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Intervention Gallery is proud to present Minimum: after Minimalism curated by Lorenzo Belenguer.
Baroque and Minimalism could be said to be the two truly global art movements. They echo the Yin and Yang of human nature, âto have and to have not'. It would seem that the austerity of the current socio-economic climate, coupled with a culture of consumer guilt and righteous recycling, have created fertile conditions for a new wave of Minimalism.
âThrough this exhibition I want to explore the way Minimalism has evolved over recent years from a reaction to Abstract Expressionism to a fusion of different art movements such a Conceptualism and Arte Povera. This return to a mature Minimalism is becoming prominent in the field of visual art as in other spheres. As Juhani Pallasmaa said in the book Architecture in Miniature, âafter the bacchanal of postmodernism, the time has again come for neo-minimalism, neo-ascetism, neo-denial and sublime poverty'. Artists are rediscovering the use of simple means in more elaborate ways, but without missing the main point of Minimalism: the beauty of the material.'
Lorenzo Belenguer, curator
Ever since Marcel Duchamp boldly exhibited a urinal as his now infamous âFountain' piece in 1917, artists have continued to comment on the relationship between people and material objects. Through the erosion of bourgeois artistic values, movements such as Dada, Arte Povera, Conceptualism and Minimalism have all extolled the value of the found object or âReadymade'. This notion of the democratisation of âart for all' has continued to influence artists; now, perhaps more than ever, the return to basic materials seems a particularly appropriate response. By employing everyday objects, occurrences, actions and sounds in subtly new ways, the artists in this show achieve a paradoxical richness through relatively minimalist processes. When means are scarce, you've got to make the most of what you've got.
Participating artists: Vanya Balogh, Lorenzo Belenguer, John Blandy, Cedric Christie, Elisabeth S Clark, Jeremy Evans, Jon Gershon and Pete Webster.
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