 Installation view at ARQUEBUSE, Geneva, 2007 DJ Simpson If Then Else ARQUEBUSE is proud to present the first exhibition in Switzerland by acclaimed British artist DJ Simpson, one of today's leading exponents of the concrete and plastic in art versus representation, narrative or metaphor. This exhibition will contrast works from 2001 with the new visual vocabulary that Simpson is exploring in more recent works. This exhibition will also mark the first time that Simpson has exhibited his drawings on paper. Simpson directly engages with the overriding question in abstract art - how to progress beyond easel painting - by making his marks with a machine on a ground of formica on wood, an industrial material used widely in the construction industry. Using the language of painting with the techniques of drawing, he critiques the concerns that have come to us through minimalism, using readymade, lo-fi materials to make "ego-less" paintings. Issues of artistic ego are important to Simpson and give rise to an in-built conflict in the work: the transition in colour of grain as the mechanical router hits different layers of wood within the readymade material are pure chance. Yet the decisions that are made to get to this point are complex, including consideration of the various formal possibilities possible with formica - from gloss to matt or metallic - as well as both the premeditated and impulsive choices made in the drawing process with the router. The works do not obviously show the hand of their maker, yet they are necessarily the results of many distinct author-led choices. In "Everywhere and Allover" and "Ego Trippin" from 2001 we are presented with the contrast between whimsical lines and seemingly effortless doodling, and the difficulties in the actual process of mechanically routing the formica panel. In the intervening years Simpson has deliberated further on his attraction to the problems of drawing: the premeditative understanding of a line's endpoint and its relationship in the context of other lines, versus the gestural, capricious doodle. The concrete potentialities in Simpson's work are now the foremost line of enquiry, changing the shape of the base support to startling formal effect. In the new "Basic Reshape" series, Simpson has rotated the square support to form a diamond. The usual frames of reference for the understanding of images are effectively turned on their head. No gravitational grounding is available. The viewer is left to contend simply with the lines, the colour and the form as subjects in themselves. DJ Simpson (b. 1966) lives and works in London. Recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition at the Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, Warwick (2006), Sies + Höcke, Düsseldorf (2006) and Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid (2005). Group shows include: "Echo Room: Art from Britain", Alcalá 31, Madrid (2007); "Draw", mima, Middlesbrough (2007); "The Nature of Things", Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham (2005); "New Abstract Painting. Painting Abstract Now", Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen (2003); "Tailsliding", British Council touring exhibition, Vilnius Center for Contemporary Art, Lithuania; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tallin, Estonia; Centro de Arte Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain; Turku Art Museum, Turku, Finland; Centre of Contemporary Art, Milan; Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków (2001-2003); "New Labour", The Saatchi Gallery, London (2001). Exhibition 8 November - 22 December 2007 Gallery hours Tues-Fri 2 - 7 pm, Sat 11 am - 5 pm, and by appointment ARQUEBUSE rue de l'Arquebuse 14 CH-1204 Genève Telephone +41(0)22 807 04 40 Fax +41(0)22 807 04 41 Email info@arquebusegalerie.com www.arquebusegalerie.com |
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