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Maria Stenfors by Maria Stenfors: In Conversation

Maria_Stenfors_March2013
Maria Stenfors with the work by Julia Pfeiffer, Animal Vessel (Figure of the Thinkable), 2013. Photo: M-KOS

Maria Stenfors inaugurated in April 2010 her eponymous gallery in East Central London, and for the last three years, her space has steadily grown to present an innovative program of artists. Her gallery has now been chosen by ArtInfo as one of the Top 10 space of the Art13 London art fair, which launched its first edition last March. During our recent visit to London, M-KOS took the opportunity to interview Maria Stenfors herself.

M-KOS [MKOS]: Can you tell us about your current exhibition?

Maria Stenfors [MS]: We are currently showing works by a Berlin based artist, Julia Pfeiffer, entitled “Figures of the Thinkable”. The show has to do with ‘possibilities’, exploring what has happened, what could have and what should have, happened. Clay or ceramics is the material for her investigations. At every stage, when the clay is wet, dried, fired and glazed, each reveals different possibilities. She has a symbiotic practice of ceramics and photography. In these black and white photographs, she sets a mise-en-scène to arrange the ceramics in different stages. Opposite of these photographs, there are a set of ceramic relief, fired and grazed. On the other side, there is a wall of clay. The clay was delivered dry from the artist’s studio in Berlin, soaked in water, applied onto the wall, then again it became dry and even cracked. The one wall presents a refined quality, the other is totally raw and the photographs show the different stages that create interesting dialogues between the three walls. Julia is one of our core gallery artists that has been with us from the beginning, and this is her second solo exhibition with us.
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“LtA… a subtitle” at Maria Stenfors, London


Image courtesy of Maria Stenfors

LtA… a subtitle
16 November – 22 December 2012
at Maria Stenfors, London
Artists: Hreinn Friðfinnsson, Damien Roach, Megan Rooney.
Curated by Chris Fite-Wassilak
* Opening: Thursday 15 November 2012, 18h30 – 20h30

…My cybernetic mosses, wrested from my control, molded themselves into a strange and glittering medium that was not unlike flesh.
The ghost was growing a body, a sentient tumor from the substance of my own.
From the panic and disorientation that clattered from his mind it was evident that the form that he found himself incarnated within was no shape that he had ever anticipated or conceived of…
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Review: The Ha-Ha Crystal at Maria Stenfors, London

The Ha-Ha Crystal
Maria Stenfors, London
Artists: Allen Grubesic, Colin Guillemet, Niamh O’Malley, Jason Rohrer and David Lynch
Curated by Chris Fite-Wassilak
 

Allen Grubesic “The Last Laugh” (2007) India ink in Langton Aq 300gr. Image courtesy of the artist and Maria Stenfors

Maria Stenfors gallery’s group show “The Ha-Ha Crystal” originally refers to Robert Smithson’s analytical model for defining different types of laughter, according to what he calls The Six Main Crystal Systems, as an attempt to find answers on how to visualize the dimensions beyond our usual three:

“[R. Buckminster] Fuller was told by certain scientists that the fourth dimension was ‘ha-ha’, in other words, that it is laughter…Laughter is in a sense a kind of entropic ‘verbalisation.’ How could artists translate this verbal entropy, that is ‘ha-ha’, into solid models?” *

Here the four artists in The Ha-Ha Crystal exhibition endeavor to suggest possible responses to this rhetorical question. With Allen Grubesic’s “The Last Laugh” (2007) three identical white prints literally spell out “HA HA HA” in thick black typo, which don’t quite stand as words rather than a straightforward phonetic illustration. This quasi-iconic code crystallizes with Grubesic’s use of a generic typeface, to directly tap into our collective memory of laughter. Continue reading “Review: The Ha-Ha Crystal at Maria Stenfors, London”