ANTWERP.- Zeno X Gallery presents Grace Schwindt’s third solo exhibition, Lacuna. The show includes a large selection of sculptures and drawings created by the artist on the occasion of her recent solo exhibition at Kunstmuseum St.Gallen.
In her practice, Grace Schwindt (b. 1979 in Offenbach) brings together various disciplines, including performance, sculpture, drawings, installations and film. The interaction between these different media generates a multifaceted oeuvre whose different components keep inspiring and influencing each other. A central element of her work is her research into the vulnerability of the body, the relationship between humans and their environment, and the way history and memories are constructed in Western, capitalist society. She often draws on personal stories to explore how social relations and power structures determine the actions of individuals.
The title of the exhibition, Lacuna, is a term borrowed from the field of conservation and restoration. It refers to an absence, a void caused by damage or ageing. The surface is disrupted at the site of the void, which may or may not be restored. As such, the void creates potential for change or an opening to a new narrative.
For Schwindt, the void is like a wound that carries the mark of history, but it can also be a source of strength. The body is central to her work. Bodies – of people, animals and plants – bear traces of trauma, which is often historically rooted. Schwindt exposes these injuries and makes them visible. The wounded body appears fragile yet peaceful at the same time, and the injuries are accepted as part of life. In the bronze sculptures, the artist has applied a patina which functions like a skin that shows the traces of transformation. The glaze of the ceramics emphasises the wound as the site of potential for recovery and change.
Works such as Head and Figure, In Two Parts and Becoming a Figure testify to Schwindt’s recent interest in broken sculptures, antique or medieval, which can in turn be linked to her broader focus on care and touch. For her, the fracture is a witness to time and to the interaction between the sculpture and its environment. The care provided by the conservator consists in weighing different options: showing the fracture as it is, replacing the lost element or restoring the broken parts. It is important to consider how to deal with this fracture and what possibilities the created void offers. In addition, the broken or injured bodies confront us with our view of our own bodies and, in doing so, the artist questions the generally accepted ideals of health and beauty.
Based on her fascination with nature’s adaptability, Schwindt often depicts bodies in a state of transformation. Adaptation is a necessary survival strategy in an unpredictable and ever-changing world. The liquid watercolour shapes, the fine pencil lines, the pools of black ink and the multi-layered patina and glaze seem to change and flow into each other. The materials and techniques used refer to the delicate balance between strength and fragility, violence and tenderness.
The large-scale sculptures Resting Point and Remembered Position were produced at Kunstgiesserei St.Gallen during her residency in Switzerland. These sculptures refer to The Boxer, a 2018 performance based on the story of Schwindt’s Jewish grandfather, who had to flee Nazi Germany by posing as a German soldier and who, when he was eventually captured, organized secret boxing matches as a survival strategy. The injuries he sustained in the process were the result of his own choice and symbolised for him a form of freedom: the realisation that his body was still his own. The large sculptures appear calm and resilient in their particular state of being. Their power seems to lie in their invitation to imagine transition and movement.
Besides her recent solo exhibition Defiant Bodies at Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, Switzerland, the artist was invited by Kunsthal Gent for a residency and accompanying solo presentation in 2022 and she participated in the Busan Biennial in South Korea. Other solo exhibitions took place at the Centre for Contemporary Arts (Glasgow), Rozenstraat – a rose is a rose is a rose (Amsterdam), Rose Lejeune Gallery (London), Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts (Bath), MARCO (Vigo), Tramway (Glasgow), The Showroom (London), Site Gallery (Sheffield), Badischer Kunstverein (Karlsruhe), Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver) and Eastside Projects (Birmingham).
Performances have been staged at Volksbühne (Berlin), The Roberts Institute of Art (London), Frascati Theatre (Amsterdam), Kaaitheater (Brussels), Royal Academy of Arts as part of the Block Universe Performance Festival (London), Museum M (Leuven) and South London Gallery (London). Her work has further been included in group exhibitions at Tate Britain (London), WIELS (Brussels), Imperial War Museum (London), Arko Art Center (Seoul), Garage (Rotterdam), Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and Weserburg Museum (Bremen) and is in the permanent collections of Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, Kunsthaus Zürich, Teylers Museum (Haarlem), Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre (London) and Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts (Hokuto).
