Text provided by the gallery: We are delighted to welcome Richard Perry to the gallery in a two person exhibition with gallery artist Andrew Clausen. The exhibition will include a selection of sculptural pieces by Perry and some new wall-based work by Clausen.
The selection of works by Andrew Clausen is the culmination of digital and analogue techniques that the artist uses in creating his hallmark concrete castings on resin-bonded canvas. Photography forms the basis of his work with subject matter ranging from architecture to industrial machinery. From these subject images, a composition is created in relationship to the canvas by reducing, rearranging, and sometimes adding to the forms that are in the photographed image. Once a work has taken shape graphically, it is translated to vector lines and machine code that is used to shape the individual sections of the mould which the concrete is cast into. Subtle textures that are carved, modelled, and embossed by both machine and hand into the mould material are echoed onto the surface of the cured concrete. The organic nature of the material, in combination with the precisely defined relief of interlocking forms, creates a dynamic abstract work rich with surface detail and shadows.
Andrew Clausen (USA) began his artistic training in the Cooperative Studios of Art City in Southern California. From there he travelled to Italy where for 13 years he worked alongside master artisans and developed his craft into a tuned combination of conceptual ideas and refined use of materials. He currently lives and works in the city of Arnhem, Netherlands.
Richard Perry works in a variety of materials but has a particular affinity with stone, and the focus of his practice is stone sculpture. His practice juxtaposes measured geometric and organic freeform sculpture to create illusory forms that break free from an underlying rationale. On a technical level, his work requires a balance of intuitive judgment and premeditated design. He uses a direct carving approach: composing and ruthlessly editing as he goes along, thinking several steps ahead. “It’s a bit like playing a game of chess with yourself, constantly trying to foresee moves and implications. When it stops being a battle, when the sculpture doesn’t annoy me anymore, when it has a character of its own and when it surprises me: that’s when it’s finished.”
The work has its own logic, and he must enter its realm. That said, he draws background inspiration from the built environment and from nature, including rock and tree formations, and from thinking about wider environmental concerns. He is particularly drawn to the geometries of architecture and structure found in post-industrial areas and edgelands.
Perry is currently working on an ongoing series of geometric and organic sculptures, primarily in Blue Irish Limestone. It’s an arresting stone that fits perfectly with his vocabulary of light and shadow, and he is still perpetually excited and intrigued by the possibilities of this stone after more than a decade. “I am carefully attuned to the material and its potential, constantly seeking new possibilities in the process of transforming stone into arresting sculptural forms.” He also enjoys working in Carrara marble and English alabaster as well as painted sculpture. He often exhibits drawings and paintings alongside his sculptures: his 2D work both inspires and reflects ongoing concerns within his sculptural works.
