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| DANIELA SCHÖNBÄCHLER 'The Silent Art of Secrecy' June 16 - September 13 |
LILIANE LIJN 'STARDUST' continues until September at Beak Street |
MARTA MARCÉ Games & Theory' at the South London Gallery from 11 July |
FRANCESCA LOWE Beijing Biennale |
JAIME GILI Previous Exhibition |
AISHLEEN LESTER 'Frozen Symphony' at Selfridges |
"Riflemaker now has one of the most exciting rosters of artists in the country"
The Independent: July 2008
DANIELA SCHÖNBÄCHLER
'The Silent Art of Secrecy'
Nocturne: Monday 16 June
Exhibition: Tuesday 17 June - Saturday 13 September 2008
Swiss-born Daniela Schönbächler lives in Venice and works on the Island of Murano, Italy. Her first solo exhibition in London 'The Silent Art of Secrecy' is comprised of paintings in ink on a glass “canvas”, free-standing works which explore an innovative use of glass as well as more traditional painting mediums.
The Cubi: Several sheets of layered glass are painted with ink, then bonded together to form one entity. The process explores an internal depth which, working in the same way as a shadow, owes its very existence to light.
Plates IV V VI: Ink paintings on a glass "canvas", placed on easels away from the gallery walls, appear as a continually changing image from any angle in a 3-dimensional perspective. As reflective, transparent surfaces, they also incorporate their surroundings, and are therefore constantly transforming and adapting. The work is static and yet in a state of flux; independent but at the same time dependent on the environment.
The Paintings: Schönbächler's multi-strata technique enables the viewer to discover a deeper, more dimensional visual and emotional universe, where she searches for the right moment – poised in between tension and tranquility. In her newer works, the approach is more minimalistic. Where there is no paint is suddenly equally as interesting as the painted surface. Her way of working includes constantly twisting and turning the canvas to defy gravity, and to find her own centre.
The overall theme uniting all of Schönbächler's work is one of contemplation. Through the experience of her art and its interaction with the ambience inside the gallery, the viewer is offered the opportunity to take silent refuge from the chaos, commotion and confusion of the world outside. Schönbächler's creative point of departure is contrast, out of which she strives to find an inner human equilibrium. In her view, everything in life is based on two opposing forces. Her work explores the tension created by this polarity, resulting in harmony - the culmination of these opposite energies.
BIOGRAPHY
Daniela Schönbächler was born in Zug, Switzerland. After studying architecture in Paris, Daniela collaborated with the architect Mario Botta in Lugano, Switzerland. Her keen interest in 3D media evolved into a more sculptural form of expression, where glass became the unifying element linking architecture to art. This new direction led to technical studies of glass and its material properties in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Schönbächler subsequently trained alongside the sculptor and mentor Luciano Vistosi in Venice, resulting in a collaboration spanning over a decade. During this period, she continued to create her own works from her studios in Venice and London - evolving her unique intermingling of both artistic mediums; glass and paint. Daniela Schönbächler currently lives and thrives in Venice.
'The Silent Art of Secrecy'
Nocturne: Monday 16 June
Exhibition: Tuesday 17 June - Saturday 13 September 2008
Swiss-born Daniela Schönbächler lives in Venice and works on the Island of Murano, Italy. Her first solo exhibition in London 'The Silent Art of Secrecy' is comprised of paintings in ink on a glass “canvas”, free-standing works which explore an innovative use of glass as well as more traditional painting mediums.
The Cubi: Several sheets of layered glass are painted with ink, then bonded together to form one entity. The process explores an internal depth which, working in the same way as a shadow, owes its very existence to light.
Plates IV V VI: Ink paintings on a glass "canvas", placed on easels away from the gallery walls, appear as a continually changing image from any angle in a 3-dimensional perspective. As reflective, transparent surfaces, they also incorporate their surroundings, and are therefore constantly transforming and adapting. The work is static and yet in a state of flux; independent but at the same time dependent on the environment.
The Paintings: Schönbächler's multi-strata technique enables the viewer to discover a deeper, more dimensional visual and emotional universe, where she searches for the right moment – poised in between tension and tranquility. In her newer works, the approach is more minimalistic. Where there is no paint is suddenly equally as interesting as the painted surface. Her way of working includes constantly twisting and turning the canvas to defy gravity, and to find her own centre.
The overall theme uniting all of Schönbächler's work is one of contemplation. Through the experience of her art and its interaction with the ambience inside the gallery, the viewer is offered the opportunity to take silent refuge from the chaos, commotion and confusion of the world outside. Schönbächler's creative point of departure is contrast, out of which she strives to find an inner human equilibrium. In her view, everything in life is based on two opposing forces. Her work explores the tension created by this polarity, resulting in harmony - the culmination of these opposite energies.
