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PAVEL ZOUBOK - Akira Shimizu, Erró, Jiri Kolar

569 views · Published 31 May 2014 · 5:46 · Indexed 26 October 2026

Channel: NYC GALLERY OPENINGS · 2014 · Entertainment

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Pavel Zoubok Gallery
531 W.26 St.
New York, NY 10011 

May 29th - June 28th, 2014
Opening:  May 29th 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Jiri Kolar
Lexicon

The work of JIRI KOLAR (1914-2002) emerged from the politically 
charged atmosphere of the Central European avantgarde during the 
1950s and 1960s. Reflecting pervasive economic and political struggle 
and his own years spent in exile from his native Prague, Kolar's work is a 
purely visual retort to those who employed words as an instrument of 
oppression and misinformation. Kolar deployed this visual vocabulary, 
often called a "poetry of silence", in his innovative collage practices such 
as Rollage, Crumplage, Intercollage and Chiasmage. In the catalog essay 
to his 2007 exhibition at Pavel Zoubok Gallery, Thomas Messer writes 
"Using a language of visual metaphor, Jiri Kolar remains a concrete poet 
who overcame his disenchantment with the inadequacies of verbal 
express by substituting images and/or actual objects into his work." Our 
Cabinet gallery will feature several works from the 1950s-1970s 
demonstrating some of these myriad techniques. 


Erró
War Heroes

Synthesizing the visual cacophony of global print media, ERRO's vibrant 
and energetic works epitomize the irreverence and gravity of Pop art. 
Ranging from the early 1960s to the late 1980s, the collages and 
paintings in War Heroes combine political caricatures, comic superheroes, 
wartime propaganda and canonical Renaissance portraits. Riffing on the 
follies of technological and scientific innovation in the nuclear age, these 
works cull the commentary of newspapers, comics, posters, magazines 
and advertisements during the cold war period. In this sense, Erro's work 
styles the tradition of history painting with a Pop vernacular. In the 
catalog essay for his 2004 retrospective at New York University's Grey Art 
Gallery, Erro observes, "By dealing with daily events, I try to interpret the 
present, a short period of time in the life of the society, before it enters 
total oblivion." 


Akira Shimizu
Scattering Scale

The important Japanese modernist AKIRA SHIMIZU (b. 1936) is well 
known in his homeland for mysterious, imaginatively composed collages 
and mixed-media sculptures. Scattering Scale, Shimizu's first solo 
exhibition in the United States, includes pieces from the early 1960s to 
the present representing four distinct bodies of work. Adorned with 
chains and fishing tackle, Shimizu's "Guidebook" collages from 1962-72 
juxtapose the scientific and the sensual with nude female figures 
springing from topographical maps of small islands and coastlines. Black, 
sword-like forms characterize the architectonic assemblages of the 
decade-long series "From the Darkness." Ranging from colossal 
constructions to intimate talismans, these works evoke a state of 
unconsciousness in their exploration of darkness itself. Scattering Scale, a 
motley assemblage from 1997-99 from the "Nucleus of Flowers" series, 
represents an exuberant emergence into the light, a world of 
reproduction and revelry. Finally, an untitled, ongoing series of collages 
inspired by avant-garde Butoh dance performance features kimono-clad 
women, insects, sea creatures, ocean vistas and dramatic skies, reflecting 
the artist's childhood memories of his native region.




Music by:
Chill Carrier - A New Day

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