Mark Hagen Black Swamp

MARK HAGEN : BLACK SWAMP

March 14 – April 10, 2013

Opening Thursday, March 14 (5 to 8 PM)

Almine Rech is pleased to present Los Angeles-based artist Mark Hagen’s first solo exhibition in Brussels of new paintings and sculpture. Pushing common and utilitarian materials in directions which often approach the monumental yet oppose the "monument" with its typical veneration of power, aspirations of permanence, and reliance on illusion and hierarchy, Hagen’s work instead employs context, contingency, material matter of factness, and process. His work challenges historical narratives, the customs for the display and viewing of art, as well as the conventional qualitative hierarchies that accompany them.

In Black Swamp conceptual entanglements mirror visual ones and historical and spatial disorientations suggest alternative trajectories for well worn paths. Here Hagen’s "cast" acrylic paintings on burlap, DIY metal space frames, polished volcanic glass boulders, and cement screen-like sculptures — generated through a mix of controlled and surrendered processes, which act as rational and reasonable springboards, arenas, and frameworks within which the unintended, the amorphous, and the impractical flourish — suggest a mimetic portrait of the gallery space itself as just such an arena.

Epitomizing the modular, reconfigurable, and "unoriented" in Hagen’s work, and central to Black Swamp, are Hagen’s new DIY space frame sculptures. Approaching the architectural, these pieces recall the space frame’s history: championed by 1960’s radical artist/architects like Yona Friedman and Constant Nieuwenhuys as a means for achieving a utopian, architectural nomadism, yet eventual consignment to neutralized, industrial utility and corporate/civic decor. Performing in the exhibition as pedestals and room dividers, as well as impractical, obstructive constructions, these sculptures suggest other possible historical trajectories all the while framing and elucidating 30 cubic meters of space of the gallery (yet breaking down small enough to go onto a single pallet).

Interacting with this space frame installation are several volcanic glass pieces. Cut from large boulders following found contours and polished to a mirror finish, these sculptures recall the deep prehistoric significance of obsidian (its anachronistic quality), along with its subsequent abandonment as a significant material for culture. Lacking a continuous sculptural tradition and associated with the utilitarian arrowhead, these pieces are made to perform as traditional sculpture on pedestals to utilitarian door stop, their iridescent faces evoking authorless, autonomous, process-derived abstractions.

Also debuting in this exhibition are Hagen’s large, "cast tile" paintings. Here rearrangeable, off-the-shelf plastic tiles, plastic sheeting and packing tape are used as the textural "foundation" for what becomes an analog of the material circumstances of the painting’s making. Poured through the back of burlap sheets and squeegeed to create mixed, gradients of color these paintings employ simultaneously the linear sequence, the non-repeating nature of the gradient with the repetition and cyclic quality of the pattern.

Mark Hagen was born in 1972 in Black Swamp, Virginia. Recent exhibitions include Made in L.A. 2012 New Art Now, the LA Biennial at the Hammer Museum; Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Public, at the Bass Museum of Art; and Lost Line: Contemporary Art from the Collection, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

MARK HAGEN : BLACK SWAMP

March 14 – April 10, 2013

Opening Thursday, March 14 (5 to 8 PM)

Almine Rech est heureuse de présenter la première exposition personnelle de Mark Hagen à Bruxelles. Cet artiste basé à Los Angeles y présentera des peintures et sculptures récentes. Faisant de matériaux communs et utilitaires un usage qui tend vers le monumental tout en s’opposant à l’idée de « monument » — avec sa traditionnelle vénération du pouvoir, son aspiration à la permanence, et son besoin d’illusion et de hiérarchie —, l’oeuvre de Hagen repose au contraire sur les notions de contexte, de contingence, de réalité matérielle et de procédure. Son oeuvre met en question les récits historiques, les façons traditionnelles d’exposer et de contempler l’art, ainsi que les hiérarchies qualitatives conventionnelles qui les accompagnent.

Dans Black Swamp, des enchevêtrements conceptuels reflètent les enchevêtrements plastiques, et des désorientations historiques et spatiales suggèrent des trajectoires alternatives aux sentiers battus. Ses peintures acryliques « moulées » dans de la toile de jute, ses structures métalliques de type « space frame » qu’il a lui-même façonnées, ses blocs de roche volcanique polie, et ses sculptures en ciment qui fonctionnent comme des écrans — oeuvres produites grâce à un mélange de processus contrôlés et incontrôlés, qui agissent comme des tremplins, arènes et cadres rationnels et raisonnables où fleurissent les éléments involontaires, amorphes et pas pratiques — suggèrent un portrait mimétique de l’espace même de la galerie sous la forme d’une telle arène.

Les nouvelles sculptures de type « space frame » que Hagen a lui-même façonnées incarnent l’élément modulaire, reconfigurable, « non orienté » de son oeuvre. Elles jouent un rôle essentiel dans Black Swamp. Se rapprochant d’oeuvres architecturales, ces pièces rappellent l’histoire du « space frame » : cette structure architecturale fut promue par les artistes/architectes radicaux des années 1960 comme Yona Friedman et Constant Nieuwenhuys comme un moyen pour réaliser un nomadisme architectural utopique, mais fut finalement limitée à un usage neutralisé dans le monde de l’industrie et des affaires. Jouant dans l’exposition le rôle de piédestaux et de meubles de séparation, mais faisant également office de constructions encombrantes et gênantes, ces sculptures suggèrent la possibilité d’autres trajectoires historiques tout en contextualisant et élucidant 30 mètres cube d’espace de la galerie (mais qui, une fois démontées, ne remplissent toutefois qu’une seule palette).

