Zhu Wei "Ink and Wash
Research Lecture Series" (33x31cm/13x12 1/4in)
2016
8th
of January – 18th of February 2017
“Why you? Why us for that matter?
Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have
you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?... Well, here
we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this
moment. There is no why.”
-Kurt Vonnegut,
Slaughterhouse-Five
A
group show featuring drawing-based works,
Everything Exists Now (8th
January – 11th February 2017) at
Kristin Hjellegjerde gallery, brings together 13
artists who each reflect on their current moment
through personal, political and historical
viewpoints, united by the common lens of time.
Hailing from different backgrounds and artistic
practices, the final whole is a nod to the concept
of Eternalism, a space in which each moment exists
in and of itself, an endless loop in which all
these points exist at once. If, indeed, the idea
really is that Everything Exists Now,
then all moments are present
simultaneously.
The artists
are linked to each other by disparate yet
complementary threads. Historicity, for example,
finds life in the Research Lectures
series of Chinese artist Zhu Wei,
who critiques the darker side of a rapidly
evolving China. Birmingham-based artist
Barbara Walker’s ongoing
Shock and Awe drawings bring to the fore
the under-recognised role of black servicemen and
women in the British Armed Forces and war efforts
from 1914 to present day. The fractured politics
of the present are parsed through British
Chris Agnew’s new mixed media
series, Hypnic Jerks, in which the
physical phenomenon acts as a metaphor through
which various socio-political events are examined,
both personal and public. Also commenting on the
present is Korean Sook Jin Jo’s
powerful Je Suis series. Combining
photography with ink, charcoal and gouache, they
reference the recent violence in France, and stand
as a symbol of strength, protection and freedom.
Her work often has an environmental slant as well,
something Celina Teague’s
coloured pencil works also touch upon, with their
preoccupation with the relentless and senseless
slaughter of elephants and rhinos.
Fragmentation, meanwhile, emerges in the work of
Paris-based Moroccan artist Mohamed
Lekleti. His Plastic Anagrams
feature broken up hybrids; men, women, and
body parts in montages uniting ecstasy and
violence, as if viewing multiple timeframes at
once. This sensation of disintegration finds a
common ground in Saad Qureshi’s
delicate plywood pieces. Much of his work looks to
capture memories, examining how they are subject
to constant revision, a chain of disconnected
details that make up a past that is under constant
scrutiny. The past is also found in Ali
Kazim’s Ruins. These watercolour
drawings illustrate the landscape outside of
Lahore, once the flourishing Indus Valley, and now
a desolate landscape that serves as a burial site,
still dotted with ancient mounts and strewn with
terracotta shards from a distant past. Two
London-based artists deal with the cutting up and
slowing of time: Marie Harnett
takes moments from films, a fragment of time, to
capture a split second film still, laboriously
reproducing it in pencil, as in Karenina,
making a moment exist forever. Caroline
Jane Harris, meanwhile, has captured the
fleeting composition of one of her pixelated
hand-cut photographs. Slow Data
(Window), is a drawing physically
executed in layers akin to a 3D printer; the
process reveals an image passing through the
realms of the three-dimensional to the digital,
alluding to the irreversible direction of time and
technological obsolescence in our fast-paced
age.
Indeed,
time moves, and it moves relentlessly. If Zhu Wei
examines the effects of social change in China,
then Ethiopian Dawit Abebe’s
Mutual Identity mixed media works examine
the impact of technology on individuals in his
home country, but also the effect on social
interaction as a whole. Norwegian artist
Kristin Evju also meditates on
change, creating a semi-fictional historical
narrative in Punchcard, a series of
drawings examining a near-distant past in which
tech that was once so groundbreaking is already a
place we cease to understand. Elsewhere, as in
Sverre Malling’s latest drawings,
fragments are drawn together from many sources:
futuristic images converge with those from the
past in a contradictory fashion. He seeks to
translate into drawing using the
collage form as a cognitive form of expression.
These fragmented images exist in a state of flux,
floating between concept, form and expression.
All histories, all thoughts, all
memories, fragmented as they are over the sands of
time, hover in the same moment; our pasts and
presents and futures all hover in one, overarching
‘now’, and all we can do is seek to let go and
float within it. Or, in the words of Kurt
Vonnegut: “I asked myself about the present: how
wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to
keep.”
Participating artists: Dawit
Abebe, Chris Agnew, Kristian Evju, Marie Harnett,
Caroline Jane Harris, Sook Jin Jo, Ali Kazim,
Mohamed Lekleti, Sverre Malling, Celina Teague,
Saad Qureshi, Barbara Walker and Zhu Wei.
