Xavier Hufkens is delighted to present a new series of paintings, works on paper and a photographic work by American artist Matt Connors (b. 1973, Chicago). Swap is Connors' third exhibition with the gallery.
Swap; start with two things.
With the scene in a jewel heist film, where a heavy, dirt-filled leather bag is placed on a sensitive pedestal in place of a sought-after treasure, which one then runs away with. Maybe the dirt from the bag is spilling everywhere, really stressing the not-there-ness, essential to the prize-ness, of the prize. And the jewel is sharp-edged, getting streaked and smudged with the dirt and the sweat in hands and pockets. And one has both. One is both.
With—
Is it more like a rotating door? This supplementing, this one that runs away,
those large wood or glass pivot doors that turn on a central axis and so have no front or back, are all front, all back, all turn. A switch, a role reversal, two sides of the imaged equation meet at a bar: head-tails-head tails-head-tails-head, like a spinning coin flashing its sequence with only modulation between faces, a constant, invisible series of repetitions and adjustments that accompany inherent gaps or failures in any effort to really, truly repeat, summoning and shaking out some sort of new form and form's (and new's) opposite.What painting trades back and forth are these figures and gestures and ideas and sources as functions and tunings and bargains and re- commencements. The idea is to make two and fuck with one. That's three things. And where we started was dirty in a good way: one who supplants one and one who plants one on one, who swaps with one, passes it back and forth for taste, makes it twice—how you start is how you finish (painting). Maybe recursion is a lover's conspiracy in that the object (image) is collision, a sort of setting into motion, subjunctively.
Text by Amelia Stein and Matt Connors. Press release courtesy Xavier Hufkens.
Matt Connors is a painter with a profound interest in technique and colour. His work draws upon the history of painting and processes, particularly minimalism and abstraction, but is also influenced by design, poetry, writing and music. While his visual vocabulary is often borrowed from the modernist canon–colours, gestures, grids, framing devices and compositions–Connors' approach to his work is resolutely contemporary in both method and conception. In terms of materials and colouration, his work triggers emotional and intuitive responses. At the same time, it opens up a range of intellectual questions concerning mimesis, iteration and simulacra. Connors often works in series of interlinked, yet wholly autonomous works, in which a lively dialogue is established between repetition and variations in colours and form. Although his paintings might appear to depict something 'real'–a familiar work of art for example–there is, in fact, no 'original'. Taken to the logical conclusion, Connors' paintings could be viewed as having superseded the reality upon which they are based. Matt Connors is also known for his large-scale installations and artist books.
Xavier Hufkens is one of Europe’s leading galleries for contemporary art. Located in Brussels, the gallery maintains a diverse exhibition programme with solo exhibitions of the gallery artists as well as group exhibitions and special projects. The gallery deals in a distinctive combination of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video and installation-based work.
The origins of the gallery date back to 1987, when Xavier Hufkens opened a gallery space in an un-refurbished warehouse in the neighbourhood of the South Station (Midi) in Brussels. During the early years, the focus of the gallery was upon mid-career and emerging artists and the gallery is known for having introduced some of the most influential contemporary artists to Brussels at a time when they were still relatively unknown. British sculptor Antony Gormley, who is still affiliated with the gallery, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Rosemarie Trockel all showed in Belgium for the first time with Xavier Hufkens (Gormley in 1987; Gonzalez-Torres in 1991 and Trockel in 1993).
In 1992, the gallery moved to a 19th-century townhouse at 6 rue Saint-Georges, close to the Avenue Louise. Completely renovated by Belgian architects Paul Robbrecht, Hilde Daem and Marie-José Van Hee, the house quickly gained a reputation for being not just one of the most beautiful contemporary art spaces in the Belgian capital, but also one of the most interesting. The expanded exhibition programme coincided with the additional representation of a number of established artists from Belgium and abroad, including Richard Artschwager, Thierry De Cordier and Jan Vercruysse. In 1997, Hufkens expanded the gallery further by annexing the adjacent building and a number of new artists joined the gallery, including Louise Bourgeois, Roni Horn and Thomas Houseago.
A second space in the same street, at 107 rue Saint-Georges, opened in spring 2013. Located in the Galerie Rivoli, a mixed-use commercial development from the 1970s, the new gallery space was designed by Swiss architect Harry Gugger, who was previously in partnership with Herzog and De Meuron. Slegten & Toegemann, Brussels, managed the project. A third space opened in spring 2020, located at 44 Rue Van Eyck, designed by architect Bernard Dubois.
An eclectic but very clear vision underpins all of the gallery’s activities: 'The definition of the gallery was established from the start. The common thread, then and now, is quality over and above everything else, which I find more intellectually challenging than a forced definition. From the early days I juxtaposed established artists such as Michelangelo Pistoletto with someone like Felix Gonzalez-Torres when he was totally unknown. Today I still mix my work: I have no problem showing Malcolm Morley … alongside Robert Ryman, or Willem de Kooning.' [Xavier Hufkens in The Art Newspaper, Issue 220, January 2011, published online: 20 January 2011]
Xavier Hufkens represents some thirty artists from different generations. He was part of the six-member selection committee for Art Basel during seven years and also participates in up to five international Arts Fairs annually. The gallery has partnerships with the estates of Louise Bourgeois, Willem de Kooning, Robert Mapplethorpe and Alice Neel.
