LONDON.- Bluerider ART announces Golden Age: Art and Modern Space, a compelling group exhibition bringing together some of the most important contemporary artists from the gallery’s global roster. Featuring the work of over a dozen represented artists, the exhibition explores the expansive and protean interaction between contemporary art and modern space. Golden Age: Art and Modern Space runs at Bluerider ART London·Mayfair gallery 5 to 30 September 2024.
Pushing the boundaries of traditional aesthetics, the show aims to encourage viewers to perceive spaces not as backdrops for art but as integral components of the artistic experience, the two elements working in tandem to shape and redefining our environment. In keeping with Bluerider ART’s distinctive emphasis on the convergence of technology, art and design, the following artists will be exhibited, together presenting a wide but cohesive spectrum of innovation across a variety of mediums, techniques, concepts and aesthetics: Pascal Dombis, Sven Drühl, Thierry Feuz, Tim Freiwald, Angela Glajcar, Christiane Grimm, Jan Kaláb, Marck, Beñat Olaberria, Reinoud Oudshoorn, Dirk Salz, Willi Siber and Nick Veasey.
This showcase from Bluerider’s exciting European roster presents work in many moods, from the whimsical to the direct, and the bold to the introspective.
The gallery’s solo presentations over the past year in London have set the tone for its willingness to step outside the box, with exhibitions by Nick Veasey, Marck and Pascal Dombis. Through the unique penetration of the X-ray process, Nick Veasey strips back the layers to show what lies beneath the surface, playfully revealing the inner workings behind the subject's façade; Marck’s instantly recognisable video sculptures foster an innovative and delightful interaction between recording and the sculptural frame; and Pascal Dombis’ works – the effect of which is directly dependent on the viewer’s interaction – engages the viewers by questioning perception in relation to space, time and language.
Golden Age: Art and Modern Space ties artists such as these with work by artists from across the continent, many of whom have never been shown before in the UK. Dutch artist Reinoud Oudshoorn’s work is renowned for challenging traditional perspectives, creating an immersive spatial experience. This can be perceived in I-23, a work which uses minimal language alongside traditional materials and craftsmanship to allow itself to unfold and explore space beyond just the room it inhabits. Oudshoorn’s minimalist works revolve around the concept of the “Vanishing Point.” The artist believes that sculpture should transcend its physical form, creating a space larger than the work itself.
Three German artists will also be exhibited. Dirk Salz's DSA/M 798# 2584 pigmented resin works contort the viewer’s understanding of depth and space, blurring boundaries and altering our notions of visual symmetry, form, and time. Christiane Grimm’s luminous Lichtspiel II captures the shifting beauty of sunrise and sunset in her mixed media pieces, presenting moving pictorial landscapes. And Sven Drühl's S.D.N.N.F.K uses oils and lacquer, to infuse a sense of reimagination into his landscape and architectural works.
Art has a profound ability to change and improve the physical and psychological spaces in our lives by influencing our emotions, thoughts, and behaviours – through colour, shape, light and texture, perspective, depth and focus. Art makes spaces feel unique and reflective of individual or community identities, providing a sense of belonging and personal connection. It guides movement, organises space and stimulates curiosity. The thoughtful integration of art in design transforms spaces into vibrant, meaningful, and dynamic environments. This exhibition invites the viewer you to reflect on how the interplay of light, texture, and form can evoke emotion, inspire thought, and expand aesthetic perceptions, imagining the endless possibilities of spaces transformed by artistic vision.
Established in 2013 by Taipei-based IT entrepreneur Elsa Wang, the gallery has earned a reputation for fostering self-expression among artists across various forms, with a distinctive emphasis on the convergence of technology and art.
With successful ventures in Taipei's city centre and a notable presence in The Bund, Shanghai, Bluerider ART recently expanded its cultural footprint to Mayfair, London. The new gallery space, situated within a historic building dating back to 1715, provides a captivating backdrop for art enthusiasts, collectors, and global visitors.
Over the past decade, Bluerider ART has collaborated with over 50 international contemporary artists, showcasing a diverse roster that reflects the gallery's commitment to introducing artists with independent formation. The Albemarle Street venue strategically positions itself amid a rich historical tapestry, symbolising a bridge between Eastern and Western artistic contexts.
