SANTA MONICA, CA.- Christopher Grimes Gallery is presenting an exhibition with Veronika Kellndorfer and Antonio Ballester Moreno. While divergent in materiality, Kellndorfer and Ballester Moreno share a sensibility in their approach to the subject of Modernism as a theme in their work. Kellndorfer’s practice is centered on photographing some of the most recognized and renowned Modernist architectural spaces around the world, while Ballester Moreno’s paintings embody the Modernist emphasis on line, form, symbolism, color and process, bringing to mind early champions of the avant-garde such as Paul Klee, Joan Miró and Josef Albers.

For this exhibition, Kellndorfer presents photographs of Modernist structures by Albert Frey and Oscar Niemeyer printed on highly reflective glass panels. She primarily focuses her lens on the transparent façades of the structures, allowing the difference between the interior and exterior to play out on the surface of the glass. As a result of this process, the viewer and their surroundings are conflated on the surfaces of the works, resulting in the superimposition of image space and real space, the man-made and the natural.

With attention to texture and figuration, Ballester Moreno applies up to thirty layers of thinned acrylic paint to raw, unprimed jute, essentially dyeing the surface of the canvas. Using this process he applies elements of a simplified, geometric visual language that cohesively represent nature. Through symbolic depictions of the sun, moon, water, mountains and light, Ballester Moreno’s paintings portray a natural world that is interdependent, integral and cyclical.

Veronika Kellndorfer lives and works in Berlin, Germany. She has held solo exhibitions in museums and institutions around the world, including the National Museum, Oslo, Norway (2017); Casa de Vidro, Instituto Lina Bo Bardi, São Paulo, Brazil (2015); Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany (2012 and 2014); Aedes Land, Berlin, Germany (2010); Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany (2005); Il parco, Villa Massimo, Rome, Italy (2005). Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Pilara Foundation, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA; National Gallery, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA, among others.

Antonio Ballester Moreno lives and works in Madrid, Spain and is considered one of the key figures in the young Spanish art scene. In 2017, he was the subject of a major solo exhibition at La Casa Encendida in Madrid, Spain. His work is included in the monograph Vitamin P2 published by Phaidon (2012) and is in the collections of Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M), Móstoles, Spain; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC), León, Spain; the Olbricht Collection, Berlin, Germany; and Collection Reydan Weiss, Essen, Germany. Ballester Moreno has exhibited internationally at Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Guadalajara, Mexico; La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain; Peres Projects, Berlin, Germany; and Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M), Móstoles, Spain and is a recipient of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León’s (MUSAC) Artistic Creation Grant.