Leunora Salihu
Dynamical juxtaposing of different materials, rhythmical building of modular, repetitive forms, that are rich with associations, as well as integration of gallery space in the body of the sculpture are the hallmarks of Leunora Salihu´s work. The results are abstract sculptural constructions, which combine material, stylistic and formalistic oppositions. Therefore the feeling of movement, gravity, organic vs. mechanic structures and the effect of familiarity and estrangement are being emanated.
One of the central issues in Salihus work is the vast knowledge of different materials, for instance wood, clay, plastic, iron besides others and the respect for their natural colour, texture and structure. These qualities have been emphasized through the combination of two or more of them within the same work. These combinations bring the opposite pairs light-heavy, soft-firm, empty-full into play and establish specific spatial dynamics. At times the gallery space, with its walls, its axes, its directions, its materials, light and volumes is knowingly being integrated in the plastic body. In this way the sculptures explore a wider art of space, a way to produce their surrounding space and to define it as an unique place. The viewer can relate itself to it through his own body and movement.
Further relations the viewer is deriving from the associations with the seeming functionality of the sculptural construction. The viewer starts a game of recognizing familiar shapes by the names of the sculptures suggested by the artist like “Propeller”, “Kette”, or “Turm”, just to name a view. This shifted perception of the assumed well known gets underpinned by a certain intimacy and immediacy of the pieces, similar with the riddles of surrealistic objects or honest corporeality of the 1960s Process Art.
The encounter of these three agents: the sculpture, the space around it and the viewer that relates himself to it, complete the art work of Leunora Salihu.
Leon Manoloudakis
The drawings of Leon Manoloudakis represent distinctive interplay of two main instruments of drawing technique: graphite and paper. This interplay can be regarded in its purely formalistic qualities. Graphite has been taken away from its subordinated instrumental funktion and established as an entity. Its self-sufficiency is represented within its own material qualities such as texture, porosity, asperity, saturation and brightness of colour. As a field of inspection for this qualities the artist uses two dimensional, white surface of paper.
In his exploration of colour tones and textures of graphite, Manoloudakis is creating almost monochromatic drawings. Their colouristic values ranges from black to bright grey nuances. Voluminous and soft body of the graphite monochrome is sometimes intersected with two dimensional and sharp lines, rectangles or surfaces with different material qualities. This creates the interplay of binary categories volume-flatness, soft-hard, bright-dark as well as architectonic and figural outlines.
As a result, the process of making these drawings has been exposed. On their surface, or better said surfaces, we can see the technique of applying the graphite, as well as the mechanical process of erasing or scraping out layers with the eraser, with clothes, brushs or by hand. This arises a dialogue between flat and voluminous planes with the different colour tone qualities, giving the feeling of optical depth, movement and even the possibility for connotative interpretations and naming, for instance “Welle”, “Raum” or “Brandung II”. Making visible the process of the drawing and qualitative values of his material elements, the drawings of Leon Manoloudakis evoke avantgardistic formalistic experiences and bear witness of self reflection of one art technique.
Aleksandra Miljkovic
.................................................................................................................
Opening Sat 4 Nov 6 - 9 pm
4 - 18 Nov 2017
Thu - Sat 2 - 6 pm
frontviews
Tucholskystraße 37
10117 Berlin
.................................................................................................................
related links:
