YVES SCHERER
August 1 – 8 2022
#goodnightmoon #bunny #cycladicarchitecture #lightmode #greekmyth #artemisthehunter
#legolasthearcher #thecatandthemoon #childhood #fatherhood #glimmering #darkling
#mccarthy #koons #hirst #katz #killbill #crepuscular #twilight #umathurman #darkmode
#childrensbook #adultssong #invert #butterflies #vision #memory
Most art galleries and museums today operate in what our many digital devices now call “Light Mode,” with all subjects and objects artworks pictured against a bright white background for your viewing expediency, if not pleasure. In the Greek islands, the aesthetic of painfully bright white buildings is called Cycladic architecture, but that is another story.
Most times these kinds of discussions are framed in terms of practicality, visibility, eyestrain, speed. But in a weeklong show of new sculptures and paintings at the Old School of Chora on the Greek island Patmos, the New-York-based artist Yves Scherer has chosen to intriguingly complicate these modern art & digital issues with ancient tensions between light & night, reality & imagination, innocence & disillusion.
Named after the 1947 classic children’s book “Goodnight Moon,” by Margaret Wise Brown as well as the 2000 pop-spooky bedtime ballad by Shivaree, Scherer’s show navigates a similar emotional journey from the real and now to the surreal world of dream. Take his painted aluminum cat sculptures, real as life if not a disembodied Cocteau-esque hand stroking it. The TK naked sculpture of Legolas, the hot Elven archer from “Lord of the Rings.” The TK mermaid taking a breather and making a friend with a butterfly. Or the paintings, inspired by background graphics from “Goodnight Moon” that recall some of Alex Katz’s affectless placeless backs.
A new father, Scherer only became aware of the book after getting it for toddler daughter Lucy and watching so many parts of his life and house. Even as the person becoming a parent becomes an adult, it’s another childhood through the constant immsersion in the weird visual world children inhabit. In this case, that translates into artworks with the insistent innocence of Jeff Koons with a splash of Paul McCarthy’s not-so-innocent animatronics.
One might ponder how devoted Scherer is to this aesthetic when all the works are installed in a white gallery. But light as the walls may be, the timing isn’t. The doors to the Old School of Chora open from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. And since sunset on Patmos on August 1 is about 8:20 p.m., twilight really does belong to him. Sweet dreams.
David Colman
Yves Scherer was born in Switzerland in 1987. He received a BA in Cultural Studies from the University of Lucerne in Lucerne, Switzerland, and a MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art in London, United Kingdom.
Scherer’s recent solo and group exhibitions include, Tennis Elbow at The Journal Gallery in New York, New York (2022); "Louisa Gigliardi & Yves Scherer" at Eva Presenhuber in New York, New York (2022); “By Your Side” at Cassina Projects in Milan, Italy (2021); “Family Time” at Galerie Guido W. Baudach in Berlin, Germany (2021); “Leaves of Grass” at Gallery Golsa in Oslo, Norway (2020); “Candids” at Kunsthaus Grenchen in Grenchen, Switzerland (2020); “Boys” at Galerie Guido W. Baudach in Berlin, Germany (2019); "One more sleep" at Studio Hugo Opdal in Alesund, Norway (2019); "Les Bains Douches" at Basement Roma in Rome, Italy (2019); “Sunset” at Kunstverein Wiesen in Frankfurt, Germany (2019); “Last of the English Roses” at Salon Kennedy in Frankfurt, Germany (2018); “Primal” at Cassina Projects in Milan, Italy (2018); “Adam & Eve” at Golsa in Oslo, Norway (2018); "The Brightest Witch Of Her Age" at Studio Hugo Opdal in Flo, Norway (2017); "Cupid & Psyche" at SVIT in Prague, Czechia (2017); "A Thousand Years" at Towards in Toronto, Canada (2017); and "A Bigger Splash" at Lyles & King in New York, New York (2017).
