MARTHA PARSEY
CHASING THE DRAGON
June 11th - July 23rd, 2011
"When conceiving this exhibition it was clear to me that it had to be on a very large scale, and as I have always taken delight in large format paintings with many parts, I knew this painting had to extend beyond any scale I had previously worked on. Without any preconception about which direction this would take or how it would finally look, I allowed myself as much space as I needed to make the figures appear real to me, allow them room to occupy the space, allow their presence to appear believable; that`s how the painting that started as diptych grew into nine parts.
While painting, the painting offers up all kinds of possibilities and opportunities that if you`re open and aware you can take advantage of. This leads you unwittingly to what was originally sought, sensed and foreseen. By following these avenues the possibilities of the painting present themselves and reveal their meaning the figures are in themselves associative, their poses suggestive, the tones and textures intimating a sense of space we are welcome to inhabit. Painting the furniture led me to question how to create a sense of pre-sence through the empty space that inhabits it. The empty chair becomes far more substantial empty than with a figure seated within it, embodying a figure without the figure needing to be there. It conveys both a presence as well as a sense of absence, which led me to an understanding of a persons presence outside the periphery of their physical being. Like everything we inhabit or make our own, it contains a human imprint. It was also important that the the furniture appears very heavy in contrast to what I see as very light painterly gestures. This gives the painting extreme contrasts, in light, in weight, in mood, whereby the lightness of the central character that carries the balance of the painting offers a vivid and vibrant conclusion."
(Martha Parsey)
MARTHA PARSEY
MILK AT HUMAN KINDNESS
May 3rd - June 14th, 2008
Jarmuschek+Partner is pleased to announce the opening of its new location with Martha Parsey. "Milk of Human Kindness” is the fourth exhibition by the young British artist held in conjunction with Jarmuschek+Partner.
The gallery is situated in close proximity to the Riekhallen of Hamburger Bahnhof. The new location offers the perfect space for an all-embracing retrospective, displaying the artists recent work. Martha Parsey (born 1973 in London and now living and working in Cologne) focuses on the sex appeal of contemporary art, obsolete role models and the convoluted self-perception of human society.
Her early works in the exhibition reflect upon and aptly observe the superficiality and inner void of high society in the 1990’s. Her protagonists are mainly female, sometimes famous, enacting their roles. They are young, beautiful, posing with masks, labels and weapons, bored to death.
"Vaseline" (2000) unmasks the voyeuristic tendencies in the obeserver. The pictogramm of a martial target line sharpens our eye and leads it directly to a smoking blondes’ abdomen. The figure with the artificial make-up suddenly seems to be vulnerable and naked, yet, she withstands the penetrating looks. The focus towards significance replaces an abundance of details and symbols. Remaining contents, however, are more physical and faces more prominent. Her "silver age", including works such as "All things to All Men", showing a black woman in a silver suit of armour, is now followed by the four newest works "Beyond the Pale", "Show Your Mettle", "Copper-bottomed" and "Milk of Human Kindness". These copper pictures herald a new era. The eponymous exhibit is less influenced by the modern world, but displays timeless beauty. The glamour of Parsey’s early works, that once ironically outplayed contemporary glossies, is now engineered by the shiny copper of a jug filled with milk. "Milk of Human Kindness" is carried by two copper-haired females somewhere between vamp and goddess. Yet the observer has to realise that in the alleged second woman he will only meet a projection.
Martha Parsey studied Art and Design at Central St. Martins College in London, Audio-Visual Communication at the Hochschule der Künste as well as Directing and Production at Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie, both in Berlin. Her paintings not only caused a stir at Eleven Fine Art (2006) or Jeffrey Charles in London (2003), but also at Ludwig Forum Aachen (2000), in Barcelona, Cologne, Bochum, Zurich and Berlin. She is also known for her affiliation to acting and directing. In 1998 she directed a short film at Centre Pompidou on Francis Bacon. The London Instiute of Arts honoured her with a prestigous award, the comprehensive retrospective "Martha Parsey Painting" (2003). Her work continues to be displayed at an impressive exhibition in Berlin - Milk of Human Kindness.