THE GALLERY OF EVERYTHING ACTION, CAMERA! ION BÂRLADEANU ALAN CONSTABLE 26.03.2017-18.06.2017 THE GOF I N G E V E R Y T H ALLERTHE GALLERY OF EVERYTHING 4 CHILTERN STREET LONDON W1 020 7486 8908 GE @ GALLEVERY.COM WWW.GALLEVERY.COM
LETTER FROM THE FOUNDER I m a toucher. When I visit an exhibition, in a gallery or auction house, I m the one who feels the sculptures, strokes the paintings, blows on the mobiles, flicks through ancient manuscripts and holds priceless papers up to the light. Alan Constable s cameras have made me worse. The moment I saw them, something went off inside me. Touch was all I did. Manhandle might be a better word. The sagging bodies, much like our own, with those inviting dimples and folds... they demanded to be held, more living beings than works of art. I can t walk past one without giving it a cuddle. If you know about Alan and his unusual life, then you ll know why he makes them, and why like this. The personal meaning in each apparatus is matched by such lightness of making, joyful use of colour and gratifying form. These lovely things speak, although Alan does not. They are among the most profound objects I have ever encountered. Contrast this with the legend of Ion Bardaleanu. A photo in The Guardian tipped me off. There he was at his Parisian debut, waiting to welcome the movie stars he had inserted into his collages. Bridget Bardot was a no-show; but Angelina Jolie came. She and then-husband Brad fawned over the hard-drinking ex street-dweller. For all their goodwill, Brangelina didn t acquire a work. Nor did Roger Moore, Jean- Paul Belmondo, Sophia Loren or the late Peter Falk. Hollywood icons are much easier to deal with when they re literally paper-thin. And this perhaps is the point. For this rebellious movie-maker, fiction was always a more reliable than the truth. After the collapse of Communist-era Romania, non-conformists were spat out of the world they knew. Ion s acerbic absurdities would have remained lost in the chaos had it not been for Dan Popescu, a gallerist who took the loner into his fold, encouraged his brilliance and stood back. Take a moment to watch Dan s documentary. Part Sam Peckinpah, part Laurel and Hardy, its hero us wows with his visceral slapstick and expletive manufacture. In Ion s world, the men are hairy, the women are busty, and world problems revolve around slavery, sex, the Holocaust and the odd Romanian sausage. These two singular players, this unlikely duo, theirs are the technologies without reproduction. So please, dear visitor, look, and touch, and take it all in. It s a tactile, torrential tour-de-force. For in an age of consumption, of Snapchat and 24/7 news, these substantial fragments areremarkably empowering. Don t leave the gallery without one. James Brett The Gallery of Everything, 2017
ION BÂRLĀDEANU B 1946 (ROMANIA) UNTITLED, c 1982 The makeshift open-air studio of ION BÂRLĀDEANU was first discovered in a back-alley in Bucharest, Romania. Yet its proprietor, a modest and clandestine collagist, was unprepared for the visibility and success which swiftly descended upon his secret art-making practice. As social commentary, BÂRLĀDEANU s satirical anti-communist and anti-capitalist assemblages reveal a wry sense of humour and sharp political savvy. Their brilliance, however, is down to their maker s visual flair, where impossible eye-lines and one point perspective coincide effortlessly with the high-gloss, the pornographic and the surreal. BÂRLĀDEANU describes himself as a maverick film director. In these, his movie-stills, he rules roost, setting world-famous actors and political big-wigs against each other, and primarily for his own amusement. At the tender age of 76, it is clear ION BÂRLĀDEANU has only just begun. It was a chance meeting with contemporary curator Dan Popescu which brought BÂRLĀDEANU into the public eye. He has since been the subject of numerous group and solo shows, including the 2015 Vienna Biennale and The Museum of Everything at Kunsthal Rotterdam in 2016. Bârlādeanu s work has been featured in The Guardian and Vice Media and is included in numerous international collections.
ALAN CONSTABLE B 1956 (AUSTRALIA) For the curious hands of ALAN CONSTABLE, there is little difference. The silent childhood hobby, the sustained studio career, both reflect his one abiding focus: the possibility of the camera. As a teenager, CONSTABLE would salvage cereal boxes to craft reconstructions of his favourite optