XPON- Art , HAMBURG GERMANY

Gregory Eltringham meets
Noah Frese + Luisa Frühling + Alexis Nunnelly

Thematic group exhibition of contemporary painting from the USA and Germany Opening on Thursday, July 4th, 2024 at 7 pm with performance at 8 pm Finissage on Saturday, July 20th for the street festival in the Münzviertel

We got to know the work of the American painter and art professor Gregory Eltringham last year when we asked for "Worldwide Solutions" together with the QVARTR Gallery, and we were thrilled. We were lucky because a friend of his had some of his work in Hamburg. When it became clear that he would be in Germany this summer, we seized the opportunity and asked him if he would like to present his work to a European audience and enter into a dialog with young Hamburg artists. He did. Finally, this studio community invited a young artist from New York to collaborate with. The result is an exhibition with a colorful kaleidoscope, taking a stand, exploring and testing the boundaries of painting - and an ode to it.

Together with Alexis Nunnelly, an artist from New York who has been at STUDIO FRÜHLING (which Luisa co-founded with Noah) for a residency since June, she created "The Unyielding Compulsion of Self-Destruction", a painting and performance piece that covers several square meters and opens up into the room.

For the exhibition, this painting will cover an entire room and serve as the backdrop for a live performance at the vernissage. Previously, it served as the backdrop for a video work that Noah Frese is currently working on. Excerpts from this, recordings of the performance at the vernissage and photographs of painted bodies in front of Luisas paintings, which were created as a first step, can be seen on a large monitor during the exhibition.

"The Unyielding Compulsion of Self-Destruction" explores the cyclical nature of growth and decay through the movements of three painted dancers. As they travel from union to isolation, their abstract movements reflect the inherent self-destructive tendencies and resilience in the human experience, symbolized by the dancers' compulsion to peel the paint from their bodies.

The performance invites the audience to reflect on their own destruction, which is necessary and often inevitable. It is not intended as a theatrical event and will therefore not only take place in the specially created space during the opening, but will also be preceded and followed by performances through the exhibition and dancing in front of other paintings.

04.07.2024- 20.07.24