André Hemer
Installation view, Dallas Art Fair 2018
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is very pleased to return to the Dallas Art Fair with a presentation of paintings and sculptures by Erik Olson and André Hemer to be exhibited from April 13-15, 2018.
Canadian-born, Düsseldorf-based Erik Olson graduated with a Bachelor's Degree from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver in 2007 and most recently attended the critically acclaimed Kunstakademie Düsseldorf as a guest student of Peter Doig. Olson's ongoing investigations into portraiture are the culmination of several years of exploration and experimentation in his Düsseldorf studio and a period of intense production in Los Angeles. His paintings range from objective, observation-based representations to half cropped or framed portraits to more abstract and obscured geometric formations. While all of the work is within the frame of a 'bust' or traditional head and shoulders presentation, each painting proceeds in dramatically different directions, highlighting the very malleable idea of identity. The work oscillates between portraying the individual in an analytic sense and a more intuitive approach, beyond knowledge. At the Dallas Art Fair, the gallery will present several bust-style sculptures in dialogue with Olson's paintings.
New Zealand-born André Hemer received his MFA from the University of Canterbury with a research period at the Royal College of Art, London. He also holds a PhD from the University of Sydney. Most recently he completed a six-month residency at the ISCP in New York City. He lives and works in Vienna, Austria. In his most recent series of paintings, titled Deep Surfacing, Hemer continues to explore the complexity of seeing in the contemporary world. We live in a time in which we are likely to encounter everyday objects as de- materialized digital forms as much as their physical incarnations. Fundamental notions of what it means to experience and determine space, light, and illusion all have been reimagined as a result. Hemer's paintings amalgamate different ways of looking at the same thing within a single canvas. Beginning with sculpted forms of dried thickened paint, Hemer scans paint out of doors on a digital flat-bed scanner with the lid removed, capturing the atmospheric qualities of the day and location. With a scanned set, Hemer creates digital collages, prints them onto canvas, then adds translucent layers of spray paint, acrylic, oil along with very thick impasto to each. The resulting surfaces are optically, physically, and conceptually complex, changing the way we think about painting and perception.