Josh Sperling Unveils a "Paradise" in Perrotin Shanghai
Presenting colorful sculptural paintings of varying shapes and forms.
After launching DONUT light sculptures with Case Studyo this past September, New York-based artist Josh Sperling unveiled new, sprawling sculptural pieces for his debut solo exhibition in Shanghai’s Perrotin gallery. Entitled “Paradise,” the presentation was the artist’s largest to date with numerous shaped canvasses on display. Drawing on the language of minimalist painting from the 1960s and 1970s, Sperling meticulously crafts plywood supports over canvas which is then stretched and painted in varying tones. With these works, the artist blends the mediums of painting and sculpture, introducing a dynamic visual language that is both expressive and energetic.
“Illusion is also very important to me: the underlying structure gives the illusion of something, it is mysterious… When the squiggles are skinnier they have one central layer, in the middle they have two and when they are very large they have three. That is a result of wanting to give the work an organic life-like feel, like the rings of a tree that grows with layers,” said Sperling in a statement.
Across the gallery space, Sperling mounted his recurrent forms such as Squiggles, Composites and Double Bubbles. He also unveils a new range of circular mandala-like arrangements. “Throughout these forms on display, Sperling experiments with minimal tones, gradients, and also the entire removal of color. Without tones, the viewer is left to examine the formalist puzzle-like ingenuity of the component constructions without interruption—a striking advancement that’s impossibly bold and contemplative in equal measure,” said the gallery.
Check out installation views for “Paradise” in the slideshow above. The exhibition has concluded, but head over to Perrotin’s website to check out more events.
In related stories, Takashi Murakami will soon release a new collectible figure called Melting DOB with Perrotin Hong Kong store.
Perrotin Shanghai
3/F, 27 Huqiu Lu,
near Beijing Dong Lu
Huangpu District
Shanghai, China
