Josephine Meckseper @ Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong - Objects Synthesis

Josephine Meckseper: Object Synthesis

Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong

4 November 2022 – 7 January 2023

JOSEPHINE MECKSEPER

The Anthropological Sleep, 2022

Acrylic on canvas. 152.4 x 121.92 x 3.81 cm (60 x 48 x 1 1/2 in.)

Courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery

JOSEPHINE MECKSEPER

Empire of Signs, 2022

Acrylic paint on glass, acrylic paint on mannequin leg, 

acrylic paint on canvas (double sided), oil paint on wooden hand form

in painted steel and glass vitrine with LED lights and acrylic sheeting 

Courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery

Simon Lee Gallery presents a solo exhibition of new works by JOSEPHINE MECKSEPER. This exhibition comprises new paintings, a vitrine, and a film work informed by the evolution and surroundings of her work practice.

Throughout her career, Josephine Meckseper’s large-scale vitrine installations and films have melded the aesthetic language of early modernism with her own imagery of historical undercurrents. Her works, encompassing sculpture, painting, photography, and film, simultaneously expose and encase cultural signifiers and everyday objects to form an investigation into the collective unconscious of our time. The works for this exhibition, made between 2020 – 2022, come together to explore the concept of recycling, tracing, and capturing matter and memory as experienced by the artist during these unprecedented years.

Amongst the works on show is The Empire of Signs, a wood and glass vitrine titled after Roland Barthes’s eponymous book. In The Empire of Signs, Roland Barthes describes a “novelistic object” that allows him to remotely isolate a certain number of features somewhere in the world, out of which a new system of signs emerge. Similarly, the vitrine encases a collection of objects between which a network of subtle correlations exists - connected loosely by their previous or current functions, location, and relation to other objects within the exhibition.

Spray-painted canvases continue the rhythm of the objects assembled in The Empire of Signs. These works chart the contours of the objects encased within the vitrine to form images reminiscent of abandoned dinner table settings and shelf displays. Their hand-painted textured surfaces evoke Roy Lichtenstein’s half-tone Ben-Day dots and Sigmar Polke’s “dot” paintings, as well as Robert Rauschenberg’s early blueprints and cyanotypes conceived in collaboration with Susan Weil. Josephine Meckseper’s new paintings, titled after chapters of Michel Foucault’s The Order of Things, from 1966, point to his thesis of an “archaeological” approach to the history of meaning and representation – suggesting that words are now entirely transparent and arbitrary counters. Consequently, to name things is to put them in a kind of necessary order.

JOSEPHINE MECKSEPER was born in 1964 in Lilienthal, Germany, and lives and works in New York, NY. She received her BFA from the Universität der Künste, Berlin, Germany, and her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA. In 2022 Meckseper received the Annual Guggenheim Fellowship and was appointed a Princeton University Visiting Fellow, and in 2021 she undertook the Elaine de Kooning House Residency, in East Hampton, NY. Josephine Meckseper’s work has been included in two Whitney Biennials (2006 and 2010); the Sharjah Biennial (2011); the Taipei Biennial (2014) amongst other biennials; and the National Gallery of Victoria Triennial (2017–18). Josephine Meckseper’s large-scale public project, Manhattan Oil Project, was commissioned by the Art Production Fund and installed in a lot adjacent to Times Square in New York, in 2012. Notable solo exhibitions include Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY (online) (2021); Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, and Hab Galerie, Nantes, France (2019); MOSTYN Contemporary Art Gallery, Wales, UK (2018); Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City, Mexico (2017); Gagosian Gallery, Paris, France (2016); Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, Germany (2014); Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY (2013) and Migros Museum Für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland (2009), a survey exhibition at Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Germany (2007). Her work has been included in major group exhibitions at the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany (2020); The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY (2022, 2018); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (2015); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2015); and Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA (2014). Her work is held in the permanent collections of numerous institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Migros Museum, Zurich; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Perez Museum of Art, Miami; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Josephine Meckseper: Object Synthesis is the artist's first solo exhibition at Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong.