Exhibiting artists:
Pascal Dombis (France, b. 1965)
Pascal Dombis, a Paris-based visual artist, focuses as much on language as on perception. He is noted for his excessive use of simple algorithmic rules. It was in the early 90s, while finishing his studies in Boston, that he encountered digital artistic tools, prompting a transition from painting to algorithms upon returning to France. Since then, he has created environments marked by excess, repetition and the unpredictability of technological processes, in which he aims to engage the viewers by questioning perception in relation to space, time and language. He develops multi-referential works which play with spatial environments and promote multiple interpretations. Recent exhibitions include Artists & Robots at the Grand Palais in Paris (2018), Cybernetic Consciousness at Itaú cultural in São Paulo (2017) and the Venice Biennale (2013). In 2020, he achieved the creation of a permanent public artwork, Double Connection, nearly one hundred metres long in the centre of Shanghai. In 2022, he got a monographic exhibition Post-Digital at the Museum of Contemporary Art Sorocaba in Brazil.
Sven Druhl (Germany, b. 1968)
Sven Drühl currently lives and works in Berlin. He studied both art and mathematics at the University of Essen and holds a PhD in art theory. Drühl is not only an accomplished artist but also an author and editor of publications on contemporary art. Conceptually, Sven Drühl dissects visual shapes and types taken from every era from Romanticism to the present day, re-mounting them and combining them with his own motifs. Drühl reacts to the crisis of expression in post-modern painting with these transformed citations but has purposefully not ceased to paint. His exploration of art history and his continual questioning of painting as a medium are at the heart of his oeuvre. Drühl’s works invite us to contemplate history, perception, and the creative process. He became known through his compilations of famous landscape paintings and has been exhibited throughout Europe, Asia and the United States including the St. Matthäuskirche, Berlin, Museum Villa-Rot, Neue Galerie Gladbeck, National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest, Kallmann-Museum, Ismaning, Museum Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, ZKM | Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe. His work is in the collection of Berlinische Galerie-Museum für moderne Kunst, Berlin, Allianz Forum, Deutsche Bank, E.ON Art Collection, Düsseldorf, Collection Philara, Düsseldorf.
Thierry Feuz (Switzerland, b. 1968)
Thierry Feuz, a graduate of Geneva University of Art and Design (Haute École d’Art et de Design), currently lives and works in Geneva. His artistic exploration converges art, science, and philosophy, delving into the universal concept of ‘existence’ while unveiling unseen realms through his unique painting techniques. Feuz’s eye-catching works radiate glee, yet also harbour elements of frenzy and catharsis. Amidst this chaotic energy, glimpses of the idyllic and pastoral remind us of our human condition—a longing for freedom and an appreciation for beauty in our everyday lives. Notably, Thierry Feuz’s pieces grace significant institutions and museums, including Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Neuchâtel, the Singapore Art Foundation, UBS Bank, Saks Fifth Avenue in the United States, and corporate collections such as Breeze Crop and E.Sun Commercial Bank.
Tim Freiwald (Germany, b. 1986)
Graduated from the Fine Arts at the Munich Art Academy, Tim Freiwald now works and lives in Leipzig. His creative process revolves around “destruction, decomposition, and reconstruction,” resulting in negative spaces within his works. Freiwald continually explores whether “destruction can still be beautiful” and ponders the essence of art itself. His Dadaist aesthetic style embraces fragments, fractured lines, and delicate structures, all vividly portrayed through intense colours. Freiwald’s paintings teeter on the brink of physical collapse, finding stability only through “the painterly attraction between their elements”. Notably, he received the BMW Brilliance Automotive Art Award in 2011 and studied under artist Thomas Scheibitz in 2014. In 2018, he was honoured with the New Positions prize at the prestigious Art Cologne. Freiwald’s significant solo exhibitions have taken place at various European venues, including Walter Storms Galerie in Munich and the Kunsthalle Bremerhaven in Bremen.
Angela Glajcar (Germany, b. 1970)
Born in Mainz, Germany, Angela Glajcar studied sculpture at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Nuremberg from 1991 to 1998. Glajcar's work embodies sculpture and installation, it examines the way in which space is experienced using a material that is fragile and light. In the act of ripping and perforating a material that is traditionally used as a two-dimensional support, Glajcar gives paper a strong sculptural presence. Terforation is the title of Angela Glajcar's famous cubic pieces. The staggered arrangement of the vertically hung series of sheets of white paper, with torn edges, produces cave-like recessions. These extend into the depth of the sculpture. The sharp ridges and deep caverns give the viewer a fascinating room of harmony and silence. Glajcar has exhibited extensively and been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including Studio Award of the Kunststiftung Erich Hauser, the Asterstein scholarship in 1999 and Vordemberge Gildewart Award in 2004. Glajcar's works have been showcased in various prominent public art exhibitions, including Cologne Cathedral, the Frankfurt Department of Culture, the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Mainz Gutenberg Museum. Permanent collections of Glajcar's works can be found at the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art in the United States, the Wiesbaden Museum in Germany, the Mainz Arts and Sciences Center in Germany, and the Hanten Schmidt collection in Austria.
