Configuration Solo Exhibition at Van der Grinten Gallery in Cologne

C O N F I G U R A T I O N

Solo exhibition at Van der Grinten Gallery, Cologne

from 24 January through 22 March, 2025.

Email the gallery or view available artworks.

L to R: Pareja, Untitled, and Pareja pair.

Leigh Wells’ first solo show in our Cologne gallery space will give visitors the opportunity to experience the unique quality of her work for themselves as they view the almost thirty pieces on display.

These works on paper, based on collage technique, consist of mainly monochromatic painted surfaces in various colors and geometrical forms, combined with high-quality black and white reproductions of works cut out of vintage art books, mostly photographs of classical sculpture with organic, sensual surfaces.

Discreet pencil-drawn elements—lines or subtle shadowing—complement the geometrical sections, contributing a tactile vibrancy and rhythm that throws the abstract compositions into high relief. Occasional painted interventions with visible brush strokes result in a contrasting encounter with the more or less smooth surfaces.

Located between Constructivism à la Malevich and echoes of Art Deco purism, these compositions play with the idea of balance, dynamics and harmony of form and are also reminiscent of musically inspired variations on a theme. Built on a stringent structural principle they are nevertheless characterized by lightness and fluency.

The formal reduction of these abstract, streamlined Leigh Wells works lends them an archaic quality that appeals to deep intellectual and emotional sensibilities that are difficult to describe in words. This attribute is perhaps best expressed in terms of moods in which the deliberate spatial and narrative ambiguity heightens the expressive tension.