1001 Nights [ + 1 ]

Canada is pleased to present 1001 Nights [ + 1 ], Robert Janitz's third solo show with the gallery. The title refers to the well known Islamic story cycle that is wrapped in a story of its own. The [ +1 ] is a winking reference to Janitz's reentry into the swirling atmosphere of New York, with its famously overheated social jockeying. Like Scheherazade's tales, Janitz's paintings demonstrate how language can inform, beguile and deceive. Transparent and opaque passages of paint can be read as magnified cellular life or heads with wavy coiffures, depending on their form. Neither figurative nor strictly abstract, the heads depict without personalizing. They are often framed with arched prosceniums or post-and-lintel constructions that literalize the parameters of the canvas. By turning his subjects’ backs to us Janitz invites us to behold the beholder, and allows us to project our emotions onto his cypher-like subjects as they stare into fields of color. The open-ended questions that the paintings pose recall the philosophically tinged romanticism of Casper David Friedrich. The colors range from a dusty autumnal palette to high chroma, nearly pop hues. The paint is emulsified with an idiosyncratic list of additives including flour and ground glass. Janitz uses an array of carefully selected tools— squeegees, combs and palette knives, to create marks with deep waxy furrows. The paintings, remarkably, are made in a nearly blind manner because the gooey concoction Janitz spreads across the surfaces is semi-transparent when wet and, like a photo emulsion coming into focus, reveal their image only when dry. The paintings have a rootless melancholic quality, reflecting Janitz’s committed status as an itinerant artist who relocates home and studio frequently in search of fresh energy. Recently, the Hong Kong born philosopher Yuk Hui has pointed to the German term Heimatlosigkieit which translates as “loss of home”. Hui suggests this idea best characterizes contemporary life in a globalized and technologically interconnected world. Janitz presents this loss as an opening; while dislocating and ambiguous, the paintings point towards forms of pleasure and connection that are both scary and promising. Robert Janitz (b. 1962 in Alsfeld, Germany) lives and works in Mexico City. He studied Ethnology, Comparative Religion, Sanskrit, and Art History at the Philipps University in Marburg, Germany. His works have been shown in many international solo and group exhibitions, amongst others in San Carlo, Cremona, Italy; Diego Rivera Museum Anahuacalli, Mexico City; the Sevil Dolmaci Gallery in Istanbul, Turkey; Canada, New York, NY; König Galerie, Berlin, Germany; König London, London, UK; the Centre Regional Art Contemporain, Montbéliard, France; Saenger Galería, Mexico City; Luis Barragán's Casa Gilardi, Mexico City. His works are part of the following collections: Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris, France; SFMoMA, San Francisco, USA; Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea; Bass Collection, Texas; Carole Server Collection, New York, NY; Collection VR d'Afflaux, Paris, France; Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy; Hall Art Foundation, Reading, VT, USA; Tomio Koyama, Tokyo, Japan; Goetz Collection, Munich, Germany; Cerámica Suro Collection, Guadalajara, Mexico.

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