zweiter Stock, dritte Tür
Group show featuring HanGyol Kim and Gregor Lau

Jan 19th – Feb 17th, 2023
Caprii, Düsseldorf

Copyright Caprii, Düsseldorf; Photo Tino Kukulies, Düsseldorf

For the inaugural exhibition of the newest art space in Düsseldorf, Caprii proudly presents zweiter Stock, dritte Tür with HanGyol Kim and Gregor Lau, on the invitation of Sophie von Hellermann.

The soft, surreal painterly expressions of Kim lure the seeing eye inwards, whilst the raw aesthetics of Lau’s salvaged industrial materials sublimate space-forming elements of our everyday into site-specific experiences. In their juxtaposition, a suspension between interior and exterior, familiarity and visibility, and between questions of perception and construction emerges. HanGyol Kim thematises inner abstract landscapes, influenced by her surroundings, thoughts, and dreams, often merging with the stories of others embedded within. Fluid in different media, from acrylic and oil, through to charcoal, ceramics, and digital drawings, her expressive emotional works–sometimes dreamy, sometimes illusory–open new lines of connection between the pictorial and tangible, “realistic” representation allowing new interfaces between the image, object and space to emerge. Gregor Lau, formally trained in plasterwork, employs material mostly salvaged from construction sites to create space-defining objects and installations which deal with social and geographical points of reference in relation to determined spatial forms of behaviour.

Copyright Caprii, Düsseldorf; Photo Tino Kukulies, Düsseldorf

The visual languages of the respective artists diverge and converge throughout the space, culminating most potently in their collaborative, multimedia installation situated principally in the middle of the room. Cast onsite in the room of Caprii, the work—whose title extends to the exhibition itself–forms the exhibition’s central axis: a 1:5 plaster cast of the flooring in Prof. Sophie von Hellermann’s atelier at the Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe, the location of Kim and Lau’s initial encounter. A symbol of a specific social ecology, subtle remnants of pigment used by von Hellermann fleck across the textured gypsum surface, hinting to the inscribed memories held within our lived environments. A small-format painting and handmade ceramic are situated on the installation–the reoccurring, intimate motif of the elephant materialises in each.

Through inverted, otherworldly figurations in vibrant, pastel neons, and anonymised plaster reliefs hinting towards traces of familiarity via ready-made objects–now rendered un-made, un-hidden, yet re-made, re-seen—, zweiter Stock, dritte Tür explores the proximal and distal scales of the multilayered nature of perception and interpretation of our physical and metaphysical worlds, and the multidimensional structures within which these worlds unfold.

The exhibition is on view through February 17th, 2023, and is accompanied by a booklet, available both physically and digitally.

HanGyol Kim (*1991) lives and works between Seoul/ Karlsruhe. Since 2018, she studies at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, following her graduation in Art and Design at the Korea Art Academy.

Gregor Lau (*1995) lives and works in Frankfurt. Currently he studies at the Städelschule in the class of Monika Baer.

Copyright Caprii, Düsseldorf; Photo Tino Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Copyright Caprii, Düsseldorf; Photo Tino Kukulies, Düsseldorf
Copyright Caprii, Düsseldorf; Photo Tino Kukulies, Düsseldorf

Artists

  • HanGyol Kim
  • Gregor Lau

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