SIMON LEE GALLERY

304, 3/F The Pedder Building , 12 Pedder Street, Central, Hong Kong

www.simonleegallery.com

Dexter Dalwood @ Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong - 2059

Dexter Dalwood: 2059

Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong 

Through October 30, 2021 

DEXTER DALWOOD

2059, 2020

Oil on canvas, 60 x 72 cm (23 5/8 x 28 3/8 in.) 

Courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery

Simon Lee Gallery presents a series of new paintings by British artist DEXTER DALWOOD on the occasion of his second exhibition at the Hong Kong space.

In these recent works, Dexter Dalwood looks nearly four decades into the future, to the year 2059; something that the title of each painting in the exhibition makes reference to. In spite of this nominative forward-looking approach, the artist resumes his longstanding commitment to the construction and interpretation of history in painting: each work is composed out of a network of interrelated references and sources from across the annals of art, politics, literature, as well as Dexter Dalwood’s own biography. The mix of brutalism and elegance, the old and the new depicted in this latest series creates visual paradoxes that echo a version of the future that simultaneously reflects on the present.

Although Dexter Dalwood’s lexicon remains deeply embedded in the history painting genre, these new works dispense with diagrammatic attitudes towards pictorial space, instead bringing together various, often disparate, elements. Ultimately, Dexter Dalwood prioritises the overall consonance of the painting over any preconceived notion of composition, sacrificing linear perspective in the pursuit of an overall approach to painting as object that takes negative space, the edge of the canvas and the temperament of the paint – amongst other elements – into account.

Nonetheless, Dexter Dalwood continues to allude to the art-historical canon: each work is similar in scale to Jean-Siméon Chardin’s The House of Cards, offering compositional references both to this painting and Cezanne’s The Card Players. Appearing throughout the series is a circular motif that materialises in astronomical configurations of planets, or as in 2059 (portal), a classical still life fruit bowl. From Giotto’s perfect, free-hand O to a symbolic link between heaven and earth, the circle in art history conjures a myriad of associations. Painted over the course of the past year, Dexter Dalwood communicates with this imagery something of the insularity of life and the circularity of existence.

DEXTER DALWOOD was born in 1960 and lives and works in London, UK. He received his BFA from Central Saint Martins, London and his MFA from the Royal College of Art, London. Recent solo exhibitions include What is Really Happening, Simon Lee Gallery, London, UK (2019); Propaganda Painting, Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong (2016); London Paintings, Simon Lee Gallery, London, UK (2014); Dexter Dalwood, Kunsthaus, Centre PasquArt, Biel, Switzerland (2013); Orientalism, David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark (2012); Dichter und Drogen, Nolan Judin, Berlin, Germany (2011) and a major solo exhibition Dexter Dalwood, Tate St Ives, UK (2010), which travelled to FRAC Champagne Ardenne, Reims, France and CAC, Malaga, Spain (2013). Recent group exhibitions have included Marx Collection, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany (2018); Painters' Painters at Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2016); Mon art à moi, Centre PasquArt, Biel, Switzerland (2016); The Painting Show, a touring exhibition by The British Council, London, UK which travelled to Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick, Ireland (2017) and CAC, Vilnius, Lithuania (2016); Fighting History, Tate Britain, London, UK (2015); The Venice Syndrome – The Grandeur and Fall in the Art of Venice, Gammel Holtegaard, Denmark (2014), Not Being Attentive I Notice Everything: Robert Walser and the Visual Arts, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland (2014); Le Corps de l'Absence, FRAC Champagne Ardennes, Reims, France, Setting the Scene, Tate Modern, London, UK (2012); and Dublin Contemporary, Dublin, Ireland (2011). His work is in major private and public collections including Tate, London, UK, The British Council Collection, London, UK, The Saatchi Gallery, London, UK, FRAC Champagne-Ardennes, Reims, France and Centre PasquArt, Biel, Switzerland. In 2021 Dexter Dalwood presents solo exhibitions in Mexico at Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL), Mexico City and Centro de las Artes San Agustín, Oaxaca in 2022.