Yves Scherer lives and works in New York, New York.
#goodnightmoon #bunny #cycladicarchitecture #lightmode #greekmyth #artemisthehunter
#legolasthearcher #thecatandthemoon #childhood #fatherhood #glimmering #darkling
#mccarthy #koons #hirst #katz #killbill #crepuscular #twilight #umathurman #darkmode
#childrensbook #adultssong #invert #butterflies #vision #memory
Most art galleries and museums today operate in what our many digital devices now call “Light Mode,” with all subjects and objects artworks pictured against a bright white background for your viewing expediency, if not pleasure. In the Greek islands, the aesthetic of painfully bright white buildings is called Cycladic architecture, but that is another story.
Most times these kinds of discussions are framed in terms of practicality, visibility, eyestrain, speed. But in a weeklong show of new sculptures and paintings at the Old School of Chora on the Greek island Patmos, the New-York-based artist Yves Scherer has chosen to intriguingly complicate these modern art & digital issues with ancient tensions between light & night, reality & imagination, innocence & disillusion.
Named after the 1947 classic children’s book “Goodnight Moon,” by Margaret Wise Brown as well as the 2000 pop-spooky bedtime ballad by Shivaree, Scherer’s show navigates a similar emotional journey from the real and now to the surreal world of dream. Take his painted aluminum cat sculptures, real as life if not a disembodied Cocteau-esque hand stroking it. The TK naked sculpture of Legolas, the hot Elven archer from “Lord of the Rings.” The TK mermaid taking a breather and making a friend with a butterfly. Or the paintings, inspired by background graphics from “Goodnight Moon” that recall some of Alex Katz’s affectless placeless backs.
A new father, Scherer only became aware of the book after getting it for toddler daughter Lucy and watching so many parts of his life and house. Even as the person becoming a parent becomes an adult, it’s another childhood through the constant immsersion in the weird visual world children inhabit. In this case, that translates into artworks with the insistent innocence of Jeff Koons with a splash of Paul McCarthy’s not-so-innocent animatronics.
One might ponder how devoted Scherer is to this aesthetic when all the works are installed in a white gallery. But light as the walls may be, the timing isn’t. The doors to the Old School of Chora open from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. And since sunset on Patmos on August 1 is about 8:20 p.m., twilight really does belong to him. Sweet dreams.
David Colman
Yves Scherer was born in Switzerland in 1987. He received a BA in Cultural Studies from the University of Lucerne in Lucerne, Switzerland, and a MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art in London, United Kingdom.
Scherer’s recent solo and group exhibitions include, Tennis Elbow at The Journal Gallery in New York, New York (2022); "Louisa Gigliardi & Yves Scherer" at Eva Presenhuber in New York, New York (2022); “By Your Side” at Cassina Projects in Milan, Italy (2021); “Family Time” at Galerie Guido W. Baudach in Berlin, Germany (2021); “Leaves of Grass” at Gallery Golsa in Oslo, Norway (2020); “Candids” at Kunsthaus Grenchen in Grenchen, Switzerland (2020); “Boys” at Galerie Guido W. Baudach in Berlin, Germany (2019); "One more sleep" at Studio Hugo Opdal in Alesund, Norway (2019); "Les Bains Douches" at Basement Roma in Rome, Italy (2019); “Sunset” at Kunstverein Wiesen in Frankfurt, Germany (2019); “Last of the English Roses” at Salon Kennedy in Frankfurt, Germany (2018); “Primal” at Cassina Projects in Milan, Italy (2018); “Adam & Eve” at Golsa in Oslo, Norway (2018); "The Brightest Witch Of Her Age" at Studio Hugo Opdal in Flo, Norway (2017); "Cupid & Psyche" at SVIT in Prague, Czechia (2017); "A Thousand Years" at Towards in Toronto, Canada (2017); and "A Bigger Splash" at Lyles & King in New York, New York (2017).
Yves Scherer lives and works in New York, New York.