Emmanuel Boos and Esben Klemann: Systematic Uncertainty / Copenhagen Ceramics, Denmark
February 28 – March 28, 2013
In ceramics the unknown is a fate for the practitioner. Emmanuel Boos and Esben both welcome unpredictability. Moreover they are provoking it. They share a playful and experimental approach to the ceramic material and their works are bred from a great curiosity towards the processes of the material.
Emmanuel Boos, now living in London, was born and grew up in France. He trained with Jean Girel, one of the big names in French ceramics, known for his works with beautiful textural glazes. Emmanuel Boos equally places the glazes at the centre of his artistic practice, but goes further. He questions the classic hierarchy, where the materials as such are regarded as undifferentiated, depending on being given form, morphe, which traditionally is considered the essential part.
For Boos form is often a pretext, a playground for glazes to develop on. His interest lies with the poetic character and sensuality of the glaze, both in a direct sense as the fusion of basic materials and in the symbolic potential of this. His works are not conceptually based; rather they express a search for beauty, that strives for a form of aesthetic contemplation appealing firstly to our senses and our emotions.
For his first show in Denmark, Emmanuel Boos will be showing both plinth and wall pieces. His intent is to draw the viewer into the glaze, inviting us to meander in its depth through poetic reverie. His forms oscillate between mysterious enclosed objects – minerals with an underlying organic presence – and thin sheets of porcelain like canvases gently folding and developing into space.
The expressive heartland in Esben Klemann’s work is clearly defined by his interest in architecture, construction and material, and a constant urge to further develop the making-processes, that are essential for the expression of the final works.
On ceramics, he states: “People envisage a lot of different things when you use the word ceramics. Images of ordinary domestic items, giant-sized-vessels, reliefs by Asger Jorn, etc. Through changes in work-methods, tools and placements, I strive to add new images to the picture, believing that ceramics has the potential to offer something more and different. I purposely draw my experiences from other sculptural areas into the ceramic process, to push it all into new directions.
You may label my work non-thematic or abstract, or see it as a formal language which communicates by establishing artistically elaborated spaces and objects, that in contrast to the ordinary, inject vitality into things.”
Klemann builds up the spatial form-curve by testing, seeing and testing again. In his experiments with the difficult material, clay, he challenges gravity in the ceramics works, trying to do things that seemingly are not possible to do. Since this is always intriguing – ceramics or not.
Emmanuel Boos has exhibited widely, f.inst. with solo shows at Jousse Entreprise in Paris: Come Back, Baby, Come Back! (2011), Crac! Boum! Hue! (2005); Design Miami-Basel (2012), PAD London, FIAC Paris (2007–2010). Other shows include: Jerwood Makers Open, London, Belfast, Edinburgh (2011–2012), La Scène Française, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (2010).
Esben Klemann’s works are in collections of e.g. The Danish Arts Foundation, Djurhuus Collection. Recent exhibitions include: Ann Linnemann Studio Gallery, Copenhagen (2011), Puls Contemporary Ceramics, Bruxelles (2009); Bornholm Art Museum, DK, 2009 (solo show); Henningsen Contemporary, Copenhagen (2007) and ”Match Race" at Art Museum of North Jutland, Ålborg, DK (2007).
Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Friday 1–5 pm, Saturday 12 am – 4 pm.
CONTACT
Martin Bodilsen Kaldahl
martin@copenhagenceramics.com
Tel: +45 2728 5452
Copenhagen Ceramics
Smallegade 46, 2. sal tv
2000 Frederiksberg
Copenhagen
Denmark
www.copenhagenceramics.com
Above: Emmanuel Boos, Folded slab with base, 2012, Paper porcelain with glaze NSD 07/04/2, 36 x 39 x 12 cm. Photo by Jeppe Gudmundsen-Holmgreen.