SIMON LEE GALLERY HONG KONG

304, 3/F The Pedder Building, 12 Pedder Street, Central, Hong Kong

www.simonleegallery.com

Valentina Liernur @ Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong - Juro Que

Valentina Liernur: Juro Que

Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong

25 June - 7 August 2021

VALENTINA LIERNUR

Señora rosa y perro, 2021 

Oil on canvas , 167 x 125 cm (65 3/4 x 49 1/4 in.) 

Courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery

Photo: Santiago Ortí

‘Liernur is something like a contemporary flâneuse, carefully observing women [in her work]. Motivated by the pleasure that comes with concealing one’s identity as a painter, Liernur’s observational processes become both sly and sneaky’ – Ana Vogelfang, Texte Zur Kunst.

Simon Lee Gallery presents an exhibition of new paintings by the Argentinian artist VALENTINA LIERNUR. The exhibition is the artist’s debut show with the gallery and marks the first time her work has been presented in Asia. 

Valentina Liernur’s practice is rooted in an ongoing exploration of the ways in which material can be rendered in the pursuit of painting. Often working in groups of work defined by a single medium, Valentina Liernur considers the physical qualities and mark-making capacity of oil paint on canvas in the same way she engages with less conventional materials such as denim and gabardine in other series. Shifting between abstraction and figuration, and often encouraging tensions and slippages to emerge between these modes of painting, Valentina Liernur seeks to manipulate and enhance the materiality of her chosen medium, embedding each work with a distinct, visceral quality.

For her exhibition in Hong Kong, Valentina Liernur presents a series of new paintings that continue her interest in recent years of depicting female figures in everyday scenarios. Valentina Liernur’s observations are based on photographs of friends, family and strangers taken in various settings including domestic spaces, public transport and city streets. Although not conceived as such, the works together form a loose sequence that the artist refers to as an account of a stroll through an urban environment. Valentina Liernur often takes the photographs that inform her paintings surreptitiously, resulting in works that capture fleeting moments that have an abrupt, confrontational and, at times, voyeuristic dynamic between the figures in the painting and the standpoint occupied by Liernur and subsequently the viewer. This awkward interaction is heightened by the prominence of sunglasses worn by many of Liernur’s subjects and the way their faces are often obscured by shadows, denying the viewer any sense of connecting and identifying with the women and girls that occupy Liernur’s works.

While the paintings in the show borrow from the language of figuration and portraiture, for Liernur the true subject of her work is the paint she uses rather than the image she creates. Valentina Liernur works intensively on each canvas, building multiple layers that shift between rough, spontaneous brushstrokes and slow, carefully executed details. Thinking of paint as information, Valentina Liernur likens her method of painting to the impulsive process of capturing thoughts in written form and the consequent, more methodical act of editing.

Valentina Liernur’s use of colour defines her work and the way the viewer experiences it. Despite starting each work from a photograph, Valentina Liernur’s choices in executing the work are more akin to the effects used in post production. In some works, flashes of lurid and luminous colours make a jolting appearance in an otherwise dark and muted palette. Elsewhere, paintings have a solarised quality or are rendered almost entirely in evocative hues of pinks and reds. Valentina Liernur’s paintings take on a dream-like quality, capturing fleeting moments in paint that speak to the experience of being deep in thought and glimpsing a sudden, incomplete aspect of reality.

VALENTINA LIERNUR was born in 1978 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she lives and works. She studied between Beca Kuitca, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Städelschule, Frankfurt, Germany; and in 2013 completed the Artist in Residency program with FAAP, São Paulo, Brazil. Liernur’s work has been shown internationally and has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including Scarlata, Ruth Benzacar Galería de Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2019); Sumisión, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, NY (2016); MEGA POR NO, Colmegna Spa, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2015); Ahhhhhhh, Campoli Presti, Paris, France (2015); Ahh...Ah..., Campoli Presti, London, UK (2014); Corruzione, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, NY (2014) and Fiebre, Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2010). Group exhibitions include four corners of the landscape, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA (2020); Call Giovanni, Revolver Galeria, Lima, Peru (2019); The Vitalist Economy of Painting, Galerie Neu, Berlin, Germany (2018); Theft Is Vision, LUMA Westbau, Zurich, Switzerland (2017); United States of Latin America, Museum of Contemporary Art of Detroit, MI (2015); Faux Amis, Simon Lee Gallery, London, UK (2015); Seven Reeds, Overduin & Co., Los Angeles, CA (2014); Broken Windows, New York Gallery, New York, NY (2013) and FSPC, Formalist Sidewalk Poetry Club, Miami, FL (2012).

