STARSTUFF: Paintings by Marc Lambrechts November 12-19, 2014
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Lava 2 (detail), 2013, oil on lava sand on wood
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This body of work reflects my fascination with cosmology and the search for our place in the Universe—themes that have surfaced repeatedly in my work over the years. The diverse range of materials used in my paintings, such as ink, clay, plaster, and wood, are emblematic of the array of elements that make up our world; elements that were created from exploding stars. Sometimes, the ground material in its bare purity is but subtly treated to reveal its inherent beauty and order. My Lava series from 2013, for example, makes use of lava sands––the glitery black material that came from the guts of the planet on which we inhabit. To the eyes of any star-gazer, astronomer, or particle physicist, the events I depict in paintings such as Events 3 (2013), Bubble Chamber 53 (2010), and Winter (2002) are recognizable as the natural events that they are. They are not, however, meant to be ‘exact’ depictions, as my work is more poetry than scientific dissertation. It is the characteristics of these materials and the mystery of the Universal scale––the infinitely small and the infinitely big—that interest me most in creating my Starstuff. Marc Lambrechts September 2014
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Marc Lambrechts: A Cosmology of Our Time This collection, appropriately titled STARSTUFF, presents paintings by prolific New York artist Marc Lambrechts in which he capitalizes on the extremely beautiful pictorialism of images incorporating constellational patterns and the flight of the atoms. Working out of his Brooklyn, New York studio in the former home of the late artist Richard Artschwager, Lambrechts achieves distinguished lyricism with surprising versatility in the use of materials––from ephemeral, found materials to various painterly medium such as ink stain, oil, clay, plaster, and watercolor. Here we have light-handed metaphysics reflecting the motion of atomic particles, which in turn looks amazingly like the night sky, the stars, and galaxies. A dialogue occurs between microcosm and macrocosm, each reflecting the other. The images imply thought of a very high order, not least because they are scientifically correct—these paintings are based on drawings Lambrechts made from pictures of atomic events. Echoing the newest scientific findings, Lambrechts’ pictures express that even the smallest events contain within themselves remarkable mystery. At the same time, the artist looks out for correspondences of a larger nature. For example, in Maxi Cosmos 4 (2010), the small size of the work, about thirteen by eighteen centimeters, does not distract one from seeing the bigger picture. Composed of a dark spiral, dots, and spots, Bubble Chamber 9 (2010) offers the viewer a cosmic poetry derived from the smallest of events. In Event 6 (2013), which is thirty centimeters square, the image looks like graffiti streaks incised into a pool of red. Rough but striking. An earlier example of Lambrechts’ work, Summer (2002), is a larger construction, composed with water-based paint on clay board. The painting shows
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us a constellated dark sky, whose points of light establish an attractive rhythm. In the middle is a vertical gaseous white form that is surely the Milky Way. Here, the audience considers the innate beauty of nature, no matter what the scale. The skies are contained in finite dimensions, but they nevertheless explode into being. In another painting from the same year, Do You Know There Are Roads Between the Stars? (2002), the artist structured a metaphysical image using oil on plaster on wood. Lines and dots and blotches are inscribed on a reddish brown background, echoing in a wonderful way the visual language of Paul Klee. Here we see a composition that communicates wonder—an ongoing emotion found in Lambrechts’ art. In a very recent pair of paintings, Day and Night (2014) and Night and Day (2014), we see the consistently poetic understanding that stays with Lambrechts’ audience. A broken moon hovers two thirds of the way up in each composition, with another shape functioning as a visual weight balancing the moon above. These marvelously mysterious images conceal and reveal at the same time, a practice we come to expect with Lambrechts’ inspired use of materials. Working with a plaster undercoat and incorporating metal also give the paintings something of a sculptural feeling. This is not art about the future: the artist is describing what we know and see now. Lambrechts brilliantly conveys the sheer mystery that occurs inside of very small or very large structures. And to his considerable credit, the spectacular particulars of his vision are not lost to the viewer. Jonathan Goodman, art critic September 2014
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“WHAT IS THE MOST ASTOUNDING FACT ABOUT THE UNIVERSE?”
Text: Excerpts from TIME Magazine’s “10 Questions with Neil deGrasse Tyson (2008)”; Neil deGrasse Tyson is American astrophysicist, author, radio personality, and science communicator. He serves as Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space and a research associate in the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. Blue Universe (detail), 2013, concrete on burlap on wood
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“The most astounding fact is that...
