Lawrence Carroll Dust, Prop, Freeze

The Buchmann Galerie is pleased to announce an exhibition with new works by Lawrence Carroll (b. 1954); it concentrates on installations from two series: The Dust Paintings and The Prop Paintings.

In The Dust Paintings, Lawrence Carroll applies several layers of fine dust to the walls of the installation. The ephemeral materiality intensifies in the clear form of the tableau-like format. Lawrence Carroll relates the shadowy presence of the wall works to small accumulations of warmly glowing lightbulbs lying directly on the floor.

“I started to incorporate light into my work. A small studio light would be placed near my painting, sometimes on the floor under the painting ... The simple fact that the light would burn out interested me greatly; all ideas burn out eventually, until someone else comes along and takes it somewhere else, replaces the burnt-out bulb, and lights an idea or space that was once considered tired or used up. This notion of rejuvenation has always interested me.”

The Prop Paintings are based on the idea that rejuvenation is always possible. Boxlike objects painted white rest on the floor and lean on the wall, establishing a deliberate connection between the floor and the wall. The Prop Paintings clarify the features of Lawrence Carroll’s works that derive from sculpture and the installation.

For Lawrence Carroll, The Prop Paintings are a new formulation of the cool cubes of the Minimal Art of the likes of Donald Judd. The clear and distanced form, a form of artistic expression that was once considered radical, gives way instead to a more gestural expression of memory and vulnerability. The Prop Paintings thus not only undercut the parameters of Minimal Art but also achieve their own validity in their realization.

His works were exhibited amongst others at documenta 9, at the 53rd Biennale Di Venezia, at Museo Correr Venice, at Museum Folkwang Essen, at Guggenheim Museum Soho/New York, at Espoo Museum of Modern Art Finland, at Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach or at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg.

For additional information on the artist or for visual materials on the works in the exhibition, please do not hesitate to contact the gallery at any time.