Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art Vienna Exhibit

Saatchi Gallery, London
3 OCTOBER - 19 NOVEMBER 2018

TESSELATE

MARIO MAURONER CONTEMPORARY ART, VIENNA

3 SEPTEMBER – 3 OCTOBER 2021

Spectrum Series

Spectrum Series, 2021, enamel on aluminium, 150 x 450 cm

Spectrum

Rashid Al Khalifa’s most recent Spectrum series considers the ‘rules of repetition’ in Islamic Art, one of the most important aesthetic principles of Islamic architecture. The frequency and repetition of a shape in Islamic art, however complex, creates the illusion of infinity whereby the frame that holds the pattern is incidental: the symmetrical pattern continues beyond the bounds of the frame. Harmony arises from this state of infinitude. Spectrum takes such principles and contemporizes them by playing on structural attributes that are also reminiscent of contemporary Arab architecture, and incorporating colour and light that is characteristic to Bahrain’s landscape.

Our predisposition towards certain colours is often a reflection of our emotive state at a particular moment in time. Additionally, our reaction to a certain event or situation may be influenced by the colours that we experienced surrounding that moment. For example, your decision to wear certain colours on a particular day, may be influenced by the environment or your state of mind, which in turn, affects your reaction to other colours that you perceive.

Each of Rashid Al Khalifa’s ‘Spectrums’ present the opportunity for the viewer to experience the work and develop a personal reaction to them. As Spectrum transitions from one colour to another, its identity is in turn, altered. Each work is dependent on its placement within the surrounding environment, the emotional state of the viewer, and of course the mind of the artist, who purposely selects and combines colours. Through these endless possibilities of colour combinations that each resonate a different feeling, sensation or thought process, Spectrum is, in a sense, the mediator, prompting a dialogue between the viewer and the artist.

Green Parametric

Green Parametric, 2018, enamel on aluminium, 150 x 150 cm

Parametrics

Despite the rapid explosion of modern buildings and urban planning, Islamic patterns as design elements have prevailed throughout contemporary culture in Bahrain. Their rhythmic, linear, and foliage arabesques, employed to represent the spiritual attributes of the natural environment, were often incorporated in the mashrabiya, a distinguishing feature of Middle Eastern architecture. Typically, a projecting oriel window enclosed with carved wooden latticework on the second or higher story of a building, its original purpose was to ensure privacy so the occupants could see out but not be seen from outside, whilst also providing shade and protection from searing heat and allowing a breeze to pass through. This balancing function and its metaphoric potential inspired the artist to recreate the experience in what he has defined as his Parametric series, from 2018 onwards.  These works are built on contrasts and ostensibly opposing yet complementary forces – positive and negative, light and dark, interior and exterior – representing the artist’s research of order and symmetry. We also see his expressions of spiritual intuitions alongside the work’s physical features, which is both suggestive of the transcendent and ephemeral nature of light and shadow.

Mobile Column I

Mobile Column I, 2018, enamel on stainless steel, 175 x 150 x 150 cm

Mobiles

Much like computer-generated architectural models, Al Khalifa’s mobile columns series looks like sculptural blueprints hovering in space and floating in time. Works such as Mobile Column I (2018) are also suggestive of the interconnectedness of urban spaces. His mathematically planned assemblage of basic architectural elements results in a remarkable composition whereby internal and external spaces and perspectives interconnect, enclose and support one another. Similarly, the artist’s parametric wall works apply coiled and interwoven aluminium to create a mesh pattern. The rhythmic nature of this kind of repetition alludes to his desire to simultaneously express order and symmetry whilst also creating imagery that shifts and transforms with its surroundings. Using this design paradigm, he is able to both manipulate and inform complex geometries and structures to simulate nature and animate forms.

Spherical-Compression-in-Grey,-2020,-Enamel-on-Aluminium,-150-x-150-cm

Spherical Compression in Gray, 2019, enamel on aluminum, 150 x 150 cm

Hybrids

In many ways, it was the soothing nature of the circle and Rashid’s growing inclination to depict flawlessness and precision which impelled him to delve further into Minimalism. By focusing on simplifying his work, Rashid welcomed the challenge to create forms that were stripped of detail, whereby the whole image would elicit a sense of peace and satisfaction. Robust and strong, aluminium provides Rashid with a perfectly unscathed surface on which to apply his matt enamel paints. What results are smooth and pristine forms; their dynamism and quiet authority, owing to their modest simplicity. By excluding the pictorial and fictive aspect of his narrative in favor of literal and sculptural concerns, Rashid is a creator of objects, searching for that balance between positive (or non-white space) and the use of negative spaces in his aesthetic composition. Hence, his concretized, distilled, and philosophically charged geometries. Rashid produces specific and identifiable structures inhabiting a space not easily classifiable as either painting or sculpture, thereby avoiding easy associations with traditional conventions.

Biography

Born in 1952 in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Rashid Al Khalifa held his first solo exhibition at the Dilmun Hotel, Bahrain, in 1970 when he was just 18 years old, and then moved to the UK in 1972 to study at the Hastings College of Arts and Technology in Sussex. After returning to Bahrain in 1978, inspired by Europe’s greatest Impressionist masters, he began his own renditions of his country’s landscapes, producing a series of atmospheric paintings of the desert, sea, and historical sites. These works were first presented at the Middle East Institute, Washington, D.C., USA, and at the Sheraton Hotel, Bahrain, in 1982. Rashid developed his painting by responding to certain movements and styles such as geometric abstraction, hard-edge painting and colour field work.

