Anke Weyer
Gravity Idiot
March 5, 2016 – April 16, 2016
MIER GALLERY is pleased to announce Gravity Idiot, the first solo exhibition at the gallery by Brooklyn-based German artist Anke Weyer. The exhibition will open Saturday, March 5, 2016 at 1107 Greenacre Avenue in West Hollywood, and will be on view through April 16, 2016. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, March 5, 2016 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm.
Practicing painting constantly changes the painting itself by creating a “heat,” an urgency, a double density – HERE AND NOW – which puts it on the side of inevitability. On one hand, Weyer’s painting practice tries to simplify itself. On the other hand, her practice plunges into the unknown and the secret. This ‘secret’ element reveals itself not by being explicitly articulated, but on the contrary, by inviting instability, fragmentation, and doubt of the medium and action of painting itself.
Weyer’s raw simplicity presents something that is categorically real. The canvases act like mirrors centered on the physical act of painting, echoing the suggestion of the artist and viewer in scale. Her paintings act as descriptions touching on something human rather than a depiction of a specific situation. Color is detached from familiar forms and is constantly in flux. The thick, emulsive reds and blues and greens and yellows are urgent as Weyer’s palpable energy reminds one that time and one’s attention span is short. Speed is a factor, almost a medium of its own, whereas composition, in her eyes, should be disrespected.
Gravity reinforces itself through unforgiving accidents, hinting that elements do not fall into place intentionally, but that Weyer’s paintings are more a conglomeration of fragments, mutations, and mistakes. The paintings individually, and as a whole, carry a demanding presence that question the very nature of “good” painting.
Anke Weyer was born in Karlsruhe, Germany (1974). Weyer attended the Staatliche Hochschule für bildende Künste Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main (1995 – 2000) and undertook an exchange semester at the Cooper Union, New York. In addition to numerous international group exhibitions, Weyer’s work has been featured in solo shows and two-person presentations at CANADA in New York since 2000. Anke Weyer has had recent solo shows at Harper’s Books, East Hampton (2015) and Office Baroque, Brussels (2015). Weyer has an upcoming solo exhibition at CANADA, New York (2016) and will be included in an upcoming group show “Women of Abstraction,” MOCA Jacksonville, FL (2016). She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.