FreelingWaters: Collection III, an exhibition of new works from Amsterdam-based artists Job Wouters and Gijs Frieling opens on May 19, 2022 at The Future Perfect’s St. Lukes Townhouse.
In this series, the artists continue to explore the ways in which two-dimensional imagery, ornament, and decoration can create new possibilities for three-dimensional objects. By covering both the interior and exterior surfaces of these objects with pattern and imagery, they have produced functional, multi-dimensional canvases that position the viewer both within and around the work.
For this collection, Wouters and Frieling have hand painted six pieces of 18th- and 19th-century pinewood cabinets with pigments in casein binder. The artists have painted all surfaces of the cabinets, including the inside, outside, top, bottom and back.
Using seven pigments (Titanium White, Mars Black, Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Red Light, English Red, Emerald Green and Ochre Yellow) with a very matte surface, they have achieved a wide range of colors and hues. Their painting technique uses an array of visually textural and decorative gestures, employing variations between smooth and gradient areas, marble imitations, multi-coloured Rorschach patterns, grids, block patterns, full coloured surfaces with calligraphic ornaments, lettering and figurative elements. Both chromatically and stylistically, these objects reconcile various points of reference, including 18th century decorative traditions and art deco and modernist ornamentation.
Undeniably visual while also insisting on its own physical presence, these objects are truly functional works of art that are meant to be both interacted with and gazed into, repositories of objects and of contemplation.
FreelingWaters: Collection III will be on view through June 17, 2022.