Cristin Tierney Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new fiber works and sculptures by Alois Kronschlaeger. It opens on Thursday, September 14th with a reception from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, and will continue through October 28th. The artist will be present at the reception.
Kronschlaeger's recent fiber works resemble woven "windows." Created by pulling hand-dyed Merino wool across and through aluminum mesh, these see-through screens evoke 20th century Constructivist compositions. Displayed on hinged frames, they can be pushed and pulled on their axes, allowing different views of the work and casting sharp, graphic shadows.
Like the punctured surface of Lucio Fontana's Concetto spaziale or the thin strands of Fred Sandback's string installations, Kronschlaeger's screens incorporate the spaces behind and around the works into the art. This theme is further explored in a series of sculptures in the back gallery, which present the screens in steel-framed rectangular "vitrines." Stacked in a 12-foot tall tower, the sculptures are intended to be viewed in the round. As one moves through the back room, their windows onto different images open and close, vibrant colors appear and fade, and shadows shift, thus altering the viewer's perception of both the sculptures and the space.
The works in this exhibition exist at the intersection of architecture, drawing, craft, and sculpture. They are overtly formalist, using light and color to emphasize their volume and materiality, and shadow to extend the images beyond their frames. Yet they are also rooted in the labor-intensive tradition of warp-and-weft weaving. Their structured compositions reflect a rigorous planning, and produce optical illusions through shifts in depths of field and the reversal of figure and ground, negative and positive space. Whether the viewer walks around a large polychromatic structure or looks through the screens from different angles, orientation is everything. The result is works that are always in flux, endlessly changing their appearance from one second to the next.
Alois Kronschlaeger (b. 1966, Grieskirchen, Austria) has exhibited at such international institutions and festivals as The Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences (CT), Yuan Art Museum (Beijing), MOCA Tucson (AZ), MAC Lima (Peru), and Islamic Arts Festival (Sharjah), among others. Since 2011, the artist has produced five site-specific public installations with SiTE:LAB, and in 2015 he conceived of a large-scale architectural intervention which was carried out by volunteers with the Flint Public Art Project in Michigan. Upcoming projects include a solo show at The Figge Art Museum in 2018. Kronschlaeger lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
For more information please contact Candace Moeller at +1.212.594.0550 or candace@cristintierney.com.
