Where do you sit in the nature/nurture conversation? Are you more chicken or egg? New York-born Karl Haendel could help to shape your judgement, his latest work analyses the human body and the influence of our surroundings. Wentrup Gallery is welcoming the artist’s Unwinding Unboxing, Unbending Uncocking today, a show that previously had a two month stint at Night Gallery, Los Angeles a year ago.
Haendel is known for re-working photographs and drawing them to immense scales–they are rarely under 10ft. His appropriation of photographs has come under some scrutiny (although the conversation has clearly become more clouded in the age of online) which he happily brushes off, explaining that by re-imagining these images, he is in fact slowly building a language and narrative that is far more complex than a direct copy.
Similarly to his past work, this collection of drawings are a tool to pose a question, referring to astrology, yoga, meditation–hence the poses–and the elements that constrict or enable us to be who we are. The bodies are awkwardly placed within geometric frames, which perfectly support yet also enclose their subjects. To view them feels uncomfortable, not too unlike entering a yoga class after a long break.
The exhibition itself has been designed to guide the viewer through a set narrative, with architecturally-designed spaces and pathways, as well as numerous geometric shapes in his boldest colours to date.
‘Karl Haendel: Unwinding Unboxing, Unbending Uncocking’ will be showing at Wentrup Gallery until 16 April
