Optimism (If You Want It)

Description

Candida Hofer's exhibition takes viewers on an international tour of rooms, both public and private, in schools, palaces, operas, libraries and villas - empty of human but full of dazzling design and creative detail. Even without people, the spaces have both a presence and energy - rooms await and anticipate - furniture stand-in for human expression and emotions. Two armchairs in a corner of Residenzschloss Weimar XIV appear exhausted from the visual din around them - seeking refuge or respite from endless bombardment by patterned borders, trompe-l'oeil wall paintings, stone and tile inlay, or the intricate geometry of wood parquetry. At the other extreme are the cool islands of file cabinets in Graphische Sammlung Zuriche - spare sea foam green slabs line up diagonally along a seawall of shaded windows with casing of the same pastel green. Glowing light from over-head globes bathes the warm shoreline of herringbone flooring lapping at the feet of the cabinets. This soothing study room is like a sunny private beach awaiting bathers and footprints to vitalize it. Hofer documents rooms but her photographs also reveal deeper, more expansive details for the mind's eye.

Hofer's solo exhibitions in the past two years include Kunsthaus Hamberg in Germany, Le Louvre in France, Henie Onstad Art Center in Norway, Museum Pescheria in Italy, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Ireland, among many others.


Ian McDonald's exhibition, Optimism (If You Want It), refers to the potential of objects to assume alternate levels of meaning when expanded, assembled, re-arranged, reduced, or re-configured. In exploring his ideas, McDonald fabricates several different models. Some are multiples of ceramic forms in different sizes and shapes arranged on table tops, pedestals, or in vitrines. Straddling the line between surplus industrial inventory and display specimens, the vessel-like vented objects suggest possible functions - models for war-room military field maneuvers or disparate objects coalescing into single functional entities. Other sculpted forms resemble organic structures like geodes or rocks - raw materials for some future function - on display as "natural history". McDonald's title urges viewers to process physical data positively, letting facts add up to a process that works for the best - socially, historically, and aesthetically.

McDonald graduated from UC Santa Barbara with an MFA in 2000 and currently teaches at the San Francisco Art Institute. His work is included in the collections of The Museo Internazionale della Ceramiche in Faenza, Italy, the International Sculpture Center, Denmark, and JP Morgan Chase in New York, among others.

More Info

Link

http://www.renabranstengallery.com