Daniel Buren
Voir Double, travail in situ
Pae White
Point, Counterpoint, Cloud
15 January – 21 February 2009
Xavier Hufkens
Rue Saint-Georges 6-8
1050 Brussels, Belgium
E-mail: info@xavierhufkens.com
http://www.xavierhufkens.com
Daniel Buren
Voir Double, travail in situ
Daniel Buren (Boulogne-Billancourt, 1938) is one of the most influential living French artists. During his career, the artist has adopted an artistic stance that scrutinises and questions the essence of art and the systems supporting it.
Daniel Buren works with a variety of materials including paper, glass, mirrors, Plexiglas, etc. A characteristic pattern of white stripes and one colour returns each time in his work. In the 1960s, he first bought a striped fabric and stretched it. Ever since, he has only made minor adjustments. Via a minimalist strategy, Buren’s work captures the essence of a painting: support and marks, foreground and background, light and colour. However, a Buren is neither a painting nor a sculpture, but an open mark inviting reflection. It demonstrates a leap of thought and a new vision of art as a life form.
The artist claims to live and work in situ. He rejects art as a window or as a representation of something. Daniel Buren teaches us nothing about the nature of the image, but about real architectural space. His intention as an artist is to make the context of the artwork visible to the spectator: space, light, but also to awaken the consciousness of the beholder. His installations in public spaces also function in this manner. Buren seeks to create awareness in the broadest possible sense. By altering perspectives, his work creates a true modification of the context.
The work of Daniel Buren redefines the place in which the artwork occurs, demonstrating complexity and an ideological approach to art and every form of experience. With this gesture, Buren shifts the boundaries of visual art, and paves the way for a new interaction between art and life.
Voir Double, travail in situ is the second exhibition by Daniel Buren at the gallery. Daniel Buren has exhibited in some of the largest art institutions in the world, such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York (2005), the Centre Pompidou and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. He has realized large public projects all over the world and his work is present in numerous public collections. At this moment, Daniel Buren is showing La Coupure, travail in situ, a large in situ installation at the Musée Picasso in Paris.
Pae White
Point, Counterpoint, Cloud
The work of Pae White (Pasadena, CA, 1963) lies at the crossroads between art, design and architecture. The artist explores the visual possibilities of shape, colour and space. In her first exhibition at the gallery, she mixes these elements in installations that bear all the hallmarks of her personality and ingenuity.
Her work includes a broad spectrum of objects: from animal-shaped barbecues, paper clocks and mobiles to magazine adverts and invitations from other artists. Because her work takes so many forms, it comes across as light and playful, but at the same time, it is also difficult for the spectator to penetrate. Yet it contains intriguing layers of meaning. The artist manages to radically transform objects by combining different visual strategies. Functional objects, graphical patterns, natural or mobile elements are incorporated into a new, attractive whole. The observer is approached indirectly because meaning is distributed across the form, colour and material of the objects.
The installations by Pae White at the gallery confront the spectator with a new contemporary vision of art. The artist departs from a natural theme, to which she gives form via unusual materials such as newsprint or a high definition video projection. The result is not only poetic, but also reflects a contemporary, social landscape. On the one hand, White builds upon modern artistic strategies such as form, space, and the combination of art and life. On the other, her art functions at a seductive and associative level, communicating strongly with the onlooker. Her objects and installations are not only appealing; they also demonstrate a relationship with the spectator by suggesting a collective imagination, which we all share.
Pae White’s work is not only aimed at the production of objects, but also symbolizes a relationship with the world. In this sense, it brings a new reading of modernism and paints a picture of the contemporary condition. Her art creates an associative, nomadic network that reflects the contemporary social space.
The work of Pae White is shown on a regular basis in the United States and Europe. White recently held exhibitions at the Scottsdale Museum of Modern Art, Scottsdale (2008), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington (2007) and the UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2004). In 2007, the artist participated at Skulptur Projekte Münster 07. White has been invited to participate at the Venice Biennial 2009.
For more information or images, please contact the gallery.
Xavier Hufkens
Rue Saint-Georges 6-8
1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: + 32 2 639 67 30
E-mail: info@xavierhufkens.com
http://www.xavierhufkens.com
