Artlyst Photo Special: Tony Cragg Curates The Latest Exhibition At Blain/Southern London

Andreas Schmitten

Blain|Southern presents a group exhibition of sculptural works curated by renowned British sculptor Tony Cragg. The gallery continues its programme of exhibitions with notable curators, the show features work by German artists Andreas Schmitten, Gereon Lepper and Mathias Lanfer, all alumni of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.

Gereon Lepper, Horror Vacui, c. 1992, Photo P A Black © Artlyst 2015

The Gallery is showcasing artists that have been selected by Cragg, who has a unique perspective as Professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, founder of the Sculpture Park Walfrieden and one of the world’s foremost sculptors.

Gereon Lepper, Horror Vacui, c. 1992, Detail, Photo P A Black © Artlyst 2015

Gereon Lepper creates kinetic sculptures that draw upon engineering, technology and physics. His interest in the interplay between nature and technology has led him to develop a body of work that demonstrates the Newtonian forces that shape our lives.

Gereon Lepper, Der Apparat fast unbewegt, c. 1992, Detail, Photo P A Black © Artlyst 2015

Works on view include Der Apparat fast unbewegt, where two electric motors controlled by a timer, provide a surge of energy to large propellers – producing a roaring inferno of sound. As the power is cut, the noise and activity subside – the work is a mechanical drama that explores energy and inertia.

Gereon Lepper, Der Apparat fast unbewegt, c. 1992, Photo P A Black © Artlyst 2015

Drawing on his background in design, animation and computer programming, Andreas Schmitten creates sculptures and installations which he describes as ‘props from another, undetermined time’. A new sculptural light installation Prop No. 2 is characteristic of Schmitten’s work, which lies somewhere between installation, autonomous sculpture and model.

Andreas Schmitten, Prop No. 2, 2015, Photo P A Black © Artlyst 2015

Exploring contrasting ideas of weightlessness and mass with his series of ‘Heavy Air’ sculptures, Mathias Lanfer has used industrial technology and product engineering to create Dicke Luft II. A steel frame is married with a perspex dome that has been blown into soft curves – the opaque dome acting as a counterpoint to the steel block.

Andreas Schmitten, Prop No. 2, 2015, Photo P A Black © Artlyst 2015

Heavily influenced by his previous work in plastics factories, aluminium pressing plants and the car industry, Lanfer manipulates industrial materials using cutting edge processes in order challenge our preconceived ideas of the industrial nature of materials.

Mathias Lanfer, SPAM_3 and SPAM_2, 2015, courtesy of the gallery © 2015

As well as bringing German sculptors to the UK, Cragg has simultaneously curated an exhibition by the leading British sculptor Lynn Chadwick. Set within the sculpture park founded and established by Cragg; the exhibition will feature a range of seminal bronzes from the 1950s and 1960s – the defining decades of Chadwick’s 50 year career.

Andreas Schmitten, Gereon Lepper and Mathias Lanfer – curated by Tony Cragg – Blain|Southern – until 29 August, 2015

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