Reencuentros, exhibition at LAB-ART Studio

23.10.2021

Group exhibition at LAB-ART Studio

LAB-ART Studio is a multidisciplinary studio located in the heart of the Ensanche district that is constantly evolving by lending its space to art galleries. Directed by the masters of framing from LAB-ART, the space will host the new group exhibition of our gallery: Reencuentros. From the 5th to the 29th of October, 2021, the public will be able to enjoy some of the most emblematic works of the gallery's represented artists: Dirk Salz, Jo Hummel, Michael Craik, Francisco Suárez, Iñigo Arregi y Eric Cruikshank.

LAB-ART Studio is a multidisciplinary studio located in the heart of the Ensanche district that is constantly evolving by lending its space to art galleries. Directed by the masters of framing from LAB-ART, the space will host the new group exhibition of our gallery: Reencuentros. From the 5th to the 29th of October, 2021, the public will be able to enjoy some of the most emblematic works of the gallery's represented artists: Dirk Salz, Jo Hummel, Michael Craik, Francisco Suárez, Iñigo Arregi y Eric Cruikshank.

Reencuentros will showcase the work of Dirk Salz (1962, Bochum, Germany), who is interested in simple forms and the transparency of colour, and at the same time plays with impressions of depth, which do not impose themselves through surfaces or complex compositions, but through their reduction. Dirk's images are placed on smooth surfaces that serve as metaphorical mirrors for the viewer, mirrors that reflect the viewer's own image within the space, and at the same time the possibilities of our relationship with it. His works offer an experience of change between their various depths and levels because the concept of reflection is inherent to Dirk's artistic investigation of space. In addition to exploring space, Salz's works invite us to reflect on the question of temporality and the role of time in our perception of space. Time conceived as a category that comes before space and which is necessarily more internal and allows outer space to be revealed.

On the other hand, in Reencuentros, several works in different formats by the British artist Jo Hummel (Hampshire, 1982) will be exhibited. Her work is characterised by painted paper surfaces overlaid with collage from which she employs spontaneous variations of space, colour and form. Collage means that throughout its creation the work is constantly changing. The artist must therefore negotiate the canvas by rearranging, choosing and adjusting, often over long periods of time and having explored hundreds, even thousands of the infinite possible outcomes. As such, the creative process itself is as important as the final result. Although her pictorial collages have a physical and material character, the context of Hummel's work is deliberately anthropological and is inspired by human habits and behaviour with a special interest in determination and free will as well as formal concerns. Jo Hummel carries out experiments in which the process often dictates the outcome and provides a safe setting for improvisation. A place where rational procedures can coexist with intuition. Hummel explores the unpredictable nature of intuition and spontaneity. Her practice functions as a simulation of decision-making experiences that allow her to capture and use sensations such as anxiety or serenity. It is precisely through contradictory emotional states of comfort, satisfaction, anxiety, repulsion...etc. that Hummel is able to tap into the state of human uncertainty that is experienced all around. Jo Hummel is currently working in her studio in the Isle of Wight and on November the 4th, 2021, her upcoming solo exhibition, "Automatic", will be on display in our gallery.

You will also be able to enjoy the work of Michael Craik (Edinburgh, 1972), in which the artist explores the interaction of colour and repetition as a method of producing a calm, contemplative work that is concerned with colour, the quality of materials and the process. Craik creates paintings by repeatedly applying paint and removing it again. This process of reduction appears throughout his work alluding to the forces of erosion that shape our landscape, and allows the fundamental qualities of the paint to determine the appearance of each work, creating contemplative, minimalist paintings. The focus of these works is often at their edges, where sanding reveals layers of paint, exposing alternating layers of colour that have been built up by pouring, spreading, or painting with paint. His work shares a relationship with the geology, the placement and the erosion of the rocks found in his homeland.

On the other hand, LAB-ART also features works by Francisco Suárez (León, Spain, 1965), an artist who puts special emphasis on underlining the autonomy of painting, the physical and perceptual presence of the pictorial object. Each of his works is above all a statement about itself, about the chromatic and visual stimuli that shape it, and about the numerical relations that compose it. In spite of the coldness that the geometrical in his work may denote, it preserves a certain mysterious impulse of what emerges spontaneously in the act of painting. Thus, his characteristic line patterns are born from a process close to action painting, as they are in fact drops of paint which, carefully placed by the artist, flow over the surface. The images thus acquire a special vibration and a lack of rigidity that facilitates interaction with the gaze. The appeal of his work is also due to an exquisite use of colour with which he obtains seductive presences, in which geometric purity serves as a vehicle for accessing the terrain of self-knowledge, a state close to contemplation.

Iñigo Arregi's sculptures sculptures fill LAB-ART's room with a characteristic Gipuzkoan touch that has brought together a sculptural development that undoubtedly stems from nineteenth-century academicism. Arregi presents his sculptures and carvings through his interest in geometric forms that intertwine and overlap on different layers. His works create alignments that fit together to form a harmonious whole, made up of levels that come together, but that can be separated and joined again as if they were a jigsaw puzzle. His work is based on a discourse of non-explicit references, of complex arguments related to emotions. Arregi shows only frontal views, unlike other sculptures that can be seen from any perspective.

The sixth artist represented in Reencuentros is Erik Cruikshank (UK, 1975). Taking the landscape as his initial starting point, his paintings do not have a literal presentation, but instead focus on the emotive qualities of the place. Cruikshank uses an objective palette linked to the Scottish landscape. As such, colour acts as a vehicle to reveal the picture planes that underlie the reference points. With structure, design and colour harmony based on the everyday, the viewer is encouraged to re-approach notions of their surroundings. A space where the familiar is opened up and filled with possibilities. With works that leave the territory of art and traditional values, a dialogue opens up between the past and the present, the historical and the contemporary. Form, colour and surface build the foundational support for Erik's work and at the same time elevate the concepts of the works, allowing the viewer to discover layers of potential meaning as each element is considered. In the absence of imagery or narrative, the panels are left open to interpretation, as an almost blank plane to reflect the viewer's own emotions and ideas. Applying the paint in thinly layered bands of colour and using a subtractive technique, he works the surface until finding a balance. The delicate shapes that remain give the effect of a monochromatic finish when first seen. Through the resulting veil of paint, bright strokes of tone flicker at the edge of the focus, where the surface maintains the softest luminosity and modulation of volume. The works are completed with a meticulous level of control, creating a surface that bears no brush marks, eliminating evidence of the artist's hand and any trace of technique. By this removal, the colour field is examined more closely: as the work is approached, the colour pulsates in constantly shifting patterns, as it is withdrawn, these patterns blend, bleed and merge into a vibrant continuous field, inviting finely tuned visual attention.