Marianne Vierø: Modern Indoor Gardening

September 10 – October 18, 2009

Number 35 is pleased to present new works by Danish artist Marianne Vierø. In her first solo exhibition in New York, Vierø has created a layered installation exploring ambiguity in a multitude of natural, synthetic and industrial materials.

 Marianne Vierø works primarily in the field of photography and installation, usually as one inseparable entity, where even the flat surface of the photograph expresses spatial properties. In this exhibition, panels and small structures are painted with different kinds of industrial paints: the structures are sprayed with car-lacquer that has an extremely glossy finish while the panels are painted with matte latex, sometimes mixed with low-durability pigments. In direct contrast to these painted areas are the rough, unfinished surfaces of the industrially manufactured wood, some still showcasing the marks of the machine that formed it. She further manipulates the objects through placement and proximity. This undoes the expectation in the object’s purpose and subverts an immediate interpretation.

Also included in the exhibition are two photographs which nod to her earlier still life works present malleable clay lumps, thereby capturing this primal material before it comes to exist as an object.

Walking through the installation, there is a shift between dry, almost empty views and extremely colorful, densities that invite for intimate inspection. There are big monochrome surfaces and small, angled clusters of material. These deconstructed Minimalist cubes not only reference Judd and the ultra-slick surfaces of McCracken, but also the rich tradition of Japanese wood joinery, and thus introduce an element of craftsmanship to the seemingly abstract forms and industrial materials. Vierø's work is a never ending renegotiation of the values we have assigned to the objects and concepts that surround us. 

Born in Copenhagen, Vierø has exhibited most recently at the Kunsthaus Essen, Fotografisk Center in Copenhagen and the Arsenale Novissimo in Venice. She is currently a resident at the Rijksakademie van beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. Vierø lives and works in Amsterdam.