“Knock the Wind” – get an enchanting hit in solar plexus!
With the double show “Knock the Wind”, on view thru September 12th, we present works on paper by Monica Cook and Jean-Pierre Roy in a class apart. It’s usually not a very comfortable experience to get the wind knocked out of you but here you get the chance to get a pleasant and interesting kick in solar plexus. Both artists build their works on a theme of childhood memories and we are very thankful to get a peek into this playful yet serious world of theirs.
Monica Cook debuts (in the context of Gallery Poulsen) with eight works on paper where watercolor, gouache and graphite pave the way to a magical universe with cobras, corncobs and naked female autobiographical figures. Derived from personal childhood memories Cook revisits a lot of weird objects that she used to be fascinated by or afraid of. Now, in the perspective of an adult, they get a surreal and sexual touch all the while they maintain a childlike naivety and playfulness.
The contrast between serious thoughts of a grown-up and the straightforward approach of a child is liberating and amusing. Cook brings a lot of universal yet opposing feelings to light including passion and gluttony, strength and frailty, hope and despair. By dragging all those big feelings into a fictional and adventurous world, Cook manages to rediscover the familiar and make the repulsive appealing.
While Monica Cook shows us small-scale pastel pieces Jean-Pierre Roy provides us with large-scale monochrome drawings composed in the very recognizable Roy way - in a magnificent landscape we find a giant autobiographical figure with a face shielded by complex geometry. In four large drawings Roy tries to pull something solid out of his airy childhood memories through references to movies he watched as a child: Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Road Warrior and Aliens.
It’s a very interesting project to combine fictional settings with autobiographical elements as a way of fixing the past and as a way of making these parallel worlds and feelings vivid at all times. With Roy’s own words, “these places live on, just outside of the material, just beyond the reach of touch, but suited to a direct limbic access, one where the emotional reality of the space can be re-vivified in perpetuity.”
With less than two more weeks to go, you should not hesitate to stop by the gallery to see this amazing show! It’s an extremely elegant show build up from modest tools like paper, watercolor and pencil. The final expressions on the other hand are undeniably monumental, impressive and breathtaking!
"Knock the Wind" - Works on paper by Monica Cook & Jean-Pierre Roy
August 14th - September 12th, 2015
New York Academy of Art & Gallery Poulsen present ”Graduates”
This fall in Gallery Poulsen we kick of an annual returning concept, when we present three graduate students from New York Academy of Art: Abigail Schmidt, Shangkai Kevin Yu and Stephen Vollo. In consultation and collaboration with our in house artist Jean-Pierre Roy (teacher), David Kratz (president) and Peter Drake (dean of Academic Affairs) from NYAA we have developed this curatorial frame to be able to give you the newest and best talents.
New York Academy of Art is well known for its ability to combine intensive technical training in the fine arts with active critical discourse. It serves as a creative and intellectual center for all artists dedicated to highly skilled, conceptually aware figurative and representational art. In other words – we do share a lot of interests with this institution and that’s exactly why we began this fruitful cooperation.
However, several of our artists are connected to this highly regarded institution, so NYYA is definitely not a completely alien territory for us. John Jacobsmeyer, Mu Pan and Jean-Pierre Roy all work as teachers and instructors in respectively printing, drawing and painting. Furthermore this is the academy where Jean-Pierre Roy earned his master’s degree.
While we were in New York City in March we visited NYAA where we carefully selected and invited Abigail Schmidt, Shangkai Kevin Yu and Stephen Vollo to show their works in Gallery Poulsen. We can’t wait to show you these three talents and give you the opportunity to discover new young gifted painters in the genre of figurative, representational and well-crafted art.
Abigail Schmidt (above) operates at first sight within the frame of historical painting, but if you look closer you will find a lot of alluring twists like emaciated horses and anti-heroic soldiers that undoubtedly makes her works innovative and contemporary. In a bizarre but very convincing way Schmidt mixes unconnected elements like American landscapes with German soldiers resulting in absurd allegories of decline and turmoil.
Shangkai Kevin Yu, on the other hand, doesn’t embed objects in his composition discreetly. With flying elements like a chair, a naked female body and obviously missing elements we are drawn into a world of the inexplicable. Kevin Yo both mixes objects and technics that we usually do not connect, which leaves us with interesting expression both when it comes to the media painting, the obvious visual expression and the overall narrative of the work.
With yet a different approach than the two artists above Stephen Vollo represents the expected, familiar and domestic in his quiet and worked through paintings. As a kind of living Vilhelm Hammershøi he manages to show us new aspects of contemporary everyday life. Vollo paints an empty bed and the back of a grandma figure meticulously with heavy layers of paint, which turns them into delicate and not least beautiful reliefs.
Read more about New York Academy of Art
New York Academy of Art & Gallery Poulsen: Graduates
Featuring: Abigail Schmidt (US), Shangkai Kevin Yu (US), Stephen Vollo (US)
Opening Friday September 18th from 5-7 pm
September 18th – October 31st, 2015
Gallery Poulsen at Pulse Miami Beach 2015
We are very happy and excited to announce that we once again are attending Pulse Miami Beach in the first week of December. This year you will find us in booth N-105 presenting amazing and brand new works by Christian Rex van Minnen, Jean-Pierre Roy, Mi Ju, Nicola Verlato, William Powhida and Aaron Johnson.
Save the dates below if you want to have a very special art experience in an international atmosphere between palms and cold drinks. It’s only a flight away!
Gallery Poulsen at Pulse Miami Beach 2015
Booth N-105
Tuesday December 1st – Saturday December 5th, 2015
New works in Poulsen Edition
As a part of our current show ”Knock the Wind” we present three brand new prints in a limited edition of 15 + 2 AP of Jean-Pierre Roy’s drawings “A nudge to make me like you”, “6.12.79.LV-426” and “Here, in this blighted place”.
All three are made as high quality photogravure which is a complicated photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is coated with a light-sensitive gelatin tissue which had been exposed to a film positive, and then etched, resulting in a high quality print with thousands of details and tones.
In addition to Roy's three works we also present five works by the Danish artist, photographer and printmaker Stig Stasig for the first time in Gallery Poulsen. We are very excited to show you this peculiar and very beautiful underwater world that has been Stasig’s major project the last six years.
The main concept is to look at water from different philosophical and physical perspectives mostly from beneath the surface. This work is concentrated in the seas in the Nordic countries – Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and smaller parts are from UK, Germany and the Mediterranean Sea.
The five new works in Poulsen Edition consists of four photogravure prints from the same series “Cyaneans”, where you see two jellyfish entangled in an ongoing battle of love and revulsion. The last work “Litlaá” (above) is a pigment print representing flowering and luminescent green algae from Iceland.
Exhibition schedule in the last part of 2015
New York Academy of Art & Gallery Poulsen: ”Graduates”
Featuring: Abigail Schmidt (US), Shangkai Kevin Yu (US), Stephen Vollo (US)
Opening Friday September 18th from 5-7 pm
September 18th – October 31st, 2015
Rainer Hosch: ”Photographs”
Opening Friday November 7th
November 7th – December 5th, 2015
Gallery Poulsen at Pulse Miami Beach 2015
Booth N-105
Tuesday December 1st – Saturday December 5th, 2015
Gallery Poulsen present: “Christmas Group Show”
December 12th – January 5th, 2015