Underskog

Sequence and Descending II, 2010 Raebervonstenglin, Zurich

Living With Abstraction

David Keating will be presenting recent sculptural works as well as images of a variety of source material hinting at multiple reference points that inform his recent work. He will also be presenting source material and discussing the development of a forthcoming exhibition in Oslo at 1857.

“Many of his works probe abstraction’s memory of the figure and of earlier abstractions. Bodies devoid of interiors, they call to mind the disfigurements of Modernism — the hollowed, twisting bodies of Henry Moore, for instance — associations which the grungy appearance of their synthetic material challenges. Whilst their forms evoke modernist abstraction yet subvert its codes, their material and self-conscious objecthood recall Minimalism, resisting Michael Fried’s doctrine on the need to segregate mediums. Many of Keating’s works are simultaneously sculpture, painting and drawing. They are three-dimensional forms that are nonetheless all surface or lines in space. By turns the works seem flamboyant and shy, violent and vulnerable — always intimately involved. Keating’s titles such as ‘I like for you to be still’ freight them with menace and ambivalence and hint at the possibility of an over-controlling relationship between artist and artwork.” -Gair Burton.

David Keating (1977) is based in Berlin. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Sequence and Descending’ at Raeber von Stenglin, Zurich and ‘I want for you to be still’ at The Taut and Tame, Berlin. Group Exhibitions include Brussels Biennial 1. In association with the Witte de With, curated by Nicolas Schafhausen and Florian Waldvogel and Tales From The Travel Journal Vol 1. curated by Catherine Hemelryk at the CAC in Vilnius.

David Keating is participating in the forthcoming exhibition Drop Handkerchief Backdrop, opening 1st April until 8th of May at 1857, Oslo.

Open Forum is a series of lectures, presentations, performances and conversations with artists, curators, theorists, authors, musicians etc. initiated and arranged by the Art Academy in Oslo. Open Forum usually takes place every Monday at 19.00 in the Academy’s auditorium at Seilduken, Fossveien 24. Additional Open Forums might occur. The lectures are mainly given in English and are ordinarily rounded off with questions and answers. The event is open for the general public. Welcome!