Kunst

Quayola. Iconographies

NOME Gallery, Berlin
15. Januar – 05. März 2016

Quayola’s newest works represent a continuation of an ongoing project that employs computational methods to translate iconic paintings into abstract compositions made of points, lines, geometries, hues, saturations and texts. Each new rendering places the original painting in a different context, allowing for a wide range of subjective perspectives that transcend purely geometrical notions of design. Quayola’s abstract forms become distinct through their power of differentiation, allowing a new visual language to emerge that addresses both object and process. As Daniel Rourke suggests, we are invited to active perception: »Iconographies asks the viewer to slash and sunder, to cut and separate, to hack and cleave, to slit, rive, rip, dissect, and disunite with our wandering eyes and reactivated minds.«

The first series of works in the exhibition translates the iconography of Judith and Holofernes into anodized prints that depict abstract formations of the symbolic images. The second consists of a unique edition of three Ditone prints that recreates the Adoration of the Magi by Botticelli using complex geometrical forms and colors. In Iconographies #81-20, Adoration after Botticelli, Quayola translates the geometric points used in the previous work into nine variations of code alongside a text from Vite degli artitsti by Vasari. Finally, the exhibition also features Iconographies #16-01, Venus & Adonis after Rubens, which transforms the Venus & Adonis by Rubens into a topography of geometric contours.

Iconographies #81-02, 2015. Adoration, after Botticelli. Quayola. Ditone print.
Iconographies #81-02, 2015. Adoration, after Botticelli. Quayola. Ditone print.
Iconographies #16-01, 2015. Venus & Adonis, after Rubens. Quayola. Ditone print.
Iconographies #16-01, 2015. Venus & Adonis, after Rubens. Quayola. Ditone print.
Iconographies #81-01, 2015. Adoration, after Botticelli. Quayola. Ditone print.
Iconographies #81-01, 2015. Adoration, after Botticelli. Quayola. Ditone print.
Iconographies #43, 2015. Judith & Holofernes, after Guercino. Quayola. Engraving on anodized aluminum.
Iconographies #43, 2015. Judith & Holofernes, after Guercino. Quayola. Engraving on anodized aluminum.
Iconographies #32, 2015. Judith & Holofernes, after Caravaggio. Quayola. Engraving on anodized aluminum.
Iconographies #32, 2015. Judith & Holofernes, after Caravaggio. Quayola. Engraving on anodized aluminum.

London based artist Quayola is widely acclaimed for his immersive multi-channel video installations, animated paintings, and large scale sculptures that merge classical aesthetics with custom built software and computational functions. Quayola was awarded the Golden Nica at Ars Electronica in 2013 for the project Forms with co-author Memo Atken. He has exhibited and performed his work internationally, including a project for the 54th Venice Biennale at the Italian Cultural Institute in London, and exhibitions at National Art Center, Tokyo; Pushkin Museum, Moscow; BOZAR, Brussels; Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; bitforms gallery, New York; and SeMA, Seoul.