavanger. The artist has shown in numerous institutions and museums across the world. Recent solo exhibitions include shows at the Albers Museum Quadrat in Botrop as well as the Goethe Institute in Brussels and New York. The artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery is scheduled to take place during May – June 2007

Untitled, 2002 Paintstick on canvas 73.5 x 41.5 cm

HARTMUT BÖHM

A series of steel reliefs by Hartmut Böhm from his recent exhibition at the gallery in London forms the basis for the artist’s installation at Art Cologne. The steel wall and floor pieces are all based on standard construction elements. In this case the same T-section beam has been used to create four frames. As with all of Böhm’s work, this piece reveals the uncompromising nature of the artist’s work.

As Gregory Volk recently noted, “Böhm hides nothing, obscures nothing, and lays everything right before you, but still his peculiar mix of rigorous order and ever-shifting fluctuations, pattern and variations, materials and emptiness, activates the whole space and winds up being downright cathartic.” 1

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Gregory Volk, System With Surprises.

Hartmut Böhm, Ausdehnung und Begrenzung. Das extreme Eine und das extreme Andere. Stiftung für konkrete Kunst, Reutlingen, Germany 2000

Vier mal Anders II, 1995 Steel Each 69 x 69 x 6 cm

FRANK GERRITZ

Frank Gerritz works in paint stick on aluminium are characterised by their razor-sharp compositions. Lines or fields of black oil paint are drawn onto contrasting anodized aluminium surfaces. The works capture light and at the same time reflect light as well as surrounding colours. Gerritz’s objects fall somewhere between drawing, painting and sculpture; rather than occupying one discipline the works’ multifaceted qualities give the objects an indeterminate state, which affords them an undeniable presence.

Works by Gerritz have been exhibited widely. Forthcoming solo exhibitions include the artist’s second solo show at the gallery in London, from late October to early December 2006. A extensive solo exhibition at the Neues Museum Weserburg in Bremen, accompanied by a major new publication on the artist’s work, is scheduled to take place during the second half of 2007. Other exhibitions include a group exhibition at the Musée de Pontoise in France from October 2006 as well as a feature presentation of early sculpture-prints with pure editions at Art Cologne.

Decoder, 2000 Paintstick on anodized aluminium 240 x 120 cm

Gemini Suite II, 2004 Paintstick on anodised aluminium 60 x 180 cm

JAMES HOWELL

James Howell’s current series of paintings entitled “Series Ten� started in 1996. The works investigate the movement of light into shade. Each painting is contained within a gradation, always lightest at the top, the painting becoming darker towards the bottom.

The movement within the paintings is accomplished through the layering of pigments. The artist deliberately uses scientific systems to determine the amount of pigment and the water quotient to resolve the hue of each painting. Working exclusively with the colour grey, the pursuit of unlimited possibilities within what at first appears to be simple boundaries, reveals an underlying notion that reality may not finally be an edge, but a range.

48.17, 06 Feb 2004 54.18, 16 Mar 2004 Acrylic on canvas Each 101.5 x 101.5 cm

JULIA MANGOLD

Both their sensuous surfaces and the shifting levels of the juxtaposed rectangular steel elements characterize Julia Mangold’s sculptures. The work exhibited at Art Cologne is composed of three distinct elements. The interplay of volumes and depth gives the work an animated appearance. As the light changes during the day, the surface changes in colour from a cool blue metal tone to a deep dark red patina.

In a recent interview Julia Mangold commented thus on her work: ”Repetitive form in variations, movement within static patterns.

These are delicate and simple and rich objects. I believe beauty is important.”

O.T. 5.9.00, 2000 Waxed Steel 150 x 80 x 10.5 cm

WINSTON ROETH

“Roeth’s work includes three forms: grids, and what he calls “landscapes” and “containment paintings.” We see even in the internal heterodoxy of mathematic, historical and descriptive titles something resistant to any theory that would predict one’s experience of them. Indeed, Roeth has formed a practice out of following the painting’s “urge”—an inherent power and identity that he finds through his process. A finished painting—its immanence—is not just the accumulation of layers of paint or the sum total of his method. The format is laid down, but the painting emerges through the process of building layers of paint. Sometimes it gets lost, and he has to find it; in all cases it changes a lot from beginning to end. ..., Roeth is always trying to exceed his discipline, to get to that place just out of reach. At that edge he explores new territory, and it is mercurial, changing, moving. In this way his work is always evolving.

He likes to say that he’s making it up as we all go along, hurtling through time and space.”

Extract from DRY LIQUID EDGE OF EXPERIENCE an essay by Alison Green published in the catalogue accompanying Roeth’s recent exhibitions at Gallery N. von Bartha, London and Galerie von Bartha, Basel

Day Blue, 2006 Tempera on Honeycomb Panel 190.5 x 114.3 cm

BEAT ZODERER

Beat Zoderer predominantly uses everyday materials as a basis for his work. The artist sources his materials from general hardware stores. Rather than altering them, Zoderer makes use of these materials within what at first appears to be methodical structures based on repetition or mathematical systems. However this is a deception, as each piece allows for an arbitrary element.

During the largely spontaneous process of creating works, Beat Zoderer is guided by an attempt to create order in chaos. To facilitate this he sometimes draws on the formal language of historic works of geometric abstraction. The complexity of each piece consciously allows for imperfections and mistakes. It is this self-contradicting and ambiguous quality of the works that gives them the playfulness that probably best characterizes the artist and his work.

A new work created during the artist’s residency in London is illustrated on the following page, the work will be on view as part of Beat Zoderer’s solo show at the gallery during September - October 2006.

Kleiner Einspann auf Drei Lagen No. 1, 2005 Steel 90 x 80 cm