In the exhibition of Ruth Campau, Petra Gut Contemporary is proud to present the work of this award-winning Dutch painter. She works with various materials and fabrics, which are often arranged as collages, as shown in the current exhibition of Ruth Campau in Zurich.
RUTH CAMPAU (DK) | EXHIBITION
OPENING Wed 16th November | 18.00 – 20.00 Exhibition 17.11 2016 – 07.01 2017 Kreuzstrasse 15, ZÜRICH, Seefeld OPENING HOURS Wed - Fr 11.00 - 18.30 , Sa 10.00 – 16.00
GALERIE | PETRA GUT CONTEMPORARY ZURICH
The potential of colour
Various materials and fabrics are often presented on top of or next to each other and arranged as collages and installations in Ruth Campau's work. Her fascination for materials with special effect is obvious.
Ruth Campau tries to combine contrasts in her work. Soft matters are combined with hard ones and transparent ones with solids. Sometimes her installations may even trick you, for instance when she uses the material Mylar which appears to flow softly but with her processing looks hard like metal.
She applies her special attention to surfaces. Surfaces that appear shiny like a mirror or transparent alternate in her work. The artist is inspired by transparency, particularly when light is projected onto colours from behind - like a transparent canvas.
Moreover, colour is a central theme. At times she concentrates on the effect of an individual colour, at other times she pays her attention to the interplay of different colours and their reflection in space.
Campau paints her collages with strong regulary brush strokes or colour-sprays them. This application of colour requires the artist's full physical strength and concentration. With large brushes she precisely paints line after line in a powerful and mechanical way, but the body will always reveal itself. The procedure becomes a ritual and a physical act - almost performance like. She is concerned with the "here and now" - very focussed. To some of her works she also adds her typical "blobs", large round drops of paint.
Ruth Campau enjoys staging her work as large sized - space filling installations. The visitor is compelled to move around and inside her works. Only then is it possible to perceive the entirety of the work, step by step. Campau's works are paintings in a broad sense - they illustrate an expansion into spatial dimension.
Biography
Ruth Campau (*1955) lives and works in Copenhagen. Ruth Campau's work has been presented in numerous international exhibitions, among others at: ISCP, New York (USA); KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg (DK); Ostrale, Dresden (DE); Co Lab, LA (USA); PS Projectspace, Amsterdam (NL); Overgaden, Institute of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen (DK) Esbjerg Art Museum, Esbjerg (DK) and Herning Art Museum, Herning (DK)