BIOGRAPHY
Daniela Schönbächler was born in Zug, Switzerland. After studying architecture in Paris, Daniela collaborated with the architect Mario Botta in Lugano, Switzerland. Her keen interest in 3D media evolved into a more sculptural form of expression, where glass became the unifying element linking architecture to art. This new direction led to technical studies of glass and its material properties in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Schönbächler subsequently trained alongside the sculptor and mentor Luciano Vistosi in Venice, resulting in a collaboration spanning over a decade. During this period, she continued to create her own works from her studios in Venice and London - evolving her unique intermingling of both artistic mediums; glass and paint. Daniela Schönbächler currently lives and thrives in Venice.
LILIANE LIJN
'STARDUST'
Tuesday 15 April - Saturday 5 July
For the first time in history, stardust, particles of comets and burned out stars, have been brought to our planet from beyond Mars. An installation by American artist, Liliane Lijn which acts as a metaphor for this groundbreaking NASA mission, presents interstellar dust as cosmic ruins.
Lijn (b. New York 1939), who hung out with the Surrealists in the late 50s, took part in the first art 'happenings' in the 60s and modelled for Issey Miyake in the 80s is recognised as an early pioneer of art and science. In 2005, she was awarded an ACE International Fellowship co-funded by NASA and the Leonardo Network to become the first artist in Residence at the Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley.
Lijn's exploration of Aerogel, her creation of heavenly fragments consisting of whole and fragmented forms made from silicon-based Aerogel, the untouchable, ephemeral substance used by the NASA Stardust Project as the collector of interstellar dust, will be exhibited in Stardust, a glowing large-scale installation in the former gunmaker's workshop at Riflemaker.
The exhibition follows on from the artist's 2005 residency at the Space Sciences Laboratory, and is a collaborative dialogue with the revolutionary NASA funded Stardust Mission. Since her 3 month residency at SSL, Lijn has worked with the assistance of NASA scientists to transform the porous, sponge-like material using moulded conical and cylindrical forms. Also at the Space Science Lab, Lijn met and videotaped Dr Andrew Westphal at work with his assistant on the Aerogel slices only just returned from outerspace. Under their microscope, she noticed its 3D lattice structure and the conical impact craters of the stardust particles, which were reminiscent of many of the kinetic cone works for which she became famous in the 1960s.
Lijn takes inspiration from science, oriental and western philosophies and archetypal images of mythology. She says: 'I often make use of new technologies to create works that represent the world as energy. A constant dialogue between opposites, my sculptures use light and motion to transform themselves from solid to void, opaque to transparent, formal to organic.'
Stardust combines Lijn's use of a new futuristic material developed for space exploration with the artist's vision of stardust as crumbling ancient cosmic ruins. Concurrently Lijn’s films and documentary performance and interview footage, spanning her career from the late 50s to the present day, will be shown at Riflemaker on Beak Street including interviews with Dr Stephen Jones from the Jet Propulsion Laboratories (Pasadena) and Dr Andrew Westphal from the Space Sciences Laboratory (California).
The exhibition also coincides with Centrifugal: Liliane Lijn and Annabelle Moreau at the Royal Academy Gallery (New River Avenue, opposite Church Lane, N8) from 21 March to 4 May. This collaborative exhibition continues the gallery's programme of showing the complementary work of two artists of different generations. In this case, both artists are interested in the mechanics of the physical world.
Since her residency, Lijn has also worked in collaboration with astrophysicist John Vallerga at the Space Sciences Laboratory to develop a large solar land-art work, Solar Hills that will define the horizon with pinpoints of light
Liliane Lijn studied archaeology at the Sorbonne and art history at the École du Louvre, Paris (1958). She became an artist in residence in a plastics factory, experimenting with fire and acids and working with light, poetry, movement and liquids between 1961 and 1963, rapidly establishing herself as a leading kinetic artist through many international exhibitions.
For further information on the Stardust mission visit http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
LILIANE LIJN IS ALSO IN THE CURRENT EXHIBITION AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY CONTEMPORARY SPACE WITH ANNABELLE MOREAU UNTIL 11 MAY.
RA SPACE: New River Village, London N8 – Walk from Crouch End, or Turnpike Lane underground. www.raschoolsgallery.com
'STARDUST'
Tuesday 15 April - Saturday 5 July
For the first time in history, stardust, particles of comets and burned out stars, have been brought to our planet from beyond Mars. An installation by American artist, Liliane Lijn which acts as a metaphor for this groundbreaking NASA mission, presents interstellar dust as cosmic ruins.