SIMON LEE HONG KONG

304, 3/F The Pedder Building, 12 Pedder Street, Central, Hong Kong

www.simonleegallery.com

Mandy El-Sayegh @ Lehmann Maupin, Hong Kong - Dispersal

Mandy El-Sayegh: Dispersal
Lehmann Maupin, Pedder Building, Hong Kong
July 11 – August 23, 2019

MANDY EL-SAYEGH  

TBC - Piece Painting (denzel), 2019 

Oil and mixed media on linen, stainless steel artist frame 

88.58 x 59.06 inches, 225 x 150 cm 

Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, and Seoul 

Lehmann Maupin announces Dispersal, an exhibition of work by London-based artist MANDY EL-SAYEGH. For the artist’s first solo exhibition in Asia, Mandy El-Sayegh presents new paintings, sculpture, and installation. Together, the works offer insight into Mandy El-Sayegh’s complex assessment of the systems—from global finance and media, to more organic and aesthetic frameworks—by which we make meaning, assign worth, and construct personal identity and culture. There will be a reception for the artist on Thursday, July 11, from 6 to 8 PM at the Pedder Building.

As part of a generation coming of age at the turn of the 21st century, Mandy El-Sayegh’s artistic sensibility is informed by the fractured and diffused nature of acquiring knowledge and personal perspective amidst our globalized, information-saturated era. Her Net-Grid studies included in the exhibition visually recreate the process by which one’s psyche seeks, traps, retains, and associates information, like a fishing net cast amidst a polluted yet still fertile ocean, where it will collect both its intended catch and unsought detritus. The process by which our sensory receptors retain and translate environments, experiences, education, news, and entertainment into the internalized personal network of thought, memory, and dreams is made evident in the hazy, yet formally rigorous grid of these paintings. The paint used in Mandy El-Sayegh’s Net-Grid studies, applied in a wet-on-wet style, speaks to the mutability, layering, and absorptive nature of knowledge itself.

The artist’s sequence of latex pieces, tiled on the floor like fleshy rectangles, recreate the grid of the paintings they are shown alongside, revealing even more tiny bits of media that have been trapped in their casting. The latex installation captures Mandy El-Sayegh’s aptitude for communicating duality. Each individual unit represents a unique conceptual and material decision by the artist, however they also appear as uniform components of a larger structure, all cast from the same mold. This dichotomy is heightened by the nature of the material itself, which both preserves the properties captured in its liquid state, while simultaneously deteriorating as it ages.

The attention paid to the conceptual or metaphorical properties of her materials is again evident in the Piece Paintings that incorporate figurative imagery in surrealistic juxtapositions. These are positioned in Mandy El-Sayegh’s room sized installation that is created from a grid of the South China Morning Post applied directly to the gallery’s walls. For the artist, the use of a local newspaper, published in English, further illuminates the frameworks of nationality, culture, society, and commerce that permeate our understanding of the world and our place within it. Standing amidst her installation of news and layered imagery, Mandy El-Sayegh provides a perfect encapsulation of the globalized network experience that we engage with every day, each of us a figure amidst an expansive and intractable background of information, environment, and history.

MANDY EL-SAYEGH (born in 1985, Malaysia; lives in London) received her BFA in 2007 from the University of Westminster, London, followed by her MFA in painting in 2011 from the Royal College of Art, London. Solo exhibitions of her work have been organized at Chisenhale Gallery, London (2019); Carl Kostyál, London (2017); The Mistake Room, Guadalajara, Mexico, (2018); and Carlos/Ishikawa, London (2016), among others. Group exhibitions and biennales featuring her work include Ecologies of Darkness, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin (2019); and the Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj, Sharjah, UAE (2017).

LEHMANN MAUPIN HONG KONG
407 Pedder Builing, 12 Pedder Street, Central Hong Kong
www.lehmannmaupin.com