The Labyrinths of Light, a four-year survey of the artist Stanley Casselman, is curated by David Anfam.
"The simple thought that constantly runs through my head is innovate or die. To keep remaking the same thing over and over, bores me to tears. That’s why my practice is evolving," Stanley Casselman says.
This exhibition marks Casselman’s second solo show with the gallery and includes a concise selection from the Frequency, Untitled-Presence, Day One and Liquid series.
Throughout his career, Casselman’s work has been fueled by a fascination with the properties of light. Starting twenty-five years ago, in response to looking at the stained glass windows of Westminster Abbey, Casselman began his artistic practice creating rear-illuminated paintings. He then turned his focus on to his pioneering work with polyester screens.
Casselman captures the varied properties of light through his bold, large-scale, abstract paintings full of hills, valleys, peaks and troughs. These colorful labyrinths of works from Frequency and Untitled-Presence series explore surface tension and abstractions in ingenious ways. Using his own handcrafted tools, Casselman’s highly labor-intensive process pushes paint through screens layer by layer – as in the case of his Day One series too. The results are often both minimalistic and richly detailed capturing subtle changes in colour, line and form.
“The new compositions [of the Liquid series] involve the industrial process known as spray chroming, a water-based means to apply silver nitrate to a surface, leading to reflective, mirrored finishes,” said David Anfam, Senior Consulting Curator at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver. “In Casselman’s hands the results become a journey through a fantastical, labyrinthine landscape that emanates light.”
“We are eager to present the outcome of this highly-anticipated collaboration at our gallery in Baku,” said Mila Askarova, CEO and Director of Gazelli Art House, “Since our very first show together in 2014, Stanley has continuously pushed the boundaries of creating and recreating his process-driven works – reaching incredible heights with the end result!”
The exhibition will run until November 2.
Stanley Casselman was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1963. His work has been shown and collected by museums around the world, including the Fredrick R. Weisman Art Foundation in Los Angeles, California, the New Orleans Museum of Art in New Orleans, Louisiana and the Borusan Contemporary in Istanbul, Turkey.
David Anfam is Senior Consulting Curator at the Clyfford Still Museum, Denver, and Managing Director of Art Exploration Consultancy Ltd, London. Dr. Anfam’s publications include Mark Rothko – The Works on Canvas: Catalogue Raisonné (1998). Recently, Anfam curated the exhibition Abstract Expressionism at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2016-17).
Gazelli Art House supports a wide range of international artists, presenting a broad and dynamic programme to a diverse audience through global public projects and exhibition spaces in London and Baku. Gazelli Art House was founded in 2003 in Baku, Azerbaijan where it held exhibitions with Azerbaijani artists.
Having hosted conceptually interlinked off-site exhibitions across London, founder and director of Gazelli Art House, Mila Askarova, opened a permanent space on Dover Street, London in March 2012. In 2017, the redesigned gallery space reopened in Baku, with an ambitious annual program showcasing both local and international artists.
Representing artists like Aziz+Cucher, Derek Boshier, Stanley Casselman, Francesco Jodice, Recycle Group, Kalliopi Lemos, Niyaz Najafov and Saad Qureshi amongst others, the gallery has built a consistent and diverse program with artists working in sculpture, photography, painting, video, performance and virtual reality.
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