Sergio Calderón
Stanley Casselman
Vittorio Corsini
United Visual Artists
Aaron Koblin (in partnership with s[e]dition)
Window Project: Henry Krokatsis

14th September – 28th October 2012

Opening: 13th September, 6 – 8pm

From 13th September, Gazelli Art House will unveil its latest exhibition, Let There Be Light. The exhibition will focus exclusively on artists who use light as a medium to create sculpture and installations, ranging from natural light that streams through stained glass windows to the use of neon tubing.

The phrase ‘Let there be Light’ is a biblical reference from Genesis 1:3 in which God removes darkness from the earth. For centuries it has been a motto of many universities and schools (advocating the dismissal of ignorance) as well as appearing in countless texts and novels as an appropriation for ‘truth’.

This exhibition, however, will allow viewers to leave behind any historical or literary associations to consider purely light itself, and its immediate impact on our time and the space around us. The intent is not to strike a particular chord of meaning so as to paradoxically cage the interpretations of a light installation. The selected artists will therefore explore the abstract relationships between light and colour or shadow and how light changes when filtered through various materials, encouraging the viewer to achieve a state of mental free fall.

Stanley Casselman reveals the tranquillity in the subtle change of coloured streams of light. Acrylic on polyester fabric adds a textured surface to the work as the light seeps through it, capturing the viewer’s attention for the duration of the cycle and beyond. The curiosity in understanding our surrounding and purpose entrenched in the artist’s practice is evident in his strive to capture the ethereal in a lucid form. As Casselman states “The who, what, where, why and how questions began for me in my childhood. Following these notions has put me on a path embracing limitless thought and combined with the deeply cathartic nature of the creative process I’m kept questioning, humbled and ever striving to embrace the unknown through the only place I find absolute logic: pure abstraction”.

Vittorio Corsini’s Sul finire dell’occhio (As the Eye Comes to a Close) is a series of monochrome paintings absorbing the projected scenery. Challenging the persistence of our memory and imagination, all traces of outlines are erased as the persistent glow of the coloured neon on the side adds a level of dilution to the piece, “breaking dusk into dawn”. “The landscape is the end of the gaze. It’s where the gaze goes to die."

United Visual Artists are an art and design practice based in London. UVA produce work at the intersection of sculpture, architecture, live performance, moving image and digital installation. For Gazelli Art House, UVA will present a new work entitled Always/Never. UVA’s work will be an exploration of time and our experience of it passing. By using projected geometric patterns of light and shade like a more complex sundial, the work will aim to demonstrate how passing units of time are somewhat artificial and highly relative. The viewer’s perceptions of time will therefore be subtly altered by a different system of time measurement to what they have previously encountered.

Sergio Calderón works as a designer, art director, filmmaker and visual artist in London. Formerly a Director at HiReS! where he worked on graphic design and interactive projects for clients such as Chanel, Issey Miyake and Channel 4, he recently set up his own company where he focuses on creating cinematic and installation artworks. He recently collaborated with Attila Csihar and Stephen O’Malley by designing the ethereal background video that was used for their live performance at the Pompidou Centre, Paris. For Gazelli Art House Calderon will present a video and sound projection entitled The Story of You and Me which is a digital exploration of light and colour.

The Leaded Light by Henry Krokatsis is the amalgamation of pieces of found glass, over the course of two years, joined in a pattern resembling that of an all-­‐encompassing sanctuary. Each piece of glass dates back to various decades, one of which was produced early 20th century and is out of production today. The only work in the exhibition, which plays with natural light Leaded Light filters daylight spreading it across the interior of the gallery. It is also the point of intersection for the radiance from within the space to ‘spill’ over onto the streets of Mayfair in the evenings.