PRESS RELEASE
A group exhibition. The title refers as much to the pleasure of “kicking back” during the warm days and nights of summer as it is an indication of a connection between the artists selected. Intentionally non-descript, Chill signals the introduction of works by several new artists with works of artists more familiar to Thatcher Projects.
Magali Nougarède is a French-born, U.K. based photographer. Most of Nougarède’s subjects are either young or quite old. She fixates on details; the textures of a tweed jacket; the hands of elderly subjects; the embossed word “sexy” across the rear of a young woman’s pink sweat pants. William Betts draws on technology to develop new techniques for producing paintings. Using software of his own design to apply paint with robot-like precision, Betts creates both abstract and representational works, including two recent paintings included in the exhibition that utilize actual highway surveillance photos as source imagery.
Both Peter Weber and Richard Thatcher create three-dimensional objects from materials that must be “conquered” by the artist’s technical abilities. Weber makes complex folds of thick felt to produce sensual objects to be read as both painting and sculpture. Likewise, Thatcher employs industrial materials and finesses them until they have the feel and look of luxury items. His Best of 2006 series makes reference to the intersection of fine art and commerce. A new family of marble sculptures from Venske & Spänle’sspirited Smurf series will be presented in the exhibition, as will a recent sculpture by Markus Linnenbrink.