“Everything Exists Now” runs
from 8th of January – 18th of February 2017 at
Kristin Hjellegjerde
Information for
journalists:
About
Dawit Abebe
Dawit Abebe (b. 1978)
graduated from the Alle School of Fine Art and
Design at Addis Ababa University. In 2001, he
founded the Habesha Art Studio in his native
Ethiopia, where he continues to be a full-time
artist-in-residence. Solo exhibitions include
Background 2 at Kristin Hjellegjerde
Gallery, London (2015) and Background 1
at Lela Gallery, Addis Ababa (2014). His work is
held in international private and public
collections, including the Barjeel Art Foundation
and the Rema Hort Mann Foundation.
About Chris Agnew
Chris Agnew (b. 1987) is a British artist known
for his highly detailed drawings, and signature
technique of icon panel etching. He received his
BA from The University of Leeds in 2008, followed
by an MFA from the Wimbledon College of Art in
2010. His works are held in collections including
the V&A, London, and the Hearst Corporation
collection, New York. Solo exhibitions include
Dither (2016), The Mighty Grip of
Fate (2014), with Kristin Hjellegjerde,
London and The Pomp of Circumstances at
Nancy Victor Gallery, London (2012). Agnew has a
solo booth with Kristin Hjellegjerde at the 2017
London Art Fair (18-22 January), where he is
debuting his new series 'Ba da, Dodă’, inspired by
Brancusi and Brutalist architecture. 2017 will
also see him begin a residency with Casa
Jurnalistului (the house of investigative
journalists), in Bucharest.
About Kristian
Evju
Kristian Evju (b. 1980) is a
Norwegian artist, making exquisitely detailed
pencil drawings and paintings. He received his BA
(Hons) Painting and Drawing from Edinburgh College
of Art in 2007, followed by a Masters degree in
Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art in 2011. His
work received the Conté à Paris Drawing Prize at
Griffin Gallery, and the Painter-Stainers Prize
for Drawing at the London Group Open in 2015, in
2016 he was shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing
Prize and the Derwent Art Prize. Recent solo
exhibitions include Grenselandat Gulden
Kunstverk, Assemble:Dissemble at Lysbuen
Museum of Art, and Lie Me a River at
Ålesund Kunsthall - all in Norway (2015/16).
About Marie
Harnett
Marie Harnett (b. 1983) is a
British artist who studied drawing and painting at
Edinburgh College of Art, from where she graduated
in 2006. She is best known for her highly detailed
and intricate drawings of film stills. Solo
exhibitions include at Galleria Bonomo, Rome
(2014) and Alan Cristea Gallery, London (2011).
Harnett’s works are in international public and
private collections including the Yale Centre for
British Art, Connecticut; the Museum of Modern
Art, New York and the British Museum, London.
About Caroline Jane
Harris
Caroline Jane Harris (b. 1987)
using images gathered during encounters with her
environments, employs traditional and digital
image-making processes, to create complex artworks
which slow the viewer's gaze. She received her BA
(Hons) Fine Art Printmaking from the University of
Brighton in 2009, followed by her MA (Distinction)
from City and Guilds of London Art School in
2015, where she was awarded the Norman
Ackroyd Prize for Etching and the Roger de Grey
Drawing Prize. She has exhibited widely throughout
the UK and internationally. Currently she is
Artist in Residence at The Florence Trust, London,
as well Research Printmaking Fellow at City &
Guilds of London Art School.
About Ali Kazim
Ali Kazim (b. 1979) received his BFA from the
National College of Arts, Lahore, in 2002 and an
MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London, in
2011. His work has been exhibited widely in solo
and group shows internationally, including:
The Human Image: Masterpieces of Figurative
Art from the British Museum, Seoul
Art Centre, Korea (2016) and Dust, The
Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle,
Poland (2014). Kazim’s work forms part of numerous
public collections, including the Metropolitan
Museum of
Art, New York; The British Museum,
UK and the V&A, UK.
About Mohamed
Lekleti
Mohamed Lekleti (b. 1965)
studied art in Rabat, and today lives and works in
Montpellier, France. Passionate about drawing and
reading, he focuses his work on myths. Lekleti
embraces space in its totality, leading him,
through progressive distortions and distortions,
to the roundness of forms, to a dynamic deployment
of his characters, which occupy the entire surface
of the canvas. He has exhibited throughout France
and abroad, including the USA, Korea, Belgium,
Switzerland and his native Morocco, including as a
laureate of the Drawing Now contemporary art fair
in Paris in 2011, at the Torino Palace of Fine
Arts (INAC) and the Forteresse de Salses, France
(a national heritage monument).
