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Erna Hecey Gallery is very pleased to announce an exhibition by Peter Downsbrough.
Sculptor, photographer, sound artist, writer and designer of books, maker of films and and videos, Peter Downsbrough is a multifaceted, single-minded artist whose work has developed from its Minimalist roots in 1960s’ New York and expanded into an oeuvre that is at once rigorous and intuitive, terse and rich in implication, and endowed with high seriousness and a delectable sense of humor. Last year, in his first exhibition at Erna Hecey Gallery, Downsbrough showed drawings based on inkjet prints of video stills and a single sculpture. For this, his second show, he is presenting four new sculptural works – three room pieces, as he calls them, and a wall piece – and a single photograph from 1978, the same image which appears on the cover of one of his early sound recordings, and thus referencing the audio side of his practice.
Whether or not this exhibition’s inversion of its predecessor’s image/sculpture ratio is intentional, it is consonant with the artist’s penchant for creating mirror images, reframing architectural and urban spaces and questioning the logic and meaning of all he sees and gives us to ponder. Creating drawings in space by applying straight lengths of black tape on walls, floors and ceilings, Downsbrough opens up fresh architectural and social perspectives as surely as Gordon Matta-Clark did when he sliced through buildings with power tools. Downsbrough’s lines are often accompanied by language: single words deployed in space as performative objects that enact and, always ambiguously, interpret the works. Reading them is good training for reading the world.
- Sarah McFadden -
Peter Downsbrough was born in 1940 in New Brunswick, New Jersey (US). The artist lives and works in Brussels.
Recent solo exhibitions include Galerie de Multiples, Paris (FR) 2007, Synagogue de Delme, Delme (FR) 2007; 871 Fine Arts, San Francisco (US) 2006; SMAK, Stedelijk Museum van Aktuele Kunst, Gent (BE) 2006; White-Out Studio, Knokke (BE) 2006; FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon, (FR) 2005; Films, Videos, Editions, 1980-2004, MAMCO, Genève (CH), 2004; Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz (PL), 2004; Espace de l’Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux (FR), 2003; Argos, Brussels (BE), 2006; and Paleis van Schone Kunsten, Brussels (BE), 2003.
Public works by Downsbrough in Belgium include Collège Mercier, Braine l'Alleud, 2004, and Boulevard Emile Jacqmain, Brussels, 2003.
He has also participated in numerous group shows, including Western Exhibitions, Chicago (US), 2008 ; Based on Paper. Revolution der Kunst 1960-1975, Kupferstichkabinett Staaliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin (DE), 2007 ; Chez Dominique Perrault Architecture : des œuvres de la collection Billarant, Dominique Perrault Architectures, Paris (FR), 2007 ; Extensions : Peter Downsbrough, Takahiko Iimura, Michael Snow, organized by Work in Progress, Bourges (FR), 2007 ; What a great Space you have … (L.A.), curated by Marc Glöde, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA (US), 2007 ; Art Multiple, Espace de l’Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux (FR), 2006 ; Artists' Tower for Peace, Whitney Biennial, New York (US), 2006 ; Summer Group Show, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA (US), 2006 ; Being, in Brussels, Argos Centre for Art and Media, Brussels (BE), 2006 ; Kontexte der Fotografie, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen (DE), 2005; Collection Daniel Bosser, extraits, Musée Matisse, Palais Fénelon, Le Cateau-Cambrésis (FR), 2005; Le tableau des éléments, Musée d'Art Contemporain MAC's, Le Grand Hornu (BE), 2005; Storage/ L'entrepôt du musée, Collection de la Province de Hainaut, B.P.S.22 espace de creation contemporaine, Charleroi (BE), Morphing Lights, Floating Shadows, Metamorph, 9th International Exhibition of Architecture, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (IT), La ville qui fait signes, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing (FR), 2004; A Angles vifs, capcMusée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux (FR), 2004.
CURRENT & UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
TEMPS/ DE, ET, LA
LE/ DANS
Exterior piece, 2007-2008
Inauguration Musée de la Vie Wallone, Cour des Mineurs, Liège
Commissioned by Province de Liège
12 September 2008
DAAR/EN, EN, HIER, OP, TOT
Exterior piece, 2007-2008
Autour et au-delà BROODTHAERS Onomwonden
Group exhibition in various locations in Leuven with Jumana Emil Abboud, Peter Downsbrough, Life-Inc. feat. Boris Ljugov, Mark Manders, Oksana Pasaiko, Joëlle Tuerlinckx
Kruidtuin, Leuven
14 September 2008 - 16 November 2008
Opening 13 September 2008 6 pm
Solo exhibition
Angelsbarcelona, c. Pintor Fortuny 27, Barcelona
www.angelsbarcelona.com
30 September 2008 - 29 November 2008
Opening 30 September 2008 8 pm
Group exhibition
High Fidelity – Artists Records in the Marzona Collection
Kunstbibliothek Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin
17 October 2008 – 2 February 2009
POSE/ DE, ET, LA
Interior-exterior piece, 2008
Commissioned for the inauguration of the Musée International de la Parfumerie, Grasse
18 October 2008
TEMPS/ DE, ET, LA
LE/ DANS
Exterior piece, 2007-2008
Inauguration Musée de la Vie Wallone, Cour des Mineurs, Liège
Commissioned by Province de Liège
CHOOSING
Group exhibition curated by Robert Barry
Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg
18 November 2008 – January 2009
Solo exhibition
Barbara Krakow Gallery, 10, Newbury Street, Boston, MA
7 March 2009 – 15 April 2009
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