Frank Gerritz. Dark Spaces

For his third solo-exhibition at Bartha Contemporary, German artist Frank Gerritz (B. 1964) will premiere a suite of works entitled ”Dark Spaces / Light Spaces” alongside two recent paint-stick on anodised aluminium wall-sculptures. The exhibition juxtaposes two distinct bodies of works, which showcase the artist’s unparalleled ability to capture light, either within a highly constructed composition or as in his latest work though a subtle move towards a painterly practice. A recent drawing on paper completes the installation.

Gerritz has been working with an extremely refined language of forms for many years. Derived from his earlyfloor-sculptures, the artist has established two main series of wall-relieves; pencil drawings on MDF and oil-stick drawings on anodised aluminium; two works on aluminium will feature in this exhibition. Both pieces are examples of his most radical work to date, exceptionally minimal in their arrangement, these paint-stick relieves are densely drawn, the underlying aluminium outlining painted sections. Alongside these wall-sculptures several series of drawings on paper as well as monumental wall-drawings have defined the artist’s oeuvre over the past two decades. Equally constructed from a consciously limited geometric vocabulary.

Most recently the artist has expanded his practice and embraced a more intuitive working process. Despite the fact that these works are often smaller in scale they have pushed the artist to the physical limits. They will form the main focus of this exhibition. Spackled rather then drawn or painted these works are made by applying oil paint-stick with a knife, the resulting works are of a single colour, but far from monochrome. Black “Dark Spaces” and for the first time in Frank Gerritz’s career white “Light Space” works harbour the same exceptional light encapsulating quality of his previous works. As with his previous works these pieces teeter on the edge between wall sculpture or relief, drawing and painting. By applying the knowledge gained from several decades of working in a restrained fashion that Gerritz is able to create modulated surfaces, which reflect, describe and render light in an ever-changing process defined by daylight and the surrounding space.

Frank Gerritz
Dark Spaces