Kim? Contemporary Art Centre is pleased to announce participation in the inaugural edition of Esther, an alternative model for gallery collaboration, that takes place in the Estonian House in New York, with new works by Latvian artist Indriķis Ģelzis.

Esther
Estonian House in New York
243 East 34th Street, Manhattan, New York
Preview: April 30
Dates: May 1 – May 4, 2024

Reserve your free ticket here. If you are interested in attending preview on Tuesday April 30 – let us know.

 

Esther, an alternative model for gallery collaboration beyond the traditional art fair, was founded by Olga Temnikova from the gallery Temnikova & Kasela in Tallinn and Margot Samel from the eponymous gallery in New York. Taking place in the historical Estonian House in New York Esther brings together the art projects of twenty-six international galleries and in a common environment, offers an alternative to the usual ways of showing and experiencing art and thereby challenges the traditional art fair model.

 

Inspired by the collaborative experiments of other galleries, such as Basel Social Club and Condo, Samel and Temnikova wanted to create a similar alternative experience in New York. The Estonian House in New York, a four-story Beaux-Arts style building designed by Brooklyn architect Thomas A. Gray in 1899, turned out to be an ideal cooperation partner for gallerists. In 1943, the Estonian Society acquired a building originally planned as a working-class civic club in downtown Manhattan, and it became an important gathering place for the Estonian community in New York, especially after the influx of Estonian refugees after World War II. Exhibitors were encouraged to submit projects that relate to the unique architecture and history of the building for application to the fair.

 

Kim? will participate in the fair with new works by Latvian artists Indriķis Ģelzis, where flashes of experience and memory act as binders for sculptural appropriations of the infographic ecosystem in metal. Resemblances of bodily shapes and parts are conveyed through eye cavities with eyelids and lashes trapped in a sleek, shiny imprisonment of reflective metal forms.

 

Indriķis Ģelzis (1988) lives and works in Riga, Latvia. He analyzes personal experience, as well as memories and art history, using three-dimensional models for bringing together and abstracting information that seemingly makes up a pattern of data but does not, in fact, yield itself to comprehension. Ģelzis’ research ends up assuming the form of plane and freestanding objects/figures, welded, bent, and cut in the artist’s studio.

 

Ģelzis holds an MA in Visual Communication from the Art Academy of Latvia (Riga, LV) and a Post-Graduate degree from HISK – Higher Institute for Fine Arts (Ghent, BE). Selected solo and two-person shows: Watery Day’s Eye, Kim? Contemporary art centre. (Riga, Latvia, 2023). VAGABOND / A Place Hard to Place, Jenny’s (New York, 2022); Yawn holding Fields, Tatjana Pieters (Ghent, 2022); Figure of Everything, Castor (London, 2020); Pause for the Cause, CINNAMON (Rotterdam, 2019); TABLEAU, ASHES/ASHES (New York, 2019); Nightball effect at King’s Leap (New York, 2019). Recent group exhibitions: The 4 Gate Connection, Tatjana Pieters (Ghent, 2020); Doors of Paradise, Union Pacific (London, 2018); Superposition, Joshua Liner Gallery (New York, 2018). His works are featured in the collections of the Latvian National Museum of Art; Museum of Recent Art / Romania; S.M.A.K. The Municipal Museum of Contemporary / Belgium; The Lewben Art Foundation / Lithuania; CELINE ART PROJECT / FRANCE; Paul Thiers Collection / Belgium; Alain Servais Family Collection / Belgium; Antoine De Werd Collection / The Netherlands; Tanguy Van De Weghe Collection / Belgium; Frédéric de Goldschmidt Collection / Belgium; Wang Jianlin Collection / China; Colin Fernandes Collection / US; Zuzāns Private Collection / Latvia.

 

Esther participants:

 

APALAZZOGALLERY, Brescia

Gallery Artbeat, Tbilisi

BANK Gallery, Shanghai

Gathering, London

GINSBERG +TZU, Lima & Madrid

Laurel Gitlen, New York

The Green Gallery, Milwaukee

IVAN GALLERY, Bucharest

Kendall Koppe, Glasgow 

Kogo Galerii, Tartu

Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York

Ciaccia Levi, Paris & Milan

Silke Lindner, New York

Management, New York

kaufmann repetto, Milan & New York

Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Latvia

Margot Samel, New York

Richard Saltoun Gallery, London, Rome, & New York

Seventeen, London

Someday, New York

Simone Subal Gallery, New York

Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn

Kate Werble Gallery, New York

Galeria Wschód, Warsaw, New York, & Cologne

VI, VII, Oslo

The Modern Institute, Glasgow

 

Esther in the media:
Artsy, ARTnews, Artnet, The Art Newspaper, Ocula, Financial Times, Surface Mag.

 

Supported by: Latvian Ministry of Culture