Michael Jäger , Bells – forthcoming show at RAUMX London

The next presentation for spring 2014 will be the German painter Michael Jäger with ‘Bells”, a series of smaller format paintings. (From 23rd. of May)
Bells 3

Bells 12

Albert 5

Jäger’s works focus a vital point, in so far as the question of the individual painting is not simply declared obsolete (as would be easy and is indeed practised in many quarters) but raised in the context of an extended concept of painting – extended, that is, to include the painting as a space-related installation – and unfolded as an inquiry into the uncertainty principle. It is only in an oscillating equilibrium, where the idea of a consistent individual painting is simultaneously sacrificed and upheld, that the making of a painting will be made possible by balancing centripetal and centrifugal forces. This does also imply that the idea of purification of the painting towards a fictitious absolute zero – so essential to modern art – is no longer realizable for Michael Jäger. His own strategy could rather be described as following a principle of controlled ‘depurification’: meaning an approach where nothing ever occurs in a pure or unequivocal state; where things only subsist in a permanent process of crossing over and hybridization. In this sense the geometrical colour surfaces in Jäger’s paintings appear equally close to monochromes and to a denial of the idea of monochromatic autonomy. And the object-likeness of his oddly shaped forms turns out upon closer inspection to be the phantom of a perception preoccupied with identifying the familiar even where only the unfamiliar exists. The painting technique also abides by this structure of ambiguity: while the painterly passages occasionally show a synthetic coolness, the soberness of the plain paint coat in the more monochromatic parts is counteracted by intentional individualities. Purity, we are told, is the death of the picture. The consequence (itself paradoxical) which follows from this finding can be studied at length in Jäger’s works: conceptions which in their absolute, radical ambivalence contemplate depurification as a possibility of speaking of purity without depicting it.

Text by: Stephan Berg

View into the exhibition at the Artothek Cologne

9.01 -22.02. 2014

Peter Rasmussen February 2014

VIDEO HERE

John Glew Architect October 2013

Beside showing artworks by painters, sculptors and photographers, RaumX is interested in showing works by contemporary architects as well. John Glew’s practise is the first architect presenting his work at RaumX. An introduction was given by Tony Fretton.

John Glew set up John Glew Architect in 1994, having previously worked with Wilfried Wang, Trevor Horne and Dixon-Jones and collaborated with Tony Fretton. He has taught, lectured and exhibited in the UK, Scandinavia and the USA, including at the Royal College of Art, the Architectural Association and the Danish Royal Academy of Fine Arts where he was Visiting Professor in 1995 and 2001. In 1983 he was awarded the Eileen Gray Travel Scholarship to the USA and in 2007 he was awarded the Statenskunstfund –The Danish National Arts Award– in recognition of his contributions to architecture and culture inDenmark. His work, including articles by Tony Fretton, Mark Pimlott, James Payne, Kjeld Vindum and Thomas Bo-Jensen, has been published internationally, A specific interest is in the small unsettling, habitual perceptions, which render foreign the familiar, making visible that which has become invisible due to everyday use and absorption in our subconscious. This new-found strangeness begs our examination and thus allows us to see the similarities between dissimilar things. The result of this close examination can often be a heightened awareness of our surroundings. The way things look, in the broadest sense their appearance, is a result of the conditions of their making and this is recognised and enjoyed in all of the work. Its sparse aesthetic lies beyond mere function where limitation is employed as a form of invention, spurring creativity from the recognisable elements of the world around us.

Press Release : A small exhibiton of drawings, models and photographs and proto-types of a broad range of work simply presented – pinned to the wall. Projects include a landscape, public & residential, interior, furniture and design, photography and sketches. An A2 catalogue includes descriptions of projects and texts by both: Tony Fretton – “This is an architecture that has to be experienced and considered, and one that makes the case that spectacle, scale and gesture are no guide to the value of a work of architecture. It is only artistry like this that counts,” and Mark Pimlott – ”The work that John Glew has made here does not point immediately to its status as architecture or even design. In this properly aesthetic work that is directly linked to the body and its knowledge, one is liberated rather than involved in the worship of objects and arrangements.”

With a *102751cropped catalogue including a short introduction by Tony Fretton.

Tony Fretton article Architectural Review

Please see here in more detail a description of the projects. John Glew Architect

RAUMX Invite_Johnglew

Britta Bogers Boards and Papers September 2013

RaumX offers from time to time artists to take short term residencies at the space itself in order to work on site in London. During August 2013 German painter Britta Bogers took residency at RaumX London studio. At the studio she painted new large scale work on paper which she presented beside other work towards the end of her residency .

www.brittabogers.de

Britta Bogers (*1964, lives in Cologne) experiments with serial variations on basic abstract forms of colour and line. Starting with graphic formulas, which sometimes recall speech balloons, labels, or cut-out patterns, she creates constellations of elements which resemble each other and cover the surfaces of large sheets of paper. Their arrangement, however, permits the viewer to see obvious deviations, reflecting individual work processes. In this way, Bogers creates an open, provisory visual order, whose internal balance must be continually put to the test—therefore keeping the viewer’s eye in constant motion. On smaller-sized paper and high-density fibreboard the work consist of more compact visual constructs and inventive forms, which Bogers derives from the interplay of painting and drawing. Stefan Rasche

Ohne Titel / Without Title acrylic on paper,16,5×12″,2011

Peter Rasmussen DVH Panels June 2013

DVH Panels are the continuation of a cycle of works begun in 2005. The basic concept is horizontal (H) and vertical (V) bands of two colours transversed by diagonal (D) bands of another colour that create two sets of diamonds or lozenges in the interstices. Using a customized mono-printing technique the bands appear as single brush strokes running from edge to edge of the image. The semi-transparency of the mono-printed brush strokes draws attention to the sequential nature of the process so that one can simultaneously see the geometrical structure and the steps of layered bands that precede and create the form. The present series comprises mono-printing on plywood panels primed with a smooth gesso surface. This has resulted in a further mixing of the crisscrossing brush strokes as they meet on the surface and consequently an ambiguity of precedence: the viewer’s focus shifts and perceives now the horizontal, vertical structure, now the diagonal grid, now the lozenge shapes between. The colour combinations are inspired by artists such as Veronese, Delacroix, Manet, Albers, Palermo, Godard.