Volume Gallery is participating in the 2024 edition of EXPO CHICAGO taking place April 11 – 14 at Chicago’s Navy Pier with work by Abigail Chang, Sung Jang, Luftwerk, Christy Matson, Matt Paweski, and Anders Ruhwald.
Abigail Chang’s reflective sculptures use familiar proportions from both domestic and public spaces. The objects read as windows viewed at night and invite an acute awareness of one’s surroundings. Perception itself is the subject of the work, with the viewer in direct dialog.
Sung Jang’s new series of paintings, Shape of Land, draws from the artist’s memories of landscapes he’s traversed. The deep black shapes in Jang’s paintings are textured with sand and allude to the boundaries of rivers and mountains. The minimal pieces are inspired by subjective and imprecise early Korean maps which were amalgamations of regional maps gathered by travelers.
Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero of Luftwerk are known for their atmospheric explorations of color, light, and space. Their research-based practice seeks to capture the immaterial poetics of natural phenomena, illuminating our subjective and illusive perception of the existing spectrum of light. Recent sculptures use neon light suspended in reflective glass panels to draw intersecting lines through space.
New woven compositions by Christy Matson allude to the history of the use of textile as a storytelling device. Suggestive of either vast landscapes or closely observable patterns in nature—like the silhouette of mountains visible from a distance, or pebbles magnified under the clear glass surface of a slow-flowing stream—the artist’s recent use of cellular and organic forms exact a realm where macro and micro phenomena coalesce.
Trained in carpentry and fabrication, Los Angeles-based artist Matt Paweski makes hyper-formal sculptures from painted aluminum. Paweski’s works often suggest functionality, referencing industrial design and furniture making, yet they emerge from an intuitive, manual process of drawing, cutting, painting, reconfiguration, and experimentation. Lushly colored surfaces and crisp machine-like forms grant viewers optical experiences that swing between recognition and unfamiliarity.
In Anders Ruhwald’s recent abstracted busts of Henry David Thoreau, the writer is represented in a broad color palette. Nature’s own hues, such as azure, teal, ebony, and olive, wash the ceramic musings of his likeness. The liquid finish of the glazed surfaces resembles Walden Pond’s dancing first layer, as much as a mercurial elixir sculpting itself into an army of emotion-free heads.
EXPO CHICAGO showcases leading contemporary and modern art galleries each April at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall, alongside a diverse and inventive program of talks, on-site installations, and public art initiatives. Inaugurated in 2012, EXPO CHICAGO draws upon the city’s rich history as a vibrant international cultural destination, while highlighting the region’s contemporary arts community. In 2023, EXPO CHICAGO was acquired by Frieze, the world’s leading platform for modern and contemporary art.
