Gladstone Gallery Presents 'Kasper Bosmans: Model Garden'

"The objects can adapt to the circumstances that develop around them. I believe beauty allows me to refer to content rather than explain it. It might last longer that way." - Kasper Bosmans

In a suite of new paintings and objects featured in the exhibition Model Garden, Kasper Bosmans presents a distinct visual language through graphic appropriation and the deployment of historical, political, and artistic signs. Bosmans works as a careful gatherer of material culled from cultural memories (folk art, heraldry, maps, legends, alphabets and symbols) that were once common and close to home in his native Belgium.

Research into pictorial codes acts as a point of departure as Bosmans systematically transposes acquired knowledge into Legends, small-scale paintings in which encyclopedic and mythological anecdotes coexist in stylized forms. Through these recognizable symbols painted in bold forms and with stark lines, the viewer is invited to "read" the paintings-as opposed to "view"- as one would a map.

Formal elements and ideologies intrinsic to the studied phenomena open up a realm of meaning that both surpasses and celebrates their original functions. Every thread of investigation is incorporated into Bosman's unique visual language and further translated into paintings and sculptural ensembles.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kasper Bosmans (b. 1990) lives and works in Brussels and Amsterdam. Recent exhibitions include: Decorations at Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; Specimen Days, S.M.A.K., Ghent (2016); Loot, Soil, and Cleanliness, CIAP, Hasselt (2016); Motif (Oil and Silver), Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles (2016); Yesterday was different with Marthe Ramm Fortun, KOMPLOT, Brussels (2015); Des hôtes: a foreigner, a human, an unexpected visitor, Spring Workshop, Hong Kong (2015); Little Cherry Virus, P/////akt, Amsterdam (2015); Un-Scene III, Wiels, Brussels (2015); Het kanaal - le canal, Extra City Kunsthal, Antwerp & Espace 251 Nord, Liège (2014); Coming People, S.M.A.K., Ghent (2014). In 2017 Bosmans will be the subject of solo exhibitions at De Hallen, Haarlem, the Netherlands and at the Kunsthalle Sao Paulo, Brazil.

CURRENT & UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

Elizabeth Peyton
SPEED POWER TIME HEART:
New Paintings by Elizabeth Peyton
130 East 64th Street
November 4 - December 21, 2016

Mario Merz
Early Works
515 West 24th Street, New York
November 10 - December 17, 2016

Jim Hodges
I dreamed a world and called it Love.
530 West 21st Street, New York
November 11 - December 21, 2016