Calypso 'n' Grind

 March 26th - May 1st 2010

 

We are very pleased to welcome you to the exhibition “Calypso ‘n’ Grind” by René Schmidt. The exhibition includes a number of large-scale sculptures as well as smaller sculptures and wall objects. On the opening we will also host the launch for the catalogue “3D Economy”.

 

René Schmidt’s sculptures have been called “architecture for subjectivity”. The configuration of the often abstract and amorphous works, can be seen as explorations of our culture and the implications it has on the forming of our subjects. René Schmidt’s aesthetics has its origin in mass culture and consumer society, and through his works he explores the underlying structures that exist behind the surfaces of everyday objects.

 

The art of René Schmidt  differs from pop art, with which he - at first glance - seems to be closely related. Where pop art drains the objects of inner meaning, René Schmidt’s sculptures seem to be explosions of intensified meaning, as for example “The Golden Age of Wireless”, in which reminiscences of a ghetto blaster meets something that might be a satellite dish. Here the sculpture almost seems to give in to a pressure coming from inside. In René Schmidt’s works it is not possible to distinguish surface from inside – they are closely related parts in his universe.

 

The tension between surface and meaning is also present in the configuration of the works itself. In the colorful objects and sculptures three-dimensional forms struggle for the attention against powerfully painted surfaces. The broken and twisted forms as well as the colors are used in a way that makes us at once recognize and question what we see.

 

René Schmidt’s working process often starts with computer aided animations, where he shapes the objects virtually before they are given their physical form. The process resembles the making of the mass-produced consumer goods of the retail industry - Maybe the works of René Schmidt are thought of as objects like these, rather than intended for the art institution.

 

In the way René Schmidt produces his works is a certain likeness to the themes he explores. Both formally and thematically his art relates to the-world-here-and-now, and he is in dialogue with society rather than with the art world. The result is works that in more than one sense refer to contemporary society.

 

The title of the exhibition relates to the profane, popular cultural tendency in the universe of René Schmidt. Calypso songs are ironic, satiric songs, like René Schmidt’s works, that are filled with irony and humor. They turn a well-known world upside-down and suddenly make it difficult to recognize. Calypso ‘n’ Grind can also be seen as a metaphor for the mix of styles, that appear in the works of René Schmidt, called “pop-baroque”.

René Schmidt (born 1968) graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2000. Since then he participated in a number of exhibitions in Denmark and internationally. Among others at Kunsten, Aalborg (DK), Brænderigården, Viborg (DK), Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Fuxin Gallery, Shanghai and Patricia Low Contemporary, Switzerland.