Chelsea, New York
Nina Torr & Maaike Bakker
Counterfactuals: An Interactive Eventuality
David Krut ProjectsWe are pleased to welcome South African artists Nina Torr and Maaike Bakker to New York for an exhibition and subsequent special presentation in our gallery space. Torr and Bakker have been collaborating with David Krut Workshop (DKW), Johannesburg since 2016 and 2021, respectively, and are in residence here for the month of September, supported by the Ampersand Foundation. Conjuring alternate possibilities and doors to parallel universes, Counterfactuals suggests a playful, imaginative approach to creative practice. Indeed, in their respective practices, Torr and Bakker both view experimentation and surprise as integral to a process which is heavily intertwined with illustration. They each take a fluid approach, embracing new ideas that may arise from a misunderstanding, an unsolved riddle, an overheard conversation, or a happy accident. Through fantastical and surreal imagery, Torr's work explores mental landscapes and subverted spaces inhabited by characters who participate in open-ended narratives. For Torr, making is a way to uncover knowledge, rather than the product of it: Torr's world shows itself to her through what she describes as ‘pangs' and ‘clicks', results of attunement to intuitive, rather than explicit understanding, or the ability to explain or talk about something. Bakker works with various media in drawing, sculpture, and installation as well as digitally, keeping a primary focus on illustration-based work. Bakker's uplifted, eclectic work predominantly explores themes of notation and ephemerality. Her practice also investigates limitations imposed by systems or structures and aims to determine at what point these systems and limitations become excessive and irrelevant, ultimately exploring futility. Bakker's unique style is formed through the creation of line-based patterns, combined with soft, muted, pleasant colours, which together create a sense of richness. Engaging visual languages that welcome interruption, progressive abstraction, and unexpected development, Nina Torr and Maaike Bakker's work in Counterfactuals is informed by creative research and ephemera collected from DKW, the artists' own personal archives, and the archives of friends and collaborators. These new works debut in our New York gallery on September 12, with a special in-gallery presentation on September 25.