Christiane Grimm (Germany, b. 1957)
Christiane Grimm was born in 1957 in Stuttgart, Germany, and graduated from the University of Stuttgart's architecture department. Grimm currently lives and works in Heidelberg. Since the mid-1980s, Grimm has been creating colour and light spaces. Her research focuses on colour itself, which she investigates in terms of its luminosity, its wide range of nuances, the ways they can be combined, and also its effect on the viewer. As a trained architect and self-taught artist, she works with a wide range of colour materials, from oils and acrylics to pastels. Her creations span visual objects, architectural light sculptures, and boxes from Perspex, antique, and ribbed glass. Her work allows physical light to influence the specificity of the image, revealing three-dimensional gradients painted by light as the light changes and the viewing angle shifts. The sensual effect conveyed by her works emerges from the interplay between colours, composition, space, material, and lighting. Grimm’s art invites us to linger, explore, and discover new facets within this magical world of colour. Her works have been exhibited at the Museum Ritter and the Wilhelm Hack Museum in Germany and have been awarded the public's choice award. They are permanently collected by institutions such as the City Government of Heidelberg, Deutsche Bank, and numerous private art museums like Das Kleine Museum and Kunsthalle Würth, as well as private institutions like PwC's Assurance Services.
Jan Kaláb (Czech Republic, b. 1978)
Jan Kaláb graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Czech Republic, and currently lives and works in Prague. Originally a groundbreaking figure in Prague’s underground graffiti and street art scene, Kaláb transitioned from street graffiti to creating pure white spaces. As a pioneer of Czech graffiti art, Jan Kaláb has been constantly forging a path as a non-traditional artist. His artistic journey led him to explore circular transformations and 3D sculptures, distilling the vibrancy of outdoor environments onto geometrically distorted canvases. Kaláb’s style has evolved into a geometric wonderland, emphasising organic shapes and vibrant colours. His works capture depth, time, and motion while retaining the exuberance and spirit of street graffiti. He represented the Czech Republic at the Shanghai World Expo in the Czech Pavilion, and his works are held in collections at The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library (NCSML), National Art Museum of Brazil, Deji Art Museum in China, Daejeon Museum of Art in South Korea, and cooperate with numerous international luxury brands including Dior and Tiffany.
Marck (Switzerland, b. 1964)
Marck, a contemporary Swiss artist renowned for Video Sculpture, currently lives and works in Zurich. Marck's unconventional journey led him to enter a prestigious art school at a young age, only to leave due to the inability to tolerate formal education. Subsequently, he engaged in diverse occupations, including auto dismantling, mechanical electrician, rock singing, and tech installation design. Marck's unique life experiences transcend the imagination of conventional academy-trained artists, manifesting in his self- created video sculpture expressions, addressing societal issues through themes of frames, women, viewing, and interaction. His unconventional approach involves creating sculpted metal frames to contain videos of women, symbolising the societal boundaries they face. Marck’s works surpass traditional video works by fostering deep interaction between recording and the sculptural frame. In 2019 he was honoured with the International Culture Award by Academia Culturale Internazionale Cartagine in Italy. His works have been showcased internationally and collected by significant museums including La Maison Rouge in Paris, St. Petersburg Contemporary Art Museum, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Istanbul Modern, and the Karlsruhe Centre for Art and Media.
Beñat Olaberria (Spain, b. 1970)
Originally from Spain, Beñat Olaberria is an artist who lives and works in London. He graduated from City and Guilds of London Art School with an MA in Fine Art. Beñat approaches art with a non-impressionistic, non-narrative, and non-reductive mindset. His practice delves into the uncharted territories of his mind. He constructs abstract pieces as reactions to his initial impulsive mark-making. Through visual logic and personal language, he strives for the desired balance. Hesitant pencil lines, thick acrylic paint, dirt, and charcoal leave traces of intimate moments in time and space. Some pieces evoke motion, akin to a shaken Polaroid. Others drip and bleed into the canvas, hinting at movement. The artist himself avoids explicit visual descriptions or verbal fixations. Beñat has participated in numerous exhibitions across the UK, and his work is featured in private collections spanning Europe, Canada, Asia and the USA.