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...atoms that comprise life on earth,
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Bubble Chamber 39 (2010) Mixed media leather 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm)
Bubble Chamber 50 (2010) Mixed media on paper 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm)
Bubble Chamber 54 (2010) Mixed media on paper 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm)
Bubble Chamber 52 (2010) Mixed media on paper 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm)
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atoms that make up human body,
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Bubble Chamber 18 (2010) Mixed media on paper 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm) Bubble Chamber 9 (2010) Mixed media on paper 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm) Bubble Chamber 53 (2010) Mixed media on paper 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm)
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are traceable to the crucibles
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Mini Cosmos 11 (2010) Oil on clayboard 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm) Mini Cosmos 23 (2012) Oil on clayboard 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm)
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that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core, under extreme temperatures and pressures.
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Mars I (2013) Mixed media on paper 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm)
Mars F (2013) Mixed media on paper 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm)
Mars E (2013) Mixed media on paper 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm)
Mars H (2013) Mixed media on paper 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm)
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These stars, the high mass ones among them, went unstable in their later years, they collapsed and then exploded,
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Event 3 (2013) Oil on clay ground on wood 10 x 10 inches (25 x 25 cm)
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scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy.
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Did You Know There Are Roads Between the Stars? (2002) Oil on plaster on wood 42 x 42 inches (105 x 105 cm)
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Guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen,
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Event 6 (2013) Oil on plaster on wood 12 x12 inches (30 x30 cm)
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and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself.
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Blue Universe (2013) Concrete on burlap on wood 10 x 10 inches (25 x 25 cm)
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These ingredients became part of gas clouds that condense, collapse,
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Space Bodies (2003) Oil on plaster on wood 48 x 48 inches (122 x 122 cm)
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and form the next generation of solar systems––stars with orbiting planets,
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Intriguing Story (2003) Oil on clay ground on wood 9 x 9 inches (22.5 x 22.5 cm)
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and those planets now have the ingredients for life itself.
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Pleiades Under Water (2002) Oil on plaster on wood 48 x 48 inches (122 x 122 cm)
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So when I look up at the night sky,
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Summer (2002) Water-based paint on clay ground on wood 42 x 42 inches (105 x 105 cm)
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I know that yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in this Universe,
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Winter (2002) Water-based paint on clay ground on wood 42 x 42 inches (105 x 105 cm)
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but perhaps more important
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than both of those facts...
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...is that the Universe is in us.
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Lava 1 (2013) Oil on lava sand on wood 10 x 10 inches (25 x 25 cm) Lava 2 (2013) Oil on lava sand on wood 10 x 10 inches (25 x 25 cm)
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When I reflect on that fact, I look up.
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The Azure Dragon of the East (Spring) (2002) Oil on clayboard 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm)
The White Tiger of the West (Autumn) (2002) Oil on clayboard 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm)
The Red Bird of the South (Summer) (2002) Oil on clayboard 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm)
The Black Tortoise of the North (Winter) (2002) Oil on clayboard 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm)
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Many people feel small, because they are small and the Universe is big.
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Day and Night (2014) Plaster, pigment and metal 36 x 36 inches (90 x 90 cm)
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But I feel big, because...
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Night and Day (2014) Plaster, pigment and metal 36 x 36 inches (90 x 90 cm)
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...my atoms came from those stars.�
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Maxi Cosmos 4 (2010) Oil and mixed media on clayboard 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm) Maxi Cosmos 8 (2010) Oil on clayboard 5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 17.5 cm)
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Marc Lambrechts (Belgian, b. 1955) was born in Lier, Belgium and currently lives and works in New York City, United States. Lambrechts’ early studies in art took place at the Higher Sint-Lucas Institute in Brussels, Belgium, after which he obtained a scholarship to study printmaking in Bratislava, Slovakia. Upon returning to Belgium, he started working as a visual artist in charge of graphics and displays at the Center for Brussels Amateur Theater. His prints soon received widespread acclaim, which led to collaborations with Moving Space Gallery in Ghent. In 1983, he moved to New York City and studied printmaking at the Pratt Institute, and quickly acquired representation at Tibor de Nagy Gallery. His first New York exhibition with the gallery was featured in Art News. As evident in Starstuff, Lambrechts’ training in printmaking is a key influence on his painted oeuvre. Also central to his painterly language and choice of media are his extensive travels to Southeast Asia and West Africa. Lambrechts has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe, the most recent of which was Meeting in Brooklyn at the castle Alden Biesen, in Bilzen, Belgium (2014). His work is currently featured in private, corporate, and institutional collections worldwide, including The Mint Museum of Art, The Aldrich Museum for Contemporary Art, Proteck Pharmaceuticals, David and Lucille Packard Foundation, and the Edward Albee Collection. He also served as guest professor at the Higher Institute for the Arts in Antwerp, Belgium. Lambrechts’ work is chronicled in Willem Elias’ Aspects of Belgian Art After 1945 and Twenty Five Years of Graphic Art in Flanders, and has been reviewed in well-known periodicals such as the New York Arts Magazine, the New York Times, Arts and Entertainment, Le Soir, and Kunst and Cultuur.
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