Plymouth Rock is pleased to announce its inaugural exhibition, ‘29’ by Adam Cruces. This is the first solo exhibition of Cruces in Switzerland. The site-specific installation is comprised of 10 black monochrome paintings paired with an ultraviolet light installation. The pairing pushes and pulls at surface elements of the canvas which are alternatively revealed and obfuscated. These gestural paintings repurpose the language and rhythm of movement established by modernist masters (Cezanne, Matisse, Kirchner etc.) and relate them to the contemporary European party scene. This play is continued in a large composition painted directly on the windowed facade of Plymouth Rock, a gesture that performs movement while visitors approach and are within the installation. An additional sculptural intervention in the space elaborates on Cruces’ earlier object based work, whereby small clay sculptures of nightlife necessities (lighters, beer tabs, etc.) slowly disintegrate over the course of the exhibition in wine glasses overturned and filled with water. Together the installation shows Cruces’ unique ability to pull non-specific content from accumulated sculpture and painterly works alike, always with a deft historical touch, continuing recent trends in contemporary European sculpture on his own terms.

 

A limited edition Ultra-violet ink on paper towel announcement created by the artist accompanies the show.

 

Adam Cruces (b. 1985, lives and works in Zurich) has exhibited at Kunsthalle Baselland, Istituto Svizzero di Roma, Milano; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and IMO Projects, Copenhagen. From 2012 to 2013 he ran the project space HEADQUARTERS, initiating the first exhibitions of Jon Rafman and Amalia Ulman in Switzerland, this tradition was foregrounded by his online project STATE (2010 - 2011), which exhibited early online works by Timur Si-Qin, Ben Schumacher, Parker Ito and Tabor Robak, among many others, and contextualized artists using the internet as a basis for their work.

 

 

Photography: Douglas Mandry