Basel | ArtRegion: Basel - Oberrhein

JanKossen Contemporary

Peter Bynum / Troy Simmons / Michael Laube: Psychedelic

19. Mai – 2. Juli 2016

Peter Bynum invites viewers to experience a higher form of consciousness, to engage in meditation on the oneness of all living things, and abandon artistic ego to the innate intelligence of paint. Exploiting the inherent branching composition and dendritic forms of pressurized paint, the artist reveals the medium’s affinity to infrastructures present in nature. Corporeal capillaries and floral root systems are recalled with kaleidoscopic intensity in Bynum’s illuminated paintings.

Abandoning the restriction of direct light, the artist utilizes the pure white light of flat-panel LEDs to illuminate acrylic through panes of tempered glass. Darkroom exhibition enhances the psychotropic experience of Bynum’s light-infused works.

Opposition dominates the work of Troy Simmons. Inspired by the dissonant relationship between man and nature, the artist explores possibilities for a stable coexistence of opposites. Recalling the emergence of vegetal growth from sidewalk crevices, Simmons’ sculptures juxtapose somber concrete and aluminum against vibrant splashes of acrylic paint. Echoing the artist’s fascination with nature and modern Brutalist Architecture, medium identifies Simmons’ works as contemporary manifestations of the 1960s Arte Povera movement, transforming foundational building materials into vessels of aesthetic creation.

Dichotomous concept and medium serve as a physical investigation of what Simmons refers to as ‘incompatible binary relationships’. Deliberate and overt, such opposition knocks viewers off balance, resulting in a psychedelic experience of Simmons’ work.

Transgressing boundaries of traditional painting, Michael Laube unshackles the medium from the confines of space and time. Suspension of acrylic paint within sheets of plexiglass produce fluctuating highlights, reflections, and refractions incapable of absolute localization. The result: disembodied, dematerialized surfaces transformed by light. Inextricably woven into the surrounding space, Laube’s sculptural paintings exist beyond conformity to the definition of pure objectivity, capturing a spatial color effect reminiscent of Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko.

Appearing to mutate and diversify, the hallucinogenic quality of Laube’s work encourages viewers to change perspective and experience the work from varying angles.