"FLATBED PLEIN AIR"
ANDRÉ HEMER
TRISTIAN KOENIG
19 GLASSHOUSE ROAD, COLLINGWOOD, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA 3066
Telephone : +61 498 694715 email
NOVEMBER 26th > DECEMBER 19th 2015
Tristian Koenig is delighted to announce the opening of Flatbed Plein Air - a solo exhibition of new works by New Zealand-born, Paris-based André Hemer. Recently completed during a residency at the Villa Lena Foundation, Tuscany, Flatbed Plein Air continues Hemer’s formal and conceptual investigation into the transactions between real and virtual spaces within the picture plane.
André Hemer's practice is defined by two equally important qualities - expanding the formal language of painting through explorations of new mediums and processes, and a deep engagement with art history. The present exhibition is no exception. Hemer’s recent works, coming on the back of residencies at the Moya Dyring Studio, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris and Villa Lena Foundation, Tuscany, are inflected with the subtle influence of the Baroque and Rococo. With a palette that evokes the Ancien Régime - from the palatial architecture and decorative arts of Versailles, to the paintings of Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Hemer’s suite of new paintings are also redolent of Italian fresco.
Employing complicated and contradictory analogue and digital processes, forms sculpted in acrylic compound are scanned on a flatbed scanner exposed to the Tuscan light en plein air. The resulting images are then used to produce digital skins that become the ground of his paintings. Once stretched and the integrity of the picture plane established, Hemer subjects the surface to a series of extrusions, deletions, additions and subtractions through spray paint and acrylic washes. The resulting rich interplay of thin interstitial layers suggests spatial depth through trompe-l’œil, confounding figure-ground relationships.
André Hemer (b. 1981 Queenstown, New Zealand) is currently a PhD candidate at the Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, Sydney, and completed an MFA at the School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, including postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy Schools of Art, London.
Recent exhibitions include Asemic, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London; A Hot Mess, Galerie Fatiha Selam, Paris and ROCK, PAPER SCISSORS, Tristian Koenig, Melbourne. His works has recently been the subject of a survey exhibition, Paintings 2005-2015, at the Pataka Museum, Wellington.
Hemer’s work is held in a number of public collections including Taiwan Museum of Art, ROC, Taipei, Taiwan; NTNU Gallery, Institute of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan; Seoul Artspace Geumcheon, Seoul, Korea; Fletcher Trust Collection, Auckland, New Zealand; Massey University Collection, Auckland, New Zealand; Wallace Art Trust Collection, Auckland, New Zealand; Te Manawa Museum, Palmerston North, New Zealand; Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand and The University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
André Hemer's practice is defined by two equally important qualities - expanding the formal language of painting through explorations of new mediums and processes, and a deep engagement with art history. The present exhibition is no exception. Hemer’s recent works, coming on the back of residencies at the Moya Dyring Studio, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris and Villa Lena Foundation, Tuscany, are inflected with the subtle influence of the Baroque and Rococo. With a palette that evokes the Ancien Régime - from the palatial architecture and decorative arts of Versailles, to the paintings of Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Hemer’s suite of new paintings are also redolent of Italian fresco.
Employing complicated and contradictory analogue and digital processes, forms sculpted in acrylic compound are scanned on a flatbed scanner exposed to the Tuscan light en plein air. The resulting images are then used to produce digital skins that become the ground of his paintings. Once stretched and the integrity of the picture plane established, Hemer subjects the surface to a series of extrusions, deletions, additions and subtractions through spray paint and acrylic washes. The resulting rich interplay of thin interstitial layers suggests spatial depth through trompe-l’œil, confounding figure-ground relationships.
André Hemer (b. 1981 Queenstown, New Zealand) is currently a PhD candidate at the Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, Sydney, and completed an MFA at the School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, including postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy Schools of Art, London.
Recent exhibitions include Asemic, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London; A Hot Mess, Galerie Fatiha Selam, Paris and ROCK, PAPER SCISSORS, Tristian Koenig, Melbourne. His works has recently been the subject of a survey exhibition, Paintings 2005-2015, at the Pataka Museum, Wellington.
Hemer’s work is held in a number of public collections including Taiwan Museum of Art, ROC, Taipei, Taiwan; NTNU Gallery, Institute of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan; Seoul Artspace Geumcheon, Seoul, Korea; Fletcher Trust Collection, Auckland, New Zealand; Massey University Collection, Auckland, New Zealand; Wallace Art Trust Collection, Auckland, New Zealand; Te Manawa Museum, Palmerston North, New Zealand; Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand and The University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
