the street is our gallery

September 15, 2017 to October 21, 2017

Swinton Gallery presents a new exhibition by the English artist Kaufman.The project Generator of the artist Kaufman (1975, Hitchin, England) is based on a return to the origins where the black on white can evoke the ink and the paper or the coal and the wall of lime. A generator of alternatives in search of the essential minimum reduction, through a geometric abstraction based on the study of the line as the beginning and the end.

“The purpose of art is to give body to the secret essence of things, not copying their appearance ” Aristotle

A work marked by an apparent simplicity, as a result of an intense process of research, where the shapes are born of the fusion between the passion of life and the firmness of geometry. Symmetrical and rectilinear shapes suggest a subtle distribution of our thoughts and memories. Presented before us as a reduction of elements in search for the essence, through the permanent transformative change of shapes. A natural essence with which the artist invites to discover within his pieces.

Color has always been one of the great protagonists in the works of the English artist, settled in Alicante. In his first pieces the primary colors reigned in solitary, the colors soon began to combine with each other. After, he investigated with fluor colors and, after that, with the own tones of the materials used as support. In a permanent evolution of his work, Generator appropriates the total absence of color, presenting the Black as the essence of the project, a color associated with silence, infinity and strength, which combines with its opposite: white. A game of opposites between the absence of color and the sum of all.

The pieces that form Generator are born from a grid, which in turn is subdivided into two by a diagonal. This cross-line, represented in its multiple combinations, generates a series of figures that are sometimes extracted, connected, isolated or superimposed. Creating a Generator game of random compositions, represented in singular geometry or reformulated in a linear maze. The result is a mathematical symphony of geometry that vibrates in rhythmic way in our subconscious. The artist has worked with the Department of Mathematics of the University of Alicante during the gestation of this project.

Kaufman goes back to working with the alphabet, as he did in his Code project, in which letters became a fusion of diamond-shaped colors; on this occasion, he presents us an alphabet that arises from the study of geometric compositions in 3d. This alphabet, which arises from suppressing various pieces of a square, is transformed into templates to compose a mural where you can read a sentence that uses all its letters only once. This sentence or Pangram, used by the NASA space shuttle, stars in several interventions murals and marquees (black spray and template in hand), linking the urban with the gallery.

The ludic part that accompanies the work of Kaufman, is reflected mainly in his piece Stamp. It is a collaborative and ephemeral work that will be created during the inauguration of the exposition. A triangular shaped rubber stamp, fetish figure of the artist, invites attendees to impregnate it in black ink and to stamp its figure on the white wall of the gallery. The different position, orientation and the union of the different stamps will create a myriad of forms that will conform a random and ephemeral mosaic.  Óscar García García // Curator

KAUFMAN (1975, Hitchin, England)
He lives and works in Alicante.
Three are the main topics of KAUFMAN’s work: geometry, abstraction and the city. Their combination, blend and fusion make straight lines and figures become symbols and signals not always visible to the naked eye. Inside this set of abstract signs charges great importance of the playful, proposing a reflection on the reinvention of the world in which the viewer participates. The urban space is always present in his work, either as a guide and inspiration or directly with interventions in the street and with the use of reclaimed materials. His different projects have been carried out and exhibited in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Girona, London or Belgium. Participating in fairs and festivals such as Estampa, Mulafest and Milestone Project; and carried out projects for brands like Absolut and Hyundai.

-This show is included on Hybrid Festival 2017, which celebrates the opening of the new artistic season in Madrid. Part of this festival too will be the guided visit that Óscar García García, curator of the show, will offer on Saturday 23rd.12.00 pm.

LOCATION

C/ Miguel Servet 21
28012, MADRID, Spain