STUTTGART, Germany -- Galerie Reinhard Hauff has mounted a group show called Carpetbaggers, featuring carpets by Jan Kath intermingled with works by Lello/Arnell, Mark Pearson and Viron Erol.
Running through July 26 at the Stuttgart-based gallery, the show continues the theme of living with art for which gallery owners Elisabeth and Reinhard Hauff are known. "In Carpetbaggers, we leave the gallery concept of the white cube behind us and present an exciting interplay of mirror reliefs, paintings, sculptures and carpets," explains Elisabeth Hauff. "We exhibit works by artists who also experiment with traditional handicrafts and thus extend the range of contemporary art."
A view of the Carpetbaggers exhibition on show at Galerie Reinhard Hauff through July 26. Photo by Bernhard Kahrmann.
Hauff continues: "The artists all experiment with traditional arts and crafts and age-old creative processes: ideas first promoted in a modern spirit by the Bauhaus School a hundred years ago. Jan Kath, who as a young man traveled to India, Nepal, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and Morocco -- countries with a long tradition of carpet weaving -- sought out the best of the best of what in the meantime had been relegated to 'old-fashioned', and then fast-forwarded the timeless luxurious feel and looks of oriental carpets into contemporary interiors.
"The intriguing allure of top-quality materials and craftsmanship with innovative upgrades to historical designs as in Mamluk Temple Double Sky, Tabriz Canal Aerial and Tabriz Fashion Artwork make contemporary audiences want to look at and live with carpets again," Hauff reports.
In this show, an unusual carpet installation with layers upon layers of carpets piling up on the floors in the gallery rooms makes the floor come alive, become important and basically takes over the room.
A mirror installation entitiled Apophenia by Lello/Arnell of Norway and rugs by Jan Kath in the Carpetbaggers exhibition. Photo by Bernhard Kahrmann.
Norwegian artist duo Lello/Arnell has worked with furniture and home accessories from lamps to carpets to chairs and mirrors. In Carpetbaggers, they present a large mirror installation called Apohenia. Hauff says the mirrors represent an unintentional parallel here to the ancient Persian tradition of ornamental wall-to-wall mirror, metal and glass mosaics decorating mosque and palace interiors. "Lello/Arnell's form language, however, is cool, abstract, Nordic modernism.
"Apophenia transforms walls to dazzling, vibrant surfaces, animating in a most dynamic and intriguing way the reflections of carpets, paintings and light objects in interior spaces. In large public buildings and town squares in their homeland, official commissions have made the duo famous. Their public installations and art works are among the most photographed and circulated on social media."
The show also includes street artist graffiti compositions by UK artist Mark Pearson. A group of black and white collages treat in an ornamental way ominous references to pollution and climate change "These patterned compositions find odd visual soulmates in Jan Kath's black and white Ferrara Special Rocked silk carpets," Hauff says.
Berlin Artist Viron Erol Vert provides the light sculpture Sibling Love for this show, repurposing crystal chandeliers from his Istanbul grandparents' home.