About Sverre
Malling
Sverre Malling (b. 1977)
creates work notable for its precision and
intricacy, entwining together references to
classical art, botany, the occult, psychedelia,
folk art and children’s illustrations. He
graduated from the Oslo National Academ of the
Arts in 2000, followed by the State Academy of
Fine Arts, from where he graduated in 2004. Recent
solo exhibitions include Satellites and
Pomegranates, Galery Haaken, Norway (2014)
along with exhibitions in France and Germany.
About Celina
Teague
Celina Teague (b. 198X?)
received her MA in Fine Art from Central Saint
Martins College in 2007. Prior to this, she
studied Fine Arts at the Universidad de Bellas
Artes in Oaxaca, Mexico, graduating in 2005.
Recent solo shows include I Think Therefore
I # at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London
(2015) and Brave New World Hits a Glitch
at Rook and Raven Gallery, London (2013). Her work
has been shown at various art fairs, and awards
and residencies include a 2012 Takt Artist
Residency in Berlin and inclusion on the shortlist
for the 2013 Beers.Lambert Contemporary Visions
IV.
About Saad
Qureshi
Saad Qureshi (b. 1986),
through the various disciplines of sculpture,
installation and drawing, probes issues of
cultural belonging and separation – as well as
universals that unite us beyond culture. Qureshi
is fascinated by memory and time, and how they
affect landscapes – both internal and external. He
received his MFA from the Slade School of Art,
University College London in 2010. Recent solo
exhibitions include a site-specific installation
for NOVA Project, London (2016) and
Congregation, Gazelli Art House, London
(2014).
About Barbara
Walker
Barbara Walker is a British
visual artist. Her practice is inspired by the
social, political issues, with particular
reference to history and cultural differences in
contemporary life. Working primarily in drawing
and painting, her work addresses issues such as
class, representation, power, and belonging.
Walker was awarded a 1st Class BA in Art and
Design by the University of Central England,
Birmingham, 1996. Solo shows include Shock and
Awe, mac, Birmingham (2016) and Sub
Urban: New Drawings, University for the
Creative Arts, Farnham (2015). Her works are held
in private and public collections, including
Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Arts Council England
Collections, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and
Usher Gallery, and upcoming exhibitions include
the 2017 Diaspora Pavillion, Palazzo Pisani a
Santa Marina, Venice.
About
Zhu Wei
Zhu Wei (b. 1966) is one of
China’s most visible contemporary practitioners of
the post-Tiananmen period, known for his subtly
quizzical critique of politics and society in a
rapidly evolving China. Beijing-born-and-based,
Zhu is principally a painter. As a teenager, Zhu
entered the military, before painting propaganda
art for the motherland, going on to study at the
Beijing Academy of Film in 1992. He has exhibited
worldwide, including at the Singapore Museum of
Contemporary Arts, National Contemporary Art
Centre of Greece and Asian Art Museum of San
Francisco.
About Sook Jin
Jo
Sook Jin Jo (b. 19XX) has
exhibited internationally since 1984, and has been
the subject of 30 solo exhibitions in the United
States, Europe and Asia and over 100 group
exhibitions. She received her MFA from the Pratt
Institute, New York in 1991, prior to which she
completed her MFA at Hong-Ik University, College
of Fine Art, Seoul in 1985. Her work is included
in private and museum collections including the
Huntington Museum of Art, West Virginia; the Erie
Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; the Housatonic Museum
of Art, Connecticut; the National Museum of
Contemporary Art in Korea; the Seoul Museum of
Art, Korea; and The Margulies Collection at the
Warehouse in Miami, Florida.
About Kristin Hjellegjerde
Gallery
Kristin Hjellegjerde opened
her gallery in south west London in June 2012
following her move from New York. Named one of the
top 500 most influential galleries in the world by
Blouin (2015), as well as independent gallery of
the year by the Londonist (2014), Kristin
Hjellegjerde Gallery showcases cutting-edge
contemporary art from emerging and established
international artists, with the central concern
being to create an intimate space in which artists
can present a coherent body of work within a
focused environment. Drawing on her own
international background, Kristin Hjellegjerde
seeks to discover and develop new talents by
creating a platform through which they can be
introduced to local and international audiences
and by allowing for artistic exchange. Kristin
Hjellegjerde also acts as an art advisor for both
emerging private and corporate collectors. For
more information, visit www.kristinhjellegjerde.com.
For further information and
high-resolution images, please contact Kristin
Hjellegjerde on kristin@kristinhjellegjerde.com
With Love
Kristin
www.kristinhjellegjerde.com