The Gravity of Things

     

    Verging on magic, The Gravity of Things is a group exhibition that revolves around paradoxes of materiality and immateriality, volume and emptiness, heaviness and lightness, as well as the apparent insignificance and potential importance of the slightest of gestures.

    This show seeks to upset, in every sense of the word, the laws of gravity by contravening what one normally expects of it. Here the heavy floats, the immaterial assumes a kind of materiality, both volume and emptiness are made to co-exist and more. 

       

    Sara Barker's Nature - Builder (2012), which is a complex, multi-part sculpture that is both on a plinth and leans against the wall, comes off as a wonky geometrical flourish, occupying space as much as it improbably inscribes and contains its emptiness. Meanwhile, Mandla Reuter's The Agreement (2011), consisting of a large wooden armoire floating in the center of the space, enjoys two distinct existences, both as object and image. Viola Ye?iltaç's photographic mise en scène, Untitled (I really must congratulate you on your attention to detail) (2012), of colored sheets of paper read as liminal sculptures, their fleetingly fixed contours delicately suspended between materiality and immateriality. And Fernando Ortega's photographic diptych,Shortcut I & II (2010), which portrays what could be considered a sculptural intervention, depicts an ant traversing a clothing pin connecting two leaves on a tree. In keeping with the general lightness and ethereal nature of the rest of the exhibition, this slight gesture is nevertheless liable to have prodigious consequences (one thinks inevitably of the butterfly effect), or even none at all….save for that of helping an ant get more quickly to his destination, without his even knowing it. All as if the gravity of things were an ultimately incalculable and perfectly inscrutable affair. 

     

    Sara Barker born in 1980, in Manchester, United Kingdom. Lives and works in Glasgow. Selected solo exhibitions include Mary Mary Gallery, United Kingdom (2013, 2012, 2010); and Stuart Shave/ Modern Art, United Kingdom (2012). Selected group exhibitions include Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum fur Gegenwart, Germany (2013); Saatchi Gallery, United Kingdom (2013); David Roberts Art Foundation, United Kingdom (2012); Tate Liverpool, United Kingdom (2012); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark (2012); Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany (2011).

       

    Mandla Reuter born in 1975, in Nqutu, South Africa. Lives and works in Basel, Switzerland and Berlin, Germany. Selected solos include Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2013); Galleria Francesca Minini, Italy (2013, 2010); Croy Nielsen, Germany (2013, 2010); De Vleeshal, The Netherlands (2011); Mezzanin, Austria (2011, 2009); and Schinkelpavillion, Germany (2010). Selected group exhibitions include Sorø Kunstmuseum, Denmark (2013); Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2013); Sprengel Museum Hannover, Germany (2012); Kunst Werke, Germany (2011); Skulpturenpark, Germany (2011); and Kunsthalle Mulhouse, France (2010). 

     

    Viola Yesiltaç born in Hanover, Germany. Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, USA. Selected solo exhibitions include Cooper Gallery, United Kingdom (2012); and Balice, Hertling & Lewis, New York, USA (2012). Selected group exhibitions include Campoli Presti, France (2013); São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (2012); Thomas Duncan Gallery, USA (2012); Catherine Bastide Gallery, Belgium (2012); Emily Harvey Foundation, USA (2012); Sculpture Center, USA (2010); and Museum Folkwang Essen, Germany (2010).

       

    Fernando Ortega born in 1971, in Mexico, where he lives and works. Selected solo exhibitions include Kurimanzutto, Mexico (2013); Palais de Tokyo, France (2012); MUCA CU, México (2008); and Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, México (2008). Selected group exhibitions include Miami Art Museum, USA (2011); Malmö konstmuseum, Sweden (2008); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA (2007); Istanbul Modern, Turkey (2007); São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (2006); and Venice Biennial, Italy (2003).

The Gravity of Things

Sara Barker, Fernando Ortega, Mandla Reuter, Viola Yesiltaç

Chris Sharp (curator)

Galeria Quadrado Azul represents Portuguese and foreign artists, established names of current art scene, as well as young artists. Born in 1986 in Porto, the gallery was one of the first commercial exhibition spaces in the city, emerging from the interest for modern and contemporary art by Manuel Ulisses, art collector since the 60s. Its name comes from the futuristic work K4 O Quadrado Azul, published in 1917 by Almada Negreiros, together with Amadeo de Souza Cardoso.

Representing especially new artists coming from the Faculdade de Belas Artes do Porto (faculty of fine arts), the gallery held a large number of determinant exhibitions to the Portuguese context, in the first decade of its activity. A good example is the exhibition dedicated to the Spanish artist Antoni Tàpies, in September 1987, first time ever the artist's work was shown in a Portuguese commercial gallery. A year after, it  happened As dez receitas para a imortalidade, with works by Salvador Dalí. 

Álvaro Lapa, Albert Gonzalo, Alberto Carneiro, Ana León, Ângelo de Sousa, Anton Lamazares, Antoni Clavé, Bruno Pacheco, Carlos Velilla, Carlos Vidal, Corneille, Eduardo Arroyo, Eva Lootz, Fernando Lanhas, Fernando Távora, Ignasis Rosés, Jorge Queiroz, Leonel Moura, Lindström, Marta Seixas, Miguel Palma, M. P. e M. P. Rosado, Nadir Afonso, Picasso, Robert Schad, Rui Patacho, Susana Solano, Viladecans, João Queiroz and Artur Barrio have been some of the protagonists of the history of Quadrado Azul.

In 2006, the gallery opened another space, in Lisbon, expanding the possibilities of exhibition and achieving a greater diversity of public, and now it’s time to pay attention to new tendencies and to the intersection of different disciplines.