Reinoud Oudshoorn (Netherlands, b. 1953)
Reinoud Oudshoorn graduated from the AKI Art Academy in the Netherlands and currently lives and works in Amsterdam, where he used to teach at the KABK (Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten). Reinoud Oudshoorn was initially trained as a painter. However, he felt constrained by the two-dimensional limitations of painting and ventured into the realm of three-dimensional art. Oudshoorn’s minimalist sculptures revolve around the concept of the “Vanishing Point.” He believes that sculpture should transcend its physical form, creating a space larger than the work itself. His unique approach combines sculpture with drawing, emphasising extreme precision. He meticulously determines and then draws the intended shape’s perspective, seamlessly transitioning from lines to planes and finally into three- dimensional space. Crafted with a calculating methodology, Oudshoorn’s steel and frosted glass sculptures invite viewers to lose themselves in the interplay between imagination and reality. These sculptures remain dually mysterious and enticing, promoting rumination and meditation as viewers contemplate the space they inhabit. Oudshoorn’s exhibitions have spanned Europe, USA, and Asia. Notably, his works have graced the Stedelijk Museum and Museum Fodor in Amsterdam. His sculptures find permanent homes in esteemed institutions, including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the AkzoNobel Art Foundation in the Netherlands, ABN AMRO Bank, and the private art museum Sammlung Schroth in Germany.
Dirk Salz (Germany, b. 1962)
Dirk Salz lives and works in Cologne. He was born in 1962 in Bochum, Germany, into an artistic family. Throughout his childhood and high school years, he immersed himself in painting, drawing, and art history studies. Salz’s artistic work explores human perception and the limitations of our minds in shaping that perception. Dirk Salz’s pigmented resin works are created with meticulous detail. In some works, Salz deliberately uses extremely reflective surfaces, confronting the viewer with their own image and dismantling the boundary between viewer and work. Salz encourages us to perceive the work and ourselves in tandem, both comparing and contrasting the two. His pieces can be found in private collections and prominent corporate collections, including the AkzoNobel Art Foundation.
Willi Siber (Germany, b. 1949)
Born in Upper Swabia, the heart of Baroque art history, Willi Siber pursued art history studies at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. His creations seamlessly blend the fluidity, and theatrical visual effects of Baroque art with a contemporary sensibility. Siber once declared, “My creations stem from change.” Over his illustrious career, he has not only excelled in painting but also made a mark with art objects, installations, and sculptures. His exploration of materials—wood, steel, epoxy resin—pushes boundaries, challenging established perceptions and transcending limitations. Through his work, Willi Siber beckons us to consider the interplay between form and formlessness. Siber utilises geometric shapes, colour combinations, and lines to interpret and decode beauty and self-perception. Light, shadow, and texture all dance together in his pieces, inspiring multiple perspectives. Willi Siber's exhibitions have spanned across Europe and the United States, his works permanently collected by German Federal Parliament, the German Embassy in Argentina, Deutsche Bank, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Städtisches Kunstmuseum in Singen, and private art museums Kunstwerk Sammlung Klein, Museum Ritter and private collectors worldwide. In 2023, Willi Siber received the "Oberschwäbischer Kunstpreis," a prestigious honour recognizing his significant contributions to the art world.
Nick Veasey (United Kingdom, b. 1962)
Nick Veasey currently lives and works in Kent, UK, working primarily with radiography to create his X-ray images. Through the unique penetration of the X-ray process, Nick Veasey strips back the layers to show what lies beneath the surface, revealing the inner workings behind the subject's facade, playfully and mischievously exploring the essence of objects and human inner desire. Veasey’s worldwide recognition includes; imagery for the front cover of TIME magazine, recent collaborations with Alexander McQueen SS23 and the Victoria and Albert Museum "Balenciaga: shaping fashion" exhibition, a large-scale retrospective at the renowned Fotografiska museum in Sweden, visited by the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the Swedish royalty. Recent shows include “X-ray Men” at the Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art and “APMA chapter 3” at the Amorepacific Museum of Art. Permanently collected in the V&A Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in the US, the BMW Museum in Germany, the National Science and Media Museum in the UK, and the Museum of Applied Arts and Design in Switzerland, important collaborations with international brands like Louis Vuitton, United Airlines, Balenciaga, and more.