Lijn (b. New York 1939), who hung out with the Surrealists in the late 50s, took part in the first art 'happenings' in the 60s and modelled for Issey Miyake in the 80s is recognised as an early pioneer of art and science. In 2005, she was awarded an ACE International Fellowship co-funded by NASA and the Leonardo Network to become the first artist in Residence at the Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley.
Lijn's exploration of Aerogel, her creation of heavenly fragments consisting of whole and fragmented forms made from silicon-based Aerogel, the untouchable, ephemeral substance used by the NASA Stardust Project as the collector of interstellar dust, will be exhibited in Stardust, a glowing large-scale installation in the former gunmaker's workshop at Riflemaker.
The exhibition follows on from the artist's 2005 residency at the Space Sciences Laboratory, and is a collaborative dialogue with the revolutionary NASA funded Stardust Mission. Since her 3 month residency at SSL, Lijn has worked with the assistance of NASA scientists to transform the porous, sponge-like material using moulded conical and cylindrical forms. Also at the Space Science Lab, Lijn met and videotaped Dr Andrew Westphal at work with his assistant on the Aerogel slices only just returned from outerspace. Under their microscope, she noticed its 3D lattice structure and the conical impact craters of the stardust particles, which were reminiscent of many of the kinetic cone works for which she became famous in the 1960s.
Lijn takes inspiration from science, oriental and western philosophies and archetypal images of mythology. She says: 'I often make use of new technologies to create works that represent the world as energy. A constant dialogue between opposites, my sculptures use light and motion to transform themselves from solid to void, opaque to transparent, formal to organic.'
Stardust combines Lijn's use of a new futuristic material developed for space exploration with the artist's vision of stardust as crumbling ancient cosmic ruins. Concurrently Lijn’s films and documentary performance and interview footage, spanning her career from the late 50s to the present day, will be shown at Riflemaker on Beak Street including interviews with Dr Stephen Jones from the Jet Propulsion Laboratories (Pasadena) and Dr Andrew Westphal from the Space Sciences Laboratory (California).
The exhibition also coincides with Centrifugal: Liliane Lijn and Annabelle Moreau at the Royal Academy Gallery (New River Avenue, opposite Church Lane, N8) from 21 March to 4 May. This collaborative exhibition continues the gallery's programme of showing the complementary work of two artists of different generations. In this case, both artists are interested in the mechanics of the physical world.
Since her residency, Lijn has also worked in collaboration with astrophysicist John Vallerga at the Space Sciences Laboratory to develop a large solar land-art work, Solar Hills that will define the horizon with pinpoints of light
Liliane Lijn studied archaeology at the Sorbonne and art history at the École du Louvre, Paris (1958). She became an artist in residence in a plastics factory, experimenting with fire and acids and working with light, poetry, movement and liquids between 1961 and 1963, rapidly establishing herself as a leading kinetic artist through many international exhibitions.
For further information on the Stardust mission visit http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
LILIANE LIJN IS ALSO IN THE CURRENT EXHIBITION AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY CONTEMPORARY SPACE WITH ANNABELLE MOREAU UNTIL 11 MAY.
RA SPACE: New River Village, London N8 – Walk from Crouch End, or Turnpike Lane underground. www.raschoolsgallery.com
The first image of Stardust captured in Aerogel
"The Stardust Project''
(d.Liliane Lijn, November 2007, 12 minutes)
Liliane Lijn talks to Andrew Westphal, Director of the Stardust Project, at the Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley about capturing the dust of comets and stars and how her new work relates to his project.
Watch "The Stardust Project'' video
"What is the Sound of One Hand Clapping?"
(d. Liliane Lijn 1973, 14 minutes)
The film documents Lijn's continuing interest in cones, from 1964 to 1972. The title is taken from a Japanese koan, a Zen meditation riddle given to novice Buddhist monks as a tool to quieten the mind. As the title suggests, Lijn's koans attempt to dissolve matter and empty the mind
Watch Liliane Lijn's "What is the Sound of One Hand Clapping?" video
(d.Liliane Lijn, November 2007, 12 minutes)
Liliane Lijn talks to Andrew Westphal, Director of the Stardust Project, at the Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley about capturing the dust of comets and stars and how her new work relates to his project.
Watch "The Stardust Project'' video
"What is the Sound of One Hand Clapping?"
