DOUGLAS ALLSOP - from here

About

Bartha Contemporary is delighted to announce Douglas Allsop's exhibition from here. The artist's fourth solo exhibition with the gallery showcase's a series of recent Reflective Editors alongside a site-specific installation, which extends the exhibition beyond the gallery space into the public realm. For this exhibition Allsop continues to explore the processes that determine our visual perception. from here implies a series of viewpoints, which invite the viewer to explore these works as implements for seeing. One Horizontal Elliptical Hole a large plane of reflective black cast acrylic occupies the main gallery wall. At its center an elliptical aperture when seen from a perspectival position appears as a sphere or circle, this in turn refers to a particular interest in a specific period of the history of painting. In an instance reflecting both the space surrounding the work as well as an imaginary space beyond, this work directly references Hans Holbein's anamorphic skull which forms a major part of the seminal work The Ambassadors from 1533, (National Gallery, London) and similarly encompasses a further plane of reality. As our unique ability to continuously render and understand visual information is undermined by Allsop's seemingly simplistic works their appearance stands in stark contrast with their complex and constantly evolving experience. Bridging the contained gallery space with the everyday environment of Margaret Street two circular discs on the window edit the passing traffic's view of the world inside the gallery and the space that they occupy. Douglas Allsop (Professor Emeritus of the University of Arts, London) is without a doubt the UK's most radical and accomplished geometric abstract artist of his generation. Numerous institutional exhibitions across Europe and in particular in Germany span his forty-year career. Coinciding with this exhibition a solo show at the Sleeper in Edinburg will open March 21st and a solo exhibition at the Museum in Gelsenkirchen is scheduled to start April 6th.