The Meaning Is The Use

Neil Campbell, Olivier Garbay, Jeppe Hein,
Pauline Stella Sanchez, Corin Sworn,
Althea Thauberger, Erika Vogt, and Ulrich Wulff
February 21 - March 20, 2009
Opening reception Saturday February 21 from 6-8pm

From February 21st to March 20th 2009, Blanket Contemporary Art Inc. presents The Meaning Is The Use, a group show that considers each artist singularly. Including works from Neil Campbell, Olivier Garbay, Jeppe Hein, Pauline Stella Sanchez, Corin Sworn, Althea Thauberger, Erika Vogt, and Ulrich Wulff, we take an intimate look at current art production from Canada, the USA, Germany, Denmark, and the UK.

Vancouver artist Neil Campbell’s abstract, quasi-geometric paintings are scaled to the human body, and despite their apparent flatness, are performative in nature. They exact a calculated effect on viewer’s bodies and senses. Far from ‘abstract’, the experience is both physical and spiritual.  His work is currently on view at the Vancouver Art Gallery in Enacting Abstraction until May 10th. He is represented by Blanket Contemporary Art in Vancouver, and Gallery Franko Nuero, Turin. He has also had recent exhibitions at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York, and Klosterfelde in Berlin.

London based Olivier Garbay works the genre between the readymade and sculpture, oscillating between subject and object. Language, and specifically poetry, makes up a large part of his work. His most recent publication The Mug was done in collaboration with Sarah Lucas and is published by Other Criteria Publication. He has recently had a solo show at the Hayward Gallery in London, and will be doing a solo exhibition during Art Cologne 2009.

Jeppe Hein is best thoroughly experienced through the viewer’s participation; a request accompanied by a dose of pranksterism. Hein was born in Copenhagen, and studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts, Copenhagen and Städel Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt. Currently his work can be seen at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver. He is represented by Johann Koenig, Berlin, and 303, NYC.

Pauline Stella Sanchez is an LA based artist with a long-standing interest in the systems of art. A rigorous intellectual framework with a profound curiosity about spatial systems and language guide her focus on notions of culture—specifically, the world of appearances and images—and is fascinated by the absurdity and irony of much of this cultural archive. She is professor of Critical Studies, Art and Cinema at the Art Centre College of Design in Pasadena California. She is represented by Rosamund Felsun Gallery in Los Angeles.

Corin Sworn divides her time between Vancouver, and Glasgow where she is currently completing her Masters at the Glasgow School of Art. Sworn’s interest in utopian ideals, language, and design as a strategy for producing and negotiating cultural and historic value always deliver her to an elusive space. Found materials, sculpture, photography, video, and drawing give this mysterious terrain form. Corin is represented by Blanket Contemporary Art in Vancouver, and ZeiherSmith, NYC. She was most recently part of  Psychology of a Pawn, a group exhibition curated by Mari Spirito at Participant Inc. NYC. In July 2009, Sworn will be part of EASTInternational2009, Norwich, UK, curated by Art and Language and Raster Gallery and an exhibition at White Columns, NYC this coming April.

Vancouver based artist Althea Thauberger examines socio-political constructs and group consciousness. Often extensive research, and collaboration within communities gives Thauberger a chance to have a real dialogue with her subjects, and informs her photo, performance, and video based practice. Thauberger has recently shown at the Berkley Art Museum, and White Columns in New York. She is represented by John Connelly Presents in New York.

Los Angeles based artist Erika Vogt uses film and photography to simultaneously reveal and obscure layers of production and meaning. She has exhibited her film and video work at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2006), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2006), The Artists Cinema at Frieze Art Fair, London, UK (2006). Works have also been exhibited at The Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, Ohio (2006). Vogt’s work was included in the 2008 California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art, Laguna Beach, California. Vogt is represented by Mesler and Hug in LA.

In his multi-coloured pictures, the painter
Ulrich Wulff, born in the beautiful Allgäu and nowadays painting in Berlin, searches for up-to-date as well as future possibilities for painting as a provision for  human life and togetherness. He is represented by Gallery Bernd Kugler in Innsbruck, Austria.