Diana Al-Hadid
Galleri Brandstrup is delighted to return to The Armory Show in New York for the 7th consecutive year. We will present a carefully curated selection of new works by represented artists; Diana Al-Hadid, Li Binyuan, Christer Glein and Apichaya Wanthiang.
Diana Al-Hadid
Our booth will feature wall panels and sculpture by Diana Al-Hadid (1981, Syria). Al-Hadid is known for a practice that spans across media and scale, and examines the historical frameworks and perspectives that shape our material and cultural assumptions. Al- Hadid’s works carry with them indications of a diverse set of interests and inspirations, including mythology, architecture, literature, cosmology and physics, to investigate intersections that materialize through exchange and appropriation. The series of panels presented is inspired by Al-Hadid’s discovery of the German 16th-century manuscript, “The Book of Miracles” which depicts in rich luminous detail, a collection of illustrations of unexplained natural celestial phenomenon including parahelios, blood rains, insect invasions, and comets carrying swords. The manuscript is a spectacular discovery of renascence art that reflects apocalyptic anxieties that emerge during times of dramatic cultural shifts.
Li Binyuan
We will show video performance and photo by Li Binyuan (1985, China). His performances explore China’s changing socioeconomic landscape. Li Binyuan’s practice is an exploration of spatial systems and the possibilities for action within a space. In his art, space is a physical and socio-political entity. Space is created based on the artist’s plan, presenting new meanings and energies. Li invites viewers to reconsider appropriate and legitimate boundaries, casting further doubt on common sense as a medium of control. Binyuan’s performances often contain sustained physical efforts where he uses his own body as sole material. A great example can be seen in his video work “Drawing Board 100x40”, where Binyuan uses his own strength to hold back a river with a drawing board. His Sisyphean determination leads us to think he has a purpose, but it’s only a desperate scene of Catch-22.
Christer Glein
For the series of paintings we are presenting by Christer Glein (1984, Norway), the artist explores different cultural languages through the interweaving of diverse imagery in layers of a nonlinear composition. His formal expression is along the paths of artists such as Serge Poliakoff and Jakob Weidemann, and further evolved into a distinct form of abstract painting. No color is alone on the canvas, but applied in layers upon layers between monochrome substrates and pointelistic coats of different colors. The different colors distinguish the geometrical color surfaces and motifs seamlessly. This modernistic representation is often accompanied by classical subjects, a combination which creates a dynamic expression.
Apichaya Wanthiang
We will further show paintings by Oslo based artist Apichaya Wanthiang (1987, Thailand). Wanthiang’s new paintings, is a continuation of an investigation in the phenomenon flood(ed). This interest was initially explored in her solo exhibition Driftwood and Ghost Hunters at LNM, in 2018 in Oslo Norway. In the last couple of years, there has been an increased flooding in the North-East of Thailand. Submitting her family, and many others in that part of Thailand to fragile conditions. In her work she attempts to relate to the increased flooding, and through painting meditates upon a sense of restlessness and powerlessness. With the years there’s a bigger loss of crops, thus less food, and a bigger need to balance these precarious living conditions. In the two new presented works, she continues to explore how to materialize this. Not to illustrate a specific flooding of rice paddies, but to address the topic flood(ed) in a larger constellation and complex narrative. A flood is a weather phenomenon, a material condition and also a psychological state. The amalgamation and collapse of these different aspects of an event is what she aims to explore. To find a material and painterly language to something that is inherently fluid, affective and fugitive, always trying to escape a singular reading.
