BASEL.- Mixing mobiles, drawings, photography, oil paintings and silverpoint works, we reflect on the past, potential future and actual circumstances. Our lives and environment have changed drastically since these works were made, but they remain relevant and fresh, inviting us to unite together to join forces for a better future.
Weaving lines, shapes, thoughts and colors is the theme of ‘Back to the Roots’ in a year marked with upheaval and a need for unity. Ideas and concepts are presented as if suspendend in order that we may appropriate them and integrate them in our space and individual life. The sharpness of the photo allows us to see each thread, warp and weft and the combined results. The weave allows us to see combinations and various densities of blues and reds. Alternatively, the solid, richly colored background and dense black in both of Gjerdevik’s paintings presents sharp constrasts. The combination of various black shapes create the sine curves facing each other.
Beth Campbell’s ‘Future Past’ drawings on black paper prompt us to review art history, science, the art market, acquisitions and philosophy whereas her mobiles present the almost infinite alternatives available to us. Michelle Grabner’s inkjet prints magnify the woven threads and alternative colors: red and white, blue and white. In comparison, her silverpoint tondos show each line and the wholeness of each individual work. The contrasting colors, varied shapes and textures presented in the late Nils Erik Gjerdevik’s large paintings invite us to explore the future.
Beth Campbell (b. 1971 in Dwight, IL) is known for her drawings, sculpture, and architectural interventions often involving multiplicity, duplication and mirroring. Beth Campbell choreographs spaces, crafts uncanny objects, and maps future thoughts. Perception, subjectivity and the beingness of objects are the core themes of her works. More recent works merge a complex matrix of past and future as well as the innersubjectivity and interobjectivity of experience.
Nils Erik Gjerdevik (b. 1962, Oslo, NO – d. 2016 Copenhagen, DK), was a beloved artist who lived in Copenhagen. His paintings and drawings were exhibited and are in the collection of major Danish and Norwegian museums including Århus Kunstmuseum, Bergen Art Museum, Kobberstiksamlingen, National Gallery of Denmark, Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, National Gallery of Denmark, Arts Council SE and DK, as well as PAMM-Pérez Art Museum Miami, US and Jumex Collection, MX and private collections throughout Europe, North and South America.
Michelle Grabner (b. 1962, Oshkosh, WI) is an artist, writer, and a curator based in Wisconsin. She is the Crown Professor of Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she has taught since 1996. In addition, Grabner has also held teaching appointments at The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Cranbrook Academy of Art; Yale Norfolk; Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts – Bard College; Yale University School of Art; and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Grabner co-curated the 2014 Whitney Biennial and curated the 2016 Portland Biennial. She was the Artistic Director for the inaugural exhibition, FRONT International, the 2018 Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art. Her reviews are regularly published in X-tra and Artforum.
