Ruth Claxton: Autoportrait a l'oeil du boeuf, 2007 Cut postcard Ruth Claxton, Dave Miko, Geerten Verheus Self-effaced "A dictionary begins when it no longer gives the meaning of words, but their tasks. Thus formless is not only an adjective having a given meaning, but a term that serves to bring things down in the world, generally requiring that each thing have its form. What it designates has no rights in any sense and gets itself squashed everywhere, like a spider or an earthworm. In fact, for academic men to be happy, the universe would have to take shape. All of philosophy has no other goal: it is a matter of giving a frock coat to what is, a mathematical frock coat. On the other hand, affirming that the universe resembles nothing and is only formless amounts to saying that the universe is something like a spider or spit." (Georges Bataille: L'Informe, ŒA Critical Dictionary&Mac226;, Documents, 1 (7), 382, 1929) f a projects is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by three artists whose practice is connected by their interest in the annihilation of the figurative image. Working in sculpture, collage and painting, Ruth Claxton, Dave Miko and Geerten Verheus all use strategies of effacement, erasure, substitution and collage to challenge the presence of the figure in their work. The works in the show all exist in some relation to the slipping point between abstraction and figuration. Ruth Claxton's sculptures using commercial decorative figurines, adapted and mutated in acts of saccharine violence, have been widely shown in the UK and in Europe. Born in the UK, she trained at Nottingham Trent University and at the Royal College of Art (MA Sculpture). Solo shows include "The Collective", Edinburgh (2006), Arquebuse Gallery, Geneva (2007), and "I Thought I Was The Audience" touring exhibition, Colchester and Cambridge (2004). In 2008-9 she will have solo exhibitions at the IKON gallery and Spike Island, Bristol. She was included in XS at f a projects in 2004. Dave Miko paints in oil on aluminium. His paintings, often small in scale, depict narrative scenes which oscillate between abstraction and figuration. At times the two languages are simultaneously present, his compositions drawing on the techniques of collage to embody a slippage of content and meaning. His figures often seem fragile, the efflorescent joy of their abstract ground threatens to engulf and erase them. Born in Connecticut, Miko trained at SUNY and Yale. Solo exhibitions include Wallspace Gallery, New York and Arquebuse, Geneva. Group exhibitions include the "826NYC" Artshow at David Zwirner (2006) and "Romantic Detachment" at PS1 (2004) Geerten Verheus' collages are intricate and painstaking assemblages of found images cut from newspapers and magazines. They too are structured around the slippage of signs-images and objects which rhyme formally, but which in terms of content or function are radically jarring. At their most extreme they can depict just the links of a wire fence, a representational motif which, taken to its extreme, becomes purely abstract, or a constellation of gun-shot holes in a wall, each individually cut and re-assembled like a map of the constellations of the stars. Verheus, born in the Netherlands, now lives in Berlin. He trained at the Rietveld Academy and at Chelsea College of Art, London. Recent solo exhibitions include COMA, Berlin, and Villa de Bank, Enschede. He was also included in "Collage", The Bloomberg Space (2004), "Elsewhere" (with Arjan van Helmond and Tjebbe Beekman), f a projects (2004), "Flutter", The Approach (2006), "FLIP", Chung King Project, Los Angeles (2006) and "Happiness", Gagosian Gallery Berlin, 2006. Exhibition: 7 - 29 September 2007 Gallery hours: Tues-Fri 10am - 6pm, Sat 12 - 5pm f a projects 1-2 Bear Gardens GB-London SE1 9ED Telephone +44 020.7928 3228 Fax +44 020.7928 5123 Email info@faprojects.com www.faprojects.com |
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