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Lilian Kreutzberger at Hometown
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From May 1 until June 19, Dutch artist Lilian Kreutzberger will be a part of “Passing Index” exhibition at Hometown.
Sun, May 1 - Sun, Jun 19 2016
From May 1 until June 19, Dutch artist Lilian Kreutzberger will be a part of “Passing Index” exhibition at Hometown in Brooklyn, NY. The show will present new works by Kreuzberger and Yasue Maetake, and include wall reliefs and sculptural work by each artist.
An index is an indicator or measure of something, a sign that denotes an external reality, be it material or cultural. Kreutzberger and Maetake’s works display indexical traces of extensive working over, with marks that reflect process and hint at former states of being. Employing a visual vocabulary that is abstract yet suggestive, these works intimate systems which may be architectural, social, technological, or ecological.
Lilian Kreutzberger creates image-objects featuring repeated abstract, rectilinear forms. Her recent wall reliefs are made from laser-cut wood and plaster, often dyed with acrylic paint. At once familiar and strange, they evoke unfinished diagrams, fossilized computer motherboards, unreadable hieroglyphs—systems once ubiquitous and essential, now in varying states of disuse and decomposition. In her sculptural “mouldings,” Kreutzberger creates networks of domestic wall or corner mouldings that adapt to their surrounding architecture. Oddly shaped borders with no interiors, these constructions gesture toward an absent center and, in effect, toward their own obsolescence.
This engagement with the built environment stems from Kreutzberger’s interest in early-to-mid 20th century architects, who envisioned architecture as capable of fostering happiness and social progress. Reconsidering this utopianism with canny historical awareness, her wall reliefs function as inscrutable floor plans that map unbuildable spaces. Attention to surface and its material properties recalls the legacy of Modernist painting, and with it the desire to distill painting to a pure expression of universal truths. Acknowledging the ill-fated nature of both Modernist projects—in architecture and in painting—Kreutzberger works within self-imposed rules designed to govern unruly materials, simultaneously demonstrating the impossibility of mastery.
As we currently stand to witness seismic shifts in our environment—both political and ecological—Kreutzberger and Maetake’s considerations of failure, decay, and transformation, resonate as both elegy and world-wise reassurance, opening up possibilities in the face of an uncertain future.
About Lilian Kreutzberger
Lilian Kreutzberger’s artistic practice addresses the dynamics between social culture and personal identity, on the one hand, and our built environment on the other. Kreutzberger’s work has been exhibited at various public and private venues including the Gemeente Museum, The Hague, Netherlands; Matteawan Gallery, Beacon, NY; Fresh Window, Brooklyn, NY; Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY; and the Royal Palace, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Kreutzberger has held residencies with the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), Brooklyn, NY; EYEBEAM, New York, NY; Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, Netherlands; and the Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation (ESKFF), Jersey City, NJ; and has been awarded grants from the Mondrian Fund as well as the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation; the Netherlands’ national Buning Brongers Award for painting; and a Fulbright Scholarship sponsored by the Netherlands America Foundation. Kreutzberger was also nominated for the Netherlands’ Royal Award for Painting in 2007, 2009, 2014, and 2015. Kreutzberger earned her MFA from Parsons, The New School, New York, NY; and her BFA from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, The Hague, Netherlands. Originally from Middelburg, Netherlands, Kreutzberger lives and works Brooklyn, NY, and The Hague.
About Hometown
Hometown is founded by Adam Yokell, former lead counsel for the online art resource platform Artsy. “Passing Index” will be the Brooklyn-based gallery’s first exhibition. In an interview with artnews.com, Yokell explains how he hopes to create an inclusive environment: “I think the name is related on some level to an idea of directness.”