Diverses pièces faites de roche volcanique dialoguent avec cette installation de type « space frame ». Découpées dans de grands blocs selon des contours naturels et polies jusqu’à ce qu’elles deviennent hautement réfléchissantes, ces sculptures rappellent l’importance primordiale de l’obsidienne à l’ère préhistorique (d’où sa qualité anachronique) et son délaissement ultérieur comme matériau significatif dans le champ culturel.Faites d’un matériau sans tradition sculpturale continue et associé à la pointe de flèche utilitaire, ces pièces jouent ici autant le rôle de sculptures traditionnelles sur piédestaux que de butoirs de porte utilitaires, leurs surfaces iridescentes évoquant des abstractions sans auteur, autonomes et dérivées de processus.

Exposées ici pour la première fois, on trouvera aussi les grandes peintures de Hagen de style « dalles moulées ». Des dalles plastiques modulables disponibles dans le commerce, des bâches plastiques transparentes et des rubans d’emballage forment ici la « base » de la texture de ce qui devient une analogie des circonstances matérielles de production de la peinture. Celle-ci est versée par l’arrière des toiles de jute et étalée pour produire des dégradés de couleur. Dans ces tableaux on observe à la fois un jeu de séquences linéaires, la nature non répétitive de la gradation ainsi que la répétition et la qualité cyclique du motif.

Mark Hagen est né en 1972 à Black Swamp, en Virginie. Parmi ses récentes expositions, on retiendra la Biennale de Los Angeles au Musée Hammer intitulée Made in L.A. 2012. New. Art. Now. ; Art Basel Miami Beach ; Art Public, au Bass Museum of Art ; et Lost Line : Contemporary Art from the Collection, au Musée d’art du comté de Los Angeles (LACMA). Mark Hagen vit et travaille à Los Angeles, en Californie.

MARK HAGEN : BLACK SWAMP

March 14 – April 10, 2013

Opening Thursday, March 14 (5 to 8 PM)

Almine Rech is pleased to present Los Angeles-based artist Mark Hagen’s first solo exhibition in Brussels of new paintings and sculpture. Pushing common and utilitarian materials in directions which often approach the monumental yet oppose the "monument" with its typical veneration of power, aspirations of permanence, and reliance on illusion and hierarchy, Hagen’s work instead employs context, contingency, material matter of factness, and process. His work challenges historical narratives, the customs for the display and viewing of art, as well as the conventional qualitative hierarchies that accompany them.

In Black Swamp conceptual entanglements mirror visual ones and historical and spatial disorientations suggest alternative trajectories for well worn paths. Here Hagen’s "cast" acrylic paintings on burlap, DIY metal space frames, polished volcanic glass boulders, and cement screen-like sculptures — generated through a mix of controlled and surrendered processes, which act as rational and reasonable springboards, arenas, and frameworks within which the unintended, the amorphous, and the impractical flourish — suggest a mimetic portrait of the gallery space itself as just such an arena.

Epitomizing the modular, reconfigurable, and "unoriented" in Hagen’s work, and central to Black Swamp, are Hagen’s new DIY space frame sculptures. Approaching the architectural, these pieces recall the space frame’s history: championed by 1960’s radical artist/architects like Yona Friedman and Constant Nieuwenhuys as a means for achieving a utopian, architectural nomadism, yet eventual consignment to neutralized, industrial utility and corporate/civic decor. Performing in the exhibition as pedestals and room dividers, as well as impractical, obstructive constructions, these sculptures suggest other possible historical trajectories all the while framing and elucidating 30 cubic meters of space of the gallery (yet breaking down small enough to go onto a single pallet).

Interacting with this space frame installation are several volcanic glass pieces. Cut from large boulders following found contours and polished to a mirror finish, these sculptures recall the deep prehistoric significance of obsidian (its anachronistic quality), along with its subsequent abandonment as a significant material for culture. Lacking a continuous sculptural tradition and associated with the utilitarian arrowhead, these pieces are made to perform as traditional sculpture on pedestals to utilitarian door stop, their iridescent faces evoking authorless, autonomous, process-derived abstractions.

Also debuting in this exhibition are Hagen’s large, "cast tile" paintings. Here rearrangeable, off-the-shelf plastic tiles, plastic sheeting and packing tape are used as the textural "foundation" for what becomes an analog of the material circumstances of the painting’s making. Poured through the back of burlap sheets and squeegeed to create mixed, gradients of color these paintings employ simultaneously the linear sequence, the non-repeating nature of the gradient with the repetition and cyclic quality of the pattern.

Mark Hagen was born in 1972 in Black Swamp, Virginia. Recent exhibitions include Made in L.A. 2012 New Art Now, the LA Biennial at the Hammer Museum; Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Public, at the Bass Museum of Art; and Lost Line: Contemporary Art from the Collection, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He lives and works in Los Angeles, California.