Private view, Tuesday 2 September, 6 – 8pm
Victoria Miro announces an exhibition by Thai artist Udomsak Krisanamis. The outcome of a year’s work while living in New York, this exhibition includes a series of new paintings and, in a departure for the artist, his first film installation.
Krisanamis’ practice has long been characterised by his specific use of collage, creating densely obsessive patterns made from newspaper, noodles, cellophane and paint. Possessing a distinct formal and conceptual clarity, the paintings offer a unique experimentation with the well-worn territories of the grid yet refuse to adhere to any particular context or influence. In these new works the artist has introduced what he describes as ‘shims’, wedges of found material embedded between layers of acrylic paint and New York Times clippings. Together with the use of his ‘colours of the moment’ – hazard yellows & fluorescent greens – the paintings evoke the artifice of the urban landscape.
The installation in the front gallery consists of a number of short quick-time films, viewed through small peepholes. Taking the form of a visual diary, these filmic interludes include typical New York City street scenes, travels by road, rail and air, relentless games of ping pong, Bangkok food vendors, and a journey made by the artist to his father’s home. Viewed against a soundscape of radio, car stereo and muted conversation the effect is one of both familiarity and disorientation. In keeping with the artist’s agenda for his paintings, the work is enigmatic and resistant to easy interpretation.
A third and final component of the exhibition is one of Krisanamis’ “chandeliers” – a sculptural form fabricated from traditional Thai prayer bowls – which, suspended from the ceiling and grouped together, resembles a lampshade bouquet.
Krisanamis was born in 1966 in Bangkok and studied at Chulaongkorn University, Bangkok and the Art Institute of Chicago. Selected solo exhibitions include Kunsthalle Basel, Basel (2003); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (2000) and Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (1999) and shows at Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York; Giti Nourbakhsch, Berlin and Massimo de Carlo, Milan. His work has also been included in several significant group exhibitions including Back to Black, Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover (2008); Infinite Painting, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (2003); Painting at the Edge of the World, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, (2001) Examining Pictures, Whitechapel Art Gallery (1999); Every Day, 11th Biennale of Sydney, (1998); and Project 63, MoMA, (1998).