The artist’s vital decision to merge elements of his figurative and landscape works in the late 1980s was an entirely conscious one. He was driven by a greater sense of individuality, which emulated the ambiance and aura of his own surroundings. His female figures became barely decipherable, as hints of fabric, suggestions of limbs and movement, and cascades of hair all dispersed into the melding colours of the land.

Rashid’s further transformation of his work in the early 1990s denotes his desire to contain and redirect his previously gestural and fleeting mark making. Gradually becoming more controlled, his imagery began incorporating more decorative elements. This series of works were first presented in 1996 in solo exhibitions at the De Caliet Gallery in Milan, Italy, and the El Kato Kayyel Gallery, Milan, Italy, as well as at the Shuman Arts Organisation in Jordan in 1997.

During this time, Rashid also experimented with a shapelier backdrop, forming a triangular prism with three canvases. And while he appreciated its three-dimensionality, which allowed the work to stand unsupported so viewers could look from all angles, he was unsatisfied with the result. Further investigations and an unintentional discovery resulted in his characteristically ‘convex canvas’ which emerged towards the end of the 1990s.

Beginning in 2000, this new canvas became the mainstay on which the artist merged all his imagery – landscape, figurative and abstract expressionism – into his own colour field language. From 2006 onwards, along with his continued application of bright and vivid colour schemes, his practice adopted a conceptual framework. Organic shapes and unusual patterns swirled together, allowing for the emergence of animate and abstract imagery.

By 2009, his work underwent a definitive change, where the formerly bold lines and distinct forms of the late ’90s became a synthesis of colour and gesture. Broad sweeps of colour met with blended paint and thick impasto which was then scratched and scraped to reveal the remnant hues and imagery beneath the surface.

Employing the convex surface for over a decade, Rashid methodically and continually developed his style with a far more minimalistic approach. In 2010, an important solo exhibition at the Bahrain National Museum entitled ‘Convex: A New Perspective’, showcased a decade of his work, presenting his journey with this newfound form and its influential role on his style and practice. Along with his earlier painterly works, he introduced a new series of lacquer paint, fabric and glue complementing the curvature of the canvas. Rashid manipulated these materials to open up opportunities for light to fall differently on each surface, thereby emphasizing his multilayered relief technique. The scale of his canvas became grander and the imagery itself, darker and more intense in nature, imparted far greater dramatic effects. In essence, this ‘new perspective’ intimated the changes in the physicality of Rashid’s work and ran parallel to his personal growth. His ongoing experimentation signified his need and openness for innovation and renewal.

In this phase, Rashid began to consider and equate, to an even greater extent, the susceptibility, mechanics and geometric processes involved in certain aspects of the designs and architecture he visualized in Bahrain’s ever-changing landscapes. He quickly began to incorporate these findings into his practice. The incandescent, smooth lacquer surfaces seen in much of his 2010-2011 work demonstrates his affinity for symmetry and balance in form and purpose. By late 2011, Rashid took this further by experimenting with chrome which allowed him to paint over, manipulate and warp reflections of his environment. This body of work was showcased in solo exhibitions the following year at the Bahrain Financial Harbour, Manama (2012), Beirut Art Fair, Lebanon (2012) and Abu Dhabi Art, UAE (2012).

In May 2015 the artist officially participated in the 56th Venice Biennale, in both the ‘Nomi/Names’ joint exhibition and a collateral event, ‘The Eye of the Thunderstorm: Effervescent Practices from the Arab World’, commissioned by the Contemporary Practices Journal. This was followed with his participation in an Arab delegation of artists to Brazil for the TRIO Biennial dedicated to three-dimensional art. Around this time Rashid’s convex surfaces took on textured layers of aluminium, which he manipulated or excised to reveal layering underneath. In doing so, he abandoned the painterly style of previous years to allow for a pristine and symmetrical facade. These structural features, as well as his move towards minimalism, directed his new focus on elemental forms of design and their receptiveness to light and consequent shadows. In 2018, the artist presented a solo show at Ayyam Gallery in Dubai, UAE, entitled ‘Hybrids’, which showcased this transition with a selection of works created between 2015-2017. In the same year, this fresh and innovative approach defined his ‘Parametrics’ series of large-scale installations that premiered, to international acclaim, in a major solo exhibition entitled ‘Penumbra: Textured Shadow, Coloured Light’ at the Saatchi Gallery in London. In 2019, Rashid Al Khalifa exhibited a selection of his parametrics and mobile columns in an exhibition entitled ‘Transverse Wave’, at the Me Collector’s Room, Berlin. Featuring the work of Mary Bauermeister and composer Simon Stockhausen, the exhibition explored the relationship between the constructive elements and principles of each of the participating artist’s respective works.

Rashid Al Khalifa’s latest work continues to explore the myriad dynamics of light and colours that are characteristic to Bahrain’s geographical and cultural diversity. His current interests lie in the interaction of these properties to further inform his bold interpretations of his cultural heritage. Through splendidly commanding structures, comprising meticulous forms and complex designs, Rashid’s art practice stands as a contemporary tribute to traditional Middle Eastern design and architecture.

Spectrum Series

Spectrum Series, 2021, enamel on aluminium, 150 x 450 cm

Green Parametric

Green Parametric, 2018, enamel on aluminium, 150 x 150 cm

Mobile Column I

Mobile Column I, 2018, enamel on stainless steel, 167 x 115 x 115 cm

Spherical-Compression-in-Grey,-2020,-Enamel-on-Aluminium,-150-x-150-cm

Spherical Compression in Gray, 2019, enamel on aluminum, 150 x 150 cm