Gregor Hildebrandt, Idris Khan, Rachel Howard

The exhibit is an approach to abstraction from different perspectives and aesthetic and conceptual traditions. Their works offer several interpretations in terms of language treatment and conceptual interest, two philosophically loaded aspects that become the main element of their artistic discourse.

Gregor Hildebrandt (Bad Homburg, Germany, 1974) covers the surface of the works featured in this exhibition with two layers: the first one is made using cassette tapes from his own peculiar music and film archive, while the second layer features paint that is applied in free sweeping gestures onto the cassette. The black vertical lines of the cassette (or white lines in other works) cover the whole canvas in an attempt to create a monochrome and lineal surface consisting of pre-recorded tapes, discs or cassette cases that are then partially painted with acrylics.

Idris Khan (Birmingham, United Kingdom, 1978) also uses words in his works, yet with a considerably profounder gesture. His pieces look like almost monochrome cloud formations that powerfully spread over the surface until reaching all four corners of large-size panels and sheets of paper. They create peculiar flow dynamics, as the cloud material seems to freeze at the height of action.

Rachel Howard's(Easington, United Kingdom, 1969)approach to contemporary painting is based on oil and canvas. Her works feature colour fields of different sizes that are unexpectedly crossed by lines and often patterns. From up close, Howard's surfaces reveal a three-dimensional ­- almost architectonic ­­- quality that results from her experiments with oil and other materials, experiments that invite her to cover the whole canvas. The artist is known for how she uses gravity as an invisible brush, creating lines that seem to hide a deep formal behaviour.