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Piotr Uklański

Floored

November 6, 2013–January 10, 2014
Geneva

Installation view Artwork © Piotr Uklański. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view

Artwork © Piotr Uklański. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view Artwork © Piotr Uklański. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view

Artwork © Piotr Uklański. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view Artwork © Piotr Uklański. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view

Artwork © Piotr Uklański. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view Artwork © Piotr Uklański. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view

Artwork © Piotr Uklański. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view Artwork © Piotr Uklański. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view

Artwork © Piotr Uklański. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view Artwork © Piotr Uklański. Photo: Annik Wetter

Installation view

Artwork © Piotr Uklański. Photo: Annik Wetter

Works Exhibited

Piotr Uklański, Untitled (Kreayshawn), 2012 Wood pencil shavings, colored graphite, and plexiglass with an adhesive film in a gold leaf frame, 26 ⅛ × 36 ⅛ inches (66.4 × 91.8 cm)© Piotr Uklański. Photo: Rob McKeever

Piotr Uklański, Untitled (Kreayshawn), 2012

Wood pencil shavings, colored graphite, and plexiglass with an adhesive film in a gold leaf frame, 26 ⅛ × 36 ⅛ inches (66.4 × 91.8 cm)
© Piotr Uklański. Photo: Rob McKeever

Piotr Uklański, Untitled (Hanky Panky), 2012 Pottery, mortar on masonry board, and aluminum, 28 ⅝ × 24 ½ × 9 ⅞ inches (72.7 × 62.2 × 25.1 cm)© Piotr Uklański. Photo: Rob McKeever

Piotr Uklański, Untitled (Hanky Panky), 2012

Pottery, mortar on masonry board, and aluminum, 28 ⅝ × 24 ½ × 9 ⅞ inches (72.7 × 62.2 × 25.1 cm)
© Piotr Uklański. Photo: Rob McKeever

Piotr Uklański, Untitled (Point of Interest), 2011 Pottery, mortar on masonry board, and aluminum, 18 × 17 × 22 inches (45.7 × 43.2 × 55.9 cm)© Piotr Uklański. Photo: Rob McKeever

Piotr Uklański, Untitled (Point of Interest), 2011

Pottery, mortar on masonry board, and aluminum, 18 × 17 × 22 inches (45.7 × 43.2 × 55.9 cm)
© Piotr Uklański. Photo: Rob McKeever

About

Uklański has formed his approach to painting without a brush, oil, and canvas. He uses everything and weaves it into everything else. The esoteric becomes magic, the erotic becomes pornographic, from violence to chance, from nothing to everything, he always finds a way to create another space. Using studios and theaters, magazines and canvases, pottery and weaving, pencil shavings and ink droppings, he creates his unique pictorial language. Uklański is the inventor of "resuscitative painting," which is the opposite of "action painting." His canvases are both targets and garbage bags for all the pictorial vernaculars he resurrects.
—Francesco Bonami

Gagosian Geneva is pleased to announce an exhibition by Piotr Uklański.

The exhibition centerpiece is Untitled (Scuff Marks) (1995), a floor work that Uklański exhibited that year at the artist-run Cubitt Gallery in London and which has not been exhibited since. Surrounding this important early gestural work are recent works from the ceramic mosaic paintings and pencil shavings series—primary examples of Uklański's "meta-painting" practice. Created one year before the renowned Untitled (Dance Floor) (1996), Untitled (Scuff Marks) (1995) underscores Uklański's critical interest in sculpture and painting in the expanded field, the foundation for his current studio practice. Uklański went on to make diverse floor works, including Untitled (Wet Floor) (2001) and Untitled (Permanent Floor) (2003).

In lieu of conventional art materials, Uklański creates "paintings" from torn paper and household wares, as well as ceramic, macramé, and other natural media. Sculptural reliefs quote from early abstract painting: each wall-mounted work is made up of multiple ceramic components, from sculptures by other artists to classic examples of modernist studio pottery and mass-produced tableware, some of which employ recognizable volcanic glazes as painterly tropes. Relishing the equivalences between common matter and fine art, Uklański creates color fields out of pencil shavings, while the abrasions of Untitled (Scuff Marks) evoke gestural patterns on the gallery floor. Undermining perceived aesthetic hierarchies, Uklański continues to play upon visual and conceptual paradigms in modernist art.

Gagosian Gallery est heureuse de présenter une exposition de Piotr Uklański.

La pièce maîtresse de l'exposition intitulée Untitled (Scuff Marks) (1995), est une installation au sol qu'Uklański a presentée cette année—là à la Cubitt Gallery de Londres et qui n'a plus été exposée depuis. Autour de cette œuvre gestuelle importante, figurent des œuvres récentes, des tableaux en céramique mosaïque et de la série des taillures de crayon—exemples phares de la pratique de « meta-peinture » d'Uklański. Créée une année avant son œuvre emblématique Untitled (Dance Floor) (1996), Untitled (Scuff Marks) souligne l'intérêt critique d'Uklański pour la sculpture et la peinture en dehors de leurs champs traditionnels,une des fondations de son travail actuel en studio. Uklański a, par la suite, créé plusieurs installations au sol, notamment Untitled (Wet Floor) (2001) et Untitled (Permanent Floor) (2003).

Au lieu d'utiliser des matériaux artistiques traditionnels, Uklański crée des « tableaux » faits de papiers déchirés et articles ménagers, de céramique, macramé et autres fibres naturelles. Certains reliefs sculptés se réfèrent aux débuts de la peinture abstraite: chaque œuvre murale est constituée de plusieurs composants en céramique, allant de sculptures d'autres artistes à des exemples classiques de poterie modernistes et de vaisselle fabriquée en masse, avec, parfois, des glaçures volcaniques reconnaissables, utilisés commemétaphores picturales.Se délectant des équivalences entre les matières communes et les beaux-arts, Uklański crée des champs de couleurs faits de tailluresde crayon, tandis que les abrasions de Untitled (Scuff Marks) évoquent des motifs gestuels sur le sol de la galerie. Déstabilisant les hiérarchies esthétiques perçues, Uklański se joue continuellement avec des paradigmes visuels et conceptuels de l'art moderne.

Piotr Uklański est né en 1968 à Varsovie en Pologne. Il vit et travaille entre Varsovie et New York. Son travail à été exposé et figure dans les collections de musées à travers le monde, notamment le Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Britain, Londres; François Pinault Foundation, Venise; et la Kunsthalle, Bâle. En 2006, Uklański a montré son premier long-métrage, Summer Love: The First Polish Western. Ses expositions récentes comprennent "Piotr Uklański: A Retrospective," Wiener Secession, Vienne (2007); "The Joy of Photography," Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Strasbourg (2007–08); "Mapping the Studio: Artists from the François Pinault Collection," Punta della Dogana et Palazzo Grassi, Venise (2009–11); "2010: Whitney Biennial" (2010); and "Piotr Uklański: Forty and Four," Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Varsovie (2012–13).

Une exposition majeure, intitulée "Piotr Uklański: ESL," ouvrira au Bass Museum of Art de Miami, le 5 décembre 2013.

L'ouvrage à paraître Second Languages: Reading Piotr Uklański (Miami : Hatje Cantz et le Bass Museum, 2013) comprend onze essais richement illustrés qui explorent les divers aspects de l'œuvre d'Uklański tout en examinant les différents courants conceptuels qui y figurent. Second Languages: Reading Piotr Uklański est édité par Donna Wingate et Marc Joseph Berg.

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