Not that we need another reason to visit the white isle, but if we did then the burgeoning arts and culture scene is it. Nestled in the cute neighborhoods of the North, Gathering has opened a double-height gallery as a sister to their London space. Envisioned by Alex Flick, the gallery boasts an admirable bar and restaurant in the courtyard with artworks installed, including artist Tai Shani’s festoon of breasts hanging above the bar.
Harminder Judge’s vibrant pieces are the solo exhibition hosted within the chic gallery through December.
For Cliff and Cleft, the large plaster wall works act as mesmeric portals and echo the palette and natural forms of the island. This follows A Ghost Dance, a monochrome dual exhibition at Matt’s Gallery and the Sunday Painter in London which drew upon traditional funeral rites and spiritual processions. Ibiza, a site of spiritual pilgrimage for some visiting Es Vedra and others for the resonance of DC10, adds layer of meaning to Judge’s transcendent reflections and ritual processes.
To make the works, he applies primary pigments to wet plaster in a controlled chance mechanism, with a practiced hand still leaving space for serendipity. He then polishes the works so they gleam and glow. In this carefully considered hang, the works have conversations between themselves – one imagines as a whispering between realms. Embracing the ineffable, these works are more then the sum of their parts and some third place is conjured beyond the picture plane, or sculptural surface.
Untitled (rock risen cleft cliff) covers the custom poured floor of the top mezzanine level . It appears as a natural form, echoing the Balaeric landscape and natural portals of the island. It is at once organic and inanimate and bodily.
If heading to the island in winter isn’t your thing, keep an eye out for Judge as his star continues to rise, and add Gathering to the group chat for the 2025 season.
‘Harminder Judge: Cliff and Cleft’ Gathering, Ibiza, 28 Sep – 22 Dec 2024. Courtesy of Gathering.
London based gallery Cadogan Contemporary recently teamed up with Canadian painter and botanist Ilana Manolson for the conception of a solo exhibition titled Chance Encounters. Set to open on April 23rd, the exhibition will be Manolson’s debut showcase in the city and will feature over 20 of her acrylic paintings with themes of representation and abstraction presented in ways which challenge traditional depictions of nature in nature in art.
A trained botanist, Manolson offers the viewer an intimate and profound knowledge of the natural world , she began painting while working at Canada’s National Park system in Alberta, where her office became a de facto art studio. Eventually, her passion and talent led her to study printmaking and painting at one of America’s most prestigious art schools, The Rhode Island School of Design.
“I see being a naturalist and being a painter as being very much related in that you are looking at an environment closely, looking over time and looking for the details that explain the larger whole,” the artist explained. The showcase will make its run throughout mid April and take its bow on the 10th of May.
This month sees the publication of two new books on the work of German artist Werner Büttner – the first entitled Coincidence In Splendour takes a look at his paintings, and the second My Looting Eye his collages. Why is that a big deal? Well, considering that these are the first books on Büttner’s practice to ever be published in English, it means his work is about to become accessible to an entirely new audience. See? Exciting.
For those unfamiliar with Büttner’s oeuvre, here’s a little background. Whilst predominantly known as a painter, he started a series of collages in the early naughties to confidently and pointedly address the nature of composition and subject matter in art practice. By enabling viewers to reconsider artistic conventions and norms, Werner Büttner also addresses social conformity and the ideology of rebellion (interestingly, Büttner originally trained as a lawyer).
Büttner decontextualizes everyday objects to explore the power of meaning in a visually-stimulating and dynamic way. Explaining his seemingly unpredictable, idiosyncratic style he comments: “the artist is a sieve, sifting his environment. Information nuggets of precisely the required size get stuck in the sieve. Now he can work.” My Looting Eye explores the ‘method that lies behind the madness’.
Werner Büttner’s My Looting Eye and Coincidence in Splendor launch on 28th January, 6-8pm at Marlborough Contemporary London. Published by Black Dog Publishing.
Main image: Werner Büttner, Abandoned, 2008, Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London
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