Chelsea, New York
Richard Gasper
Galvanized Hydrangea
Johannes VogtJohannes Vogt Gallery is pleased to present the first US solo exhibition by Richard Gasper, "Galvanized Hydrangea". The exhibition features paintings from his ongoing series comprised of jigsawed, lacquered wood panels mounted on aluminum. The exhibited series emerges from a lengthy and complicated process which involves various stages of sanding, polishing, cutting and ultimately, the reconstruction of the surface. Though the process is highly labor intensive, the abstract compositions are derived from high-energy gestural drawings akin to a child’s drawing, or marks filtered through drawing software on a smart phone. For this new body of work some of the marks were made by taping 4 pencils together. The high end finish of the pieces is derived from the manufacturing of modernist furniture. The immediacy of these marks are contrasted by the laborious process of the final piece, often masking the source of the marks via the complexity of production and the obfuscation of materials. Gasper’s paintings, through their surfaces, function as a metaphorical investigation into bourgeois ideals, their distorted aspirations, desire and the unanticipated permutations within systems of class and economics. His works take as their springboard the object of a baroque pearl, still reminiscent of classicism yet full of irregularities and unexpected, natural moments. They mirror the pearl’s hidden process of formation while pointing outwardly to both the standing-reserve of nature and the making invisible of capitalist supply chains. Richard Gasper was born in 1982 in London, UK, where he currently lives and works. He received his BA from The Slade School of Fine Art and his MFA from the Royal College of Art. Gasper teaches as senior lecturer at Kingston University. He has exhibited widely across the UK and Europe. His London solo debut took place in 2014 at Kinman Gallery. Upcoming shows in London include a group show at Studio Leigh and “Guest Projects” curated by Nicola McCartney as well as his second solo show at Kinman Gallery.