Michael Schall Hinder

October 18 to November 24
Artist’s Reception, October 18, 6 to 8PM

IMAGES FROM THE EXHIBITION HERE

The work in this exhibition illustrates a slow shift in Michael Schall’s work since his last show at Platform in 2010. Hinder includes three bodies of work. The first body of work is represented by two large graphite drawings, titled Lava Tube and Wheel, which come from the artist’s exploration into how much depth and atmosphere can be achieved by pushing the limits of graphite’s darks and lights while presenting nature as spectacle through the human-made world’s attempt to dominate and control the natural world. These attempts usually fail with the sublime prevailing.

The second body of work was done in collaboration with Dieu Donne, a New York-based nonprofit artist workspace dedicated to the creation, promotion, and preservation of contemporary art in the hand paper-making process. As part of a residency, Michael worked with a master papermaker to create work that incorporates the process of making paper into the artwork  itself. In all of these works, the soft cloud-like forms were made by dropping graphite tinted pulp onto freshly pressed sheets of rag paper and then hitting the graphite pulp with an air gun. The resulting forms were extremely hard to control, a departure from the artist’s very controlled, meticulous way of making drawings. Because the paper was still wet when the graphite pulp was applied, the pulp seeped in and became part of the paper itself. Drawn elements, such as cage-like structures, were then made after the paper was dry.  These drawn elements are an attempt by the artist to gain back some control that he did not have in the initial creation of the work. In a way, this attempt to bring control to the drawings mirrors Michael’s illustrations of the struggle between the human-made world and the natural world. In fact, it is a direct act of that struggle.

The third body of work is a new series of smaller pieces that move beyond drawings of humans versus nature. Instead inspiration comes from a variety of different places and different thoughts. Giving himself permission to draw whatever came to mind, the artist has made representational drawings of things that look “right” but in the end aren’t right at all. A set of pencils remain in a refracted state after sitting in a glass of water. A coiled computer cord becomes a Gordian knot. A headless duck floats in a pond. 

Everything is slightly off.

This is Michael’s second solo show at Platform. His work was also included in two group shows at Platform: a spectral glimpse (Jim O'Donnell, curator) in 2007, and Eden’s on Fire in 2008. His work has regularly been exhibited at Pierogi in Brooklyn and has been included in group shows in New York, The Netherlands, Berlin, Leipzig, Manchester, and Portland, OR..