Wall | Space
WALL | SPACE // EXHIBITION PREMIERE AT DAAB SALON
LARS BREUER · KAI RICHTER
curated by Gérard A. Goodrow
September 5 - October 17, 2014
OPENING RECEPTION September 5, 7 - 9 PM
OPENING WEEKEND September 6 - 7, 2 - 5 PM
CLOSING EVENT + ARTIST TALK October 17, 7 - 9 PM
The new DAAB SALON at Brüsseler Platz in the heart of Cologne's Belgian Quarter opens its doors for the first time on September 5, coinciding with this year's DC Open. The DAAB SALON will regularly present exhibitions, lectures, artist talks, and other events related to the program of the Cologne-based Daab Verlag, which enjoys an international reputation in the fields of art, architecture, design, and fashion. The curator of the DAAB SALON is freelance author and exhibition maker Gérard A. Goodrow.
The inaugural exhibition, titled "Wall | Space," showcases works by two young artists from the Rhineland who continually test and seek to expand the boundaries of their respective mediums. This includes installations, objects, and collages by Düsseldorf sculptor Kai Richter (born 1969 in Munich) juxtaposed with paintings, metal reliefs, and photographic works by Cologne-based artist Lars Breuer (born 1974 in Aachen).
Kai Richter's installations and sculptures are literally constructed — they are constructive in the truest sense of the word. Richter employs building materials such as concrete, wooden formwork beams, construction props, and scaffolding poles to create energetic material constellations that oscillate between dynamism and statics, chance and intention, chaos and order. His approach to the architectural specifics of each exhibition space is highly sensitive and meticulously detailed. Despite their monumental weight and dynamic momentum, they remain delicate and seemingly fragile.
Through his partly figurative, partly abstract, and in all cases highly conceptual images, Lars Breuer engages with the history and essence of visual art. His references range from Caspar David Friedrich to Max Beckmann, from the Russian Constructivists of the early modern period to American Hard-Edge painting of the 1950s. His paintings and wall murals are often combined with texts, or the motif consists solely of text, transformed into a kind of cryptic slogan written in powerful uppercase letters.