THEA DJORDJADZE

Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers are delighted to present an exhibition of new work by Berlin based artist Thea Djordjadze. In her first solo show at the London gallery, the artist will create a site specific installation.

For her multipartite sculptural ensembles, Djordjadze uses everyday materials such as foam, steel, fabric, glass and plaster along with found objects which refer to the classical materials of sculpture but also the traditions of arts and crafts. The artist’s sculptures themselves are situated between form and anti-form, a combination of stable structures and fragile, gestural renderings typically exhibited together in a carefully choreographed setting. The installations, incomplete and fragmentary in character, oscillate between open spatial designs and dense performative gestures, emphasizing the contrasts between mental and actual interior spaces, between intimacy and public presence.

For her recent presentation at dOCUMENTA (13), Thea Djordjadze worked in a glass greenhouse situated in the gardener’s compound of the Karlsaue park in Kassel, a geometrically ordered pleasure garden used by dOCUMENTA as a venue for outdoor projects. Working on-site for several weeks to assimilate and react to the conditions of the space, Djordjadze developed a new large scale installation entitled As sagas sa, composed of found and sculpted material brought from her studio or added in Kassel, creating an ongoing dialogue between the studio and the exhibition space. In this installation, the artist focused on the transition of time, reworking her collected materials into an interactive arrangement which responded to chance and the inevitability of change and disintegration. Despite the use of similar materials and recurring formal and spatial qualities, each of the artist’s installations are created as very separate entities. Djordjadze’s working method dictates that she often finalises the production process of her work in situ, so that her installations have the condition of being conceived and developed in the moment, and retain a perspective on the future. Once positioned on public view, the process of the objects continue as they interact with reality and come to terms with the conditions in which they have been placed.

Thea Djordjadze (b.1971 in Georgia) lives and works in Berlin. Major solo exhibitions include the Kunstverein Nurnberg (2008), Kunsthalle Basel (2009), westlondonprojects, London (2009 - 2010), The Common Guild, Glasgow (2011) and a solo project at dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel (2012). Major group exhibitions include Venice Biennale (2003), Biennale Lyon (2008), the BB5 – 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art (2008), Barbican, London (2008), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2010) Hayward Gallery, London (2010), Contemporary Art Museum St.Louis (2011), Sculpture Centre, New York (2011), Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh (2011), the Carre D’Art, Musee D’Art Contemporain, Nimes (2011) and the ACCA, Melbourne, Australia in August 2012.