Gallerynote 3/2002

May 16 to July 6, 2002

JOSEPH EGAN, Rain on the roof

The works of the fifty-year-old artist are those of an experienced, ripe artistic personality. On the one hand, Joseph Egan is capable of making fruitful use of numerous discoveries and inventions in his constructions. Over his many years as an artist, he has developed these into highly sensitive, usable instruments. On the other hand, the color and form material is full of traces and oscillations, the effects of precise and impassioned observations. That which enters the view spurs participation. The experiences opened up by the art works reflect on the world, and, through an unusual process, the ordinariness that is living and lived is able to enter the realm of the artifact. Mind you, here it is not a matter of the televisive and socially apostrophized experience of the world. Rather, the artist behaves as a receptor of signs and sounds that are accessible to the human visual sense and that find their embodiment in the work.

Joseph Egan creates places where there is actually something to see. The color that takes on all shadings when used, exhibiting the finest differentiations, serves as his medium. Frames, containers, consoles are formal as well as functional motifs, encircling or optimally presenting their focus in an almost hierarchical order. Picture carrier, quadrat or detail, introduced to the wall as a fictional wall, are mostly wood constructions jointed and built from roofing batten. Yet a rich, sumptuous color skin lifts these constructions into something of another status. The picture is the stage for a richly articulated, polychrome event, where peculiar objects, free or fixed, also have a chance to speak.

Joseph Egan is an artist who has returned to the workshop. He trusts the dignity of his work. Handicraft and poetics become reconciled as one. The time for doing is also the time for reflecting. The intention is an art that is able to find itself thoughtfully.

His exhibitions are well considered and balanced stagings. They are the frame and the form, carefully orchestrated by the artist. In an exemplary way, they compose the ideal home for an overall body of work.

Notice

Naked came the Stranger – Rita McBride, May 30 to August 25, 2002.
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein:

Richard Tuttle, April 20 to June 14, 2002.
Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf

Richard Tuttle – cENTRE, June 27 to September 15, 2002.
Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain:

Richard Tuttle – Memento, June 28 to September 15, 2002.
Museu de Arte Contemporanea, Porto, Portugal:

Donald Judd. Early work 1955–1968, May 5 to July 21 2002.
Kunsthalle Bielefeld

Visit us at the ART 33 Basel, June 12-17, 2002, Hall 2.0 / Stand K5.