Biopic

15.11-21.12 / 2013
Maria Stenfors, London

We receive it, we feel it, we embody it.

The reading of an artwork is a multifaceted one, incorporating voluminous layers of referencing. In the percept of object, how intrinsic is the maker’s own life to our reading? Our reading rings true with empathy. We attach to biographical stories by our own experiences, our memory. The imagination is superb at filling in gaps, and functions through an anthropophagic alchemy of imagining and knowledge. Building on existing images; eating, digesting and assimilating them, to form a new hybridisation.

Biopic provides a critical analysis of the construction of character, biography and narrative. The ever incompleted character of being. Determined to break down the complexity of biography construction to its elements, it illustrates an economical narrative device. The exhibition brings together artists that question this fragile fabrication.

Gabriel Acevedo Velarde’s (b. 1976 in Lima, lives and works in Berlin) video unwraps an epic story of human survival and drive. Fragmented sketches and elemental sounds merge to synergistically construct a universal parable. In an unfolding of comedy and sheer grotesque horror, the protagonist’s tale mimics a civilisation’s attempt to pinpoint the dawn of man. Acevedo Velarde is represented by Galeria Leme, São Paulo and has a current exhibition, Paranormal Citizen at Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid.

Miguel Aguirre’s (b. 1973 in Lima, lives and works in Barcelona and Lima) paintings capture a moment of silent tension from biopic films. Simultaneously a portrait of the actor and of the historical personage, the figure muddles into a singular identity. This degradation and mutation of biographical truth opens a reading, driven by empathy and dominated by the faculty of imagining. Aguirre is represented by Galeria Lucia de la Puente, Lima, and Galería Pilar Serra, Madrid. Recent exhibitions include La Dernière- garde, LiMAC, and Mobile Views Barcelona, Fundació Tàpies, Barcelona.

Philip Newcombe‘s (b. 1970 in Germany, lives and works in London) inane objects shift to an alternative context through economical means. The poignancy of the title or work detail permits a reading between the lines, and functions through an attack on the imagination, empathy and subjective experience. Newcombe will present a solo exhibition at Maria Stenfors in spring 2014.

Harold Offeh (b. 1977 in Accra, lives and works in London) demonstrates an attempt to embody and re-enact album cover images through a three-pronged output of performance, video and photograph. In doing, the cracks and imperfections of the recreation further exaggerate the unattainable perfection of these emblematic visuals that live with us in our home record collections. Current and upcoming exhibitions include Transporter, Art on the Underground, and The Shadows Took Shape at The Studio Museum in Harlem.

curated by Nathan Jenkins

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