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4 September – 9 October 2021
Galerie Marguo is pleased to present Soft Approach, a selection of new paintings by Icelandic artist Steingrímur Gauti. On view from 4 September to 9 October 2021, this is the artist’s first solo exhibition outside Iceland and also his first show at the gallery since the announcement of the artist's worldwide representation this past March.
Steingrímur Gauti’s (b.1986, Iceland) dynamic acrylic and mixed-media abstractions are passing blips on an enduring accumulation of present moments that constitute the artist’s daily studio practice. Inspired in turn by twentieth century art history and more ancient philosophies of Zen Buddhism, Gauti’s process reflects an ongoing meditation in motion in which he works continuously with whatever pigments are available at hand, striving toward a state of uninhibited painterly expression that is palpably lyrical yet devoid of formal preconceptions. Gauti’s canvases, while inevitably imbued with the layers of time, are contemplative exercises in surrendering to its inevitable passage.
Dates: 4 September – 9 October 2021
Artist: Steingrímur Gauti
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Steingrímur Gauti
Untitled, 2021An inclination toward imprecision, repetition, and slow evolutions; the contemplative resignation to the inexorable march of time; and the disciplined rejection of the ego’s drive for control, meaning-making, and pre-conceptualization are all attitudes encapsulated within Steingrímur Gauti’s ‘soft approach’ to creative practice.
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"The act of painting for me is a way of thinking. I don’t really think and paint. The mind follows the hand, and the act becomes a conversation with the work in progress, an almost automatic process. The outcome is ideally not what you would call intellectual, rather something more dynamic and physical."
— Steingrímur Gauti
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"I aim to express and examine some basic forms of human emotions. In a sense you could say that most of my paintings are just series of mistakes until they add up to something that works out aesthetically and emotionally. In a sense, a lot like life itself."
— Steingrímur Gauti
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Gauti's act of painting is a way of thinking and meditating with the focus on simplicity and lightness. The physical touches and brushes in these paintings evoke a feeling of water flowing across canvases, as if seeing time passing through then disappearing into the works.
Steingrímur Gauti
Untitled, 2020
Oil on canvas
200 x 160 cm
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Excerpted from the continuous stream of painting whose source is the artist’s studio, these abstract works harness the sense of an eternal becoming. Visually dynamic and nuanced, they are offered up to the viewer as retinal, visceral experiences, to be engaged with however and for however long one pleases.
Steingrímur Gauti
Untitled, 2021
Oil on canvas
160 x 200 cm