(d. Liliane Lijn 1973, 14 minutes)
The film documents Lijn's continuing interest in cones, from 1964 to 1972. The title is taken from a Japanese koan, a Zen meditation riddle given to novice Buddhist monks as a tool to quieten the mind. As the title suggests, Lijn's koans attempt to dissolve matter and empty the mind
Watch Liliane Lijn's "What is the Sound of One Hand Clapping?" video
JAIME GILI 'SUPERESTRELLAS'/'SUPERSTARS' at RIFLEMAKER SOHO SQUARE from Tuesday 12 February, 11 - 6pm Mon -Sat
1, Greek Street, W1 - (corner of Greek Street & Soho Square)
1, Greek Street, W1 - (corner of Greek Street & Soho Square)
JAIME GILI
'Superestrellas'
(b.1972, Caracas)
11 February 2008
In 2005 Jaime Gili caused traffic chaos in London's Oxford Street with the 700,000 triangular pieces he installed in Selfridges store windows. In 2006 he created the six mile 'Ruta Rota' (broken route), an installation of buses from Southwark Cathedral to St.Paul's.
Gili's paintings are named after "those who have swept through my life like a hurricane". Friends who are literally 'superestrellas', (superstars), their impact and their identities frozen within the explosive, cubed icicles embedded in this series of celebratory canvases.
"Jaime Gili's work is as if someone threw a stone into a Cruz-Diez painting" (Jesus Fuenmayor, curator)
'Jaime Gili Superstars' opens at Riflemaker Soho Square, 11 February 2008
'Superestrellas'
(b.1972, Caracas)
11 February 2008
In 2005 Jaime Gili caused traffic chaos in London's Oxford Street with the 700,000 triangular pieces he installed in Selfridges store windows. In 2006 he created the six mile 'Ruta Rota' (broken route), an installation of buses from Southwark Cathedral to St.Paul's.
Gili's paintings are named after "those who have swept through my life like a hurricane". Friends who are literally 'superestrellas', (superstars), their impact and their identities frozen within the explosive, cubed icicles embedded in this series of celebratory canvases.
"Jaime Gili's work is as if someone threw a stone into a Cruz-Diez painting" (Jesus Fuenmayor, curator)
'Jaime Gili Superstars' opens at Riflemaker Soho Square, 11 February 2008
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MARTA MARCE OPENS THE SECOND RIFLEMAKER SPACE
MARTA MARCÉ
(b. 1972, Vilafranca del Penedes, Spain)
3 December - 8 February, Soho Square
MARTA MARCÉ
(b. 1972, Vilafranca del Penedes, Spain)
3 December - 8 February, Soho Square
Marta Marcé (b. 1972, Vilafranca del Penedes, Spain)
is known for her paintings inspired by games. For the opening of Riflemaker, Soho Square, in November, Marcé will present a series of canvases painted in the artist's studio at Camden Arts Centre this summer.
"The subject of these paintings is obviously the game, but the object is colour, gesture and form. The result of adding the two is happiness, and this is what Marcé brings us" Sherman Sam (CAC catalogue).
"She turns the principles of modern painting on their heads" Rebecca Geldard, Time Out
Pictured: 'Flowing' paintings from the Diadem series, acrylic on mdf or silk, 122 x 160 cms, 2007
We have just opened a second gallery on the first floor of a Grade One listed mansion on the corner of Soho Square. The building, from 1746, was formerly a hostel for the destitute of St.Anne's Parish. The Riflemaker exhibition space is situated at the top of a 'crinolene' staircase so named because its wide railings are shaped for the width of 18c ladies skirts. It comprises three main rooms, the former Withdrawing Room, Council Room and Records Room. The house has a private chapel within a walled garden where Charles Dickens once sat beneath the mulberry bush as he began to compose 'A Tale of Two Cities'.
Riflemaker Soho Square opens to the public
Monday 3 December, 2007
is known for her paintings inspired by games. For the opening of Riflemaker, Soho Square, in November, Marcé will present a series of canvases painted in the artist's studio at Camden Arts Centre this summer.
"The subject of these paintings is obviously the game, but the object is colour, gesture and form. The result of adding the two is happiness, and this is what Marcé brings us" Sherman Sam (CAC catalogue).
"She turns the principles of modern painting on their heads" Rebecca Geldard, Time Out
Pictured: 'Flowing' paintings from the Diadem series, acrylic on mdf or silk, 122 x 160 cms, 2007
We have just opened a second gallery on the first floor of a Grade One listed mansion on the corner of Soho Square. The building, from 1746, was formerly a hostel for the destitute of St.Anne's Parish. The Riflemaker exhibition space is situated at the top of a 'crinolene' staircase so named because its wide railings are shaped for the width of 18c ladies skirts. It comprises three main rooms, the former Withdrawing Room, Council Room and Records Room. The house has a private chapel within a walled garden where Charles Dickens once sat beneath the mulberry bush as he began to compose 'A Tale of Two Cities'.
Riflemaker Soho Square opens to the public
Monday 3 December, 2007
Some notes on the Diadem paintings by Marta Marcé...
"Mainly I was thinking of geometry and the game Tangram which uses geometric shapes to create recognisable forms. I wanted to use these shapes to create multiple-use geometric figures. Geometry is one of the keys to this new series, but it is, as always in my work, an unsettled geometry, not at all rigid or intending to be completely perfect. I want to show how it can be a 'primary element' from which all shapes can be constructed and realised. I have tried to think of geometry as a live creature that continually changes, each time giving us quite different random shapes and ideas which make up our real world. Life is movement and I started the floor pieces thinking about a movement that the visitor can also interact with. The floor pieces entitled Flow 1 and Flow 2 are like a moving, developing painting within which people can move the shapes to create variations, deciding on the different relationships of colour and design. Overall movement is achieved in the resultant paintings by making a series of them. Each one shows a possible interaction of these geometric figures whilst at the same time introducing a unique rhythm/interference of colour.
Energy is constantly transforming the elements and this energy is contained in forms and colours. In the paintings, the activity/movement balances control with chance, giving an uncertain result. Colours are neither pure nor impure, neither beautiful nor ugly. I see colour as light that impacts on forms and materials. Therefore, light conditions will affect our vision of these colours and our vision of reality.
My use of games is like a metaphor for the structure and development of life itself, an activity with an uncertain outcome. The act of painting functions in a similar way - there are the boundaries of the canvas, the limitations of paint, the conceptual constraints of actually making a painting, and finally the environment in which they are shown. I use and also manipulate basic systems and rules of games of my own. The structures these rules provide are always the starting point of my work and are used to issue instructions and strategies in the making of the paintings. But I also allow an element of chance and self-determination to enter the process in order to introduce playfulness in the face of what can otherwise be a quite constrained activity.
I communicate visually the way I think life is, trying to balance order and freedom, trying to express the energy of life through the experimentation of colour and the manipulation of basic shapes. It is always geometric in some way, but painted leaving a human trace"
Marta Marcé, Barcelona, November 2007
"Mainly I was thinking of geometry and the game Tangram which uses geometric shapes to create recognisable forms. I wanted to use these shapes to create multiple-use geometric figures. Geometry is one of the keys to this new series, but it is, as always in my work, an unsettled geometry, not at all rigid or intending to be completely perfect. I want to show how it can be a 'primary element' from which all shapes can be constructed and realised. I have tried to think of geometry as a live creature that continually changes, each time giving us quite different random shapes and ideas which make up our real world. Life is movement and I started the floor pieces thinking about a movement that the visitor can also interact with. The floor pieces entitled Flow 1 and Flow 2 are like a moving, developing painting within which people can move the shapes to create variations, deciding on the different relationships of colour and design. Overall movement is achieved in the resultant paintings by making a series of them. Each one shows a possible interaction of these geometric figures whilst at the same time introducing a unique rhythm/interference of colour.
Energy is constantly transforming the elements and this energy is contained in forms and colours. In the paintings, the activity/movement balances control with chance, giving an uncertain result. Colours are neither pure nor impure, neither beautiful nor ugly. I see colour as light that impacts on forms and materials. Therefore, light conditions will affect our vision of these colours and our vision of reality.
My use of games is like a metaphor for the structure and development of life itself, an activity with an uncertain outcome. The act of painting functions in a similar way - there are the boundaries of the canvas, the limitations of paint, the conceptual constraints of actually making a painting, and finally the environment in which they are shown. I use and also manipulate basic systems and rules of games of my own. The structures these rules provide are always the starting point of my work and are used to issue instructions and strategies in the making of the paintings. But I also allow an element of chance and self-determination to enter the process in order to introduce playfulness in the face of what can otherwise be a quite constrained activity.
I communicate visually the way I think life is, trying to balance order and freedom, trying to express the energy of life through the experimentation of colour and the manipulation of basic shapes. It is always geometric in some way, but painted leaving a human trace"
Marta Marcé, Barcelona, November 2007
MARTA MARCE: Marta Marce installation at Riflemaker. Acrylic
paint on silk on wicker disc supports. Work made during the artist's residency
in China 2005
