Johannes VanDerBeek: Orange Arcing Eye

Paris London Hong Kong is proud to present a selection of paintings and sculptures by New York-based artist Johannes VanDerBeek. An opening reception will be held on September 14th from 5-8pm.

Constructed out of materials like resin, foam, and metal, VanDerBeek’s sculptures are as much about texture and surface as they are about form. From a distance, the multicolored shapes appear organic, playful, perhaps even weightless. Upon closer inspection, however, the sculptures make clear their material heft; the thick solidity of the resin paint threatens to overpower the delicate metal supports beneath. VanDerBeek’s fluctuating forms provoke the viewer’s sense of perspective and invite reconsiderations of sculptural transparency, opacity, representation, and abstraction. In one piece, a large sheet of erratically cut metal mesh is held up by a composition of thin metal supports that reads as a rudimentary portrait or a series fragmented symbols. 

VanDerBeek’s large acrylic paintings engage in an animated dialogue with their sculptural counterparts. Translucent brushstrokes in a range of muted colors fill the canvases, each painting presenting contrasting availabilities of positive and negative space. One wonders if the paintings are two-dimensional interpretations of the resin coated structures, or if the sculptures are physical projections of the merrily contoured paintings. VanDerBeek’s works are unconventionally youthful without appearing childish, with visual materiality as their primary concern. -- Sophie Jenkins.

Johannes VanDerBeek (b. 1982, Baltimore, MD) lives and works in New York. He received his BFA from Cooper Union in 2004. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions including Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels; Marinaro, New York; Halsey McKay Gallery, New York; MoMA PS1, Long Island City; White Flag Projects, St. Louis; and Zach Feuer Gallery, New York. In 2009, the Tang Museum at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY presented a yearlong exhibition that combined VanDerBeek’s work with the work of his sister, Sara VanDerBeek, and that of his father, influential filmmaker Stan VanDerBeek. Johannes VanDerBeek’s work is represented in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn; CAPC musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.