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Frank Gerritz, "TRANSIT"


September 3 - October 8, 2016
taguchi fine art, tokyo








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We are very pleased to announce the third one-person show by German artist, Frank Gerritz, during above period.

Born in Bad Oldesloe, Germany in 1964, Frank Gerritz now resides and works in Hamburg, Germany. Periodically he holds exhibitions in museums and gallerys in Europe and the United States. His works are housed in many museums and private collections as Weserburg, Museum fuer Moderne Kunst (Bremen), Gemeentemuseum (Den Haag), Musee Tavet Delacour (Pontoise), National Gallery of Art (Washington DC), Brooklyn Museum (New York), Collezione Panza di Biumo (Varese) and The Menil Collection (Houston), etc.


Frank Gerritz is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding artists of an abstractly and geometrically operating art. At a first glance, one might feel an inclination to categorize his works as a retracing of the path of Minimal and Conceptual Art, but this viewpoint would be far too one-dimensional, because Gerritz's works lay claim to the live character of individual perception and go deeper than the surface, providing a complex weave of the most diverse references and points of view to the discourses of art history.


Sculptor

Frank Gerritz started his carrier as a sculptor. For years, however, he has developed his sculptural ideas principally in the form of drawings that nonetheless have a character of relief works and emanate a markedly space-encompassing energy. Derived from his early sculpture installations, he has established two main directions as serial works, one of these are the pencil drawings on MDF panel and the other one are the oil paintstick drawings on anodized aluminum.


Pencil drawing on MDF panel

With a Faber Castell 9B pencil, Gerritz places layer upon layer of graphite onto the smooth surface of industrially manufactured MDF panels. The different hatching results in a precise mesh of lines that lends the drawing initial structure. What is decisive is that the precision of these geometric formations is taken to a completely different level of perception due to the material effect of the graphite. The graphite that has been applied to the surface catches light in completely new and different ways. The viewerÕs gaze thus takes an exciting journey through a light-filled world of ostensible darkness in these in part specular works on MDF.


Paintstick drawing on anodized Aluminum

In another cycle, Gerritz works with a black paintstick directly on anodized aluminum panel carefully manufactured with the instruction by the artist. Viewers can experience the black of penetrating beauty on the surface and the space for the echo of living experience in the concise characteristic style of rigid precision. This is possible only when directly in front of those actual works.

Alongside these "wall-sculptures", several series of drawings on paper, paintstick on printed paper (from auction catalogues and invitation cards) as well as monumental wall-drawings, equally constructed from a consciously limited geometric vocabulary, have defined the artistÕs works over the past two decades.


Pencil drawings on paper

In early days, Gerritz created sculptures as human head with stone. After several years he shifted his work into abstract sculptures constructed with cast iron blocks of cube and rectangular parallelepiped. Those sizes are based on the dimensions of human body (size of head, the width of shoulders, and a step, etc.). With the installation of those sculptures, he noticed none can see the bottom face, contacting with floor of the sculptures. Then he did a pencil drawing of this unseen bottom face, that is the starting point of his pencil drawings. A rectangular parallelepiped which he calls ÒCenterÓ is a fundamental unit for his works. It appears in his drawings as a rectangle or square. The lines drawn by pencil are accumulated thick, and look as the three dimensional work made of lead.


Invitationals/Auctions

"Invitationals/Auctions" is his serial work partly painted with a black paintstick over invitational cards of exhibitions or pages from auction catalogues which were sent to him. This series is derived from his works, paintstick drawings on anodized aluminum. The traces of paintstick, brush strokes on the surface and the composition are common in both works. Gerritz succeeds in creating humorous and witty works by adding his paintstick on the reproductive plates of works by internationally well-known artists. Because those works frequently put in auctions are directly linked to the money, this serial work by Gerritz also has a cynical character treating close relation of contemporary art to commercialism and the money. In 2010, Weserburg, Museum fuer Moderne Kunst in Bremen had his solo exhibition only with "Invitationals/Auctions".


Transit

The title of this show "TRANSIT" is coming from one of GerritzÕs works from "Invitationals/Auctions" series, which is made of the invitation card of a solo show by a Polish sculptor Miroslaw Balka, "TRANSIT" at Galeria Juana de Aizpuru, Madrid in January to March this year. With this work, Gerritz painted the whole one side of the invitation card except the letter "TRANSIT" black down with paintstick.
The word "transit" has various meanings and recalls many associations. Generally it means "transportation", "transfer" or "passage". We may often hear the word "transit" when we change an airplane - the place to transfer and the activity to change an airplane.
In todayÕs global society, a large quantity of people and supplies come and go across the borders everyday. The movement of refugees has become the big social problem. It might be true that people of today are always in a state of "transit" without staying in one place. Artists and the works are no exception, too. It can be said that "transit" is a word representing the one side of the modern society.
In addition, with the works in Invitationals/Auctions series, by working on a plate of an art work by another artist, Gerritz gives a different meaning to the original work and changes it into a new art work. The act to create a new meaning and value by changing the context - "transit" - is one of the characteristic things in various fields of contemporary art, as in fine art, performing art or literature.


From 17:00 till 19:00 on the first day, Saturday, September 3rd, we will have a reception for the artist. We are looking forward to your visit.







checklist of the installation

1.
TRANSIT, 2016
paintstick on printed paper
21 x 15.5 cm

2.
Steady as it Comes, 2014
paintstick on anodized aluminum
60 x 60 cm

3.
Two Center Split Screen I, 2016
paintstick on anodized aluminum
2-oart, each 60 x 60 cm

4.
Night Drive (Straight Through), 2016
paintstick on anodized aluminum
60 x 60 cm

5.
Bright Light (Three Centers), 2016
paintstick on anodized aluminum
60 x 60 cm

6.
Rhein, 2012
paintstick on printed paper
2-part, each 29.5 x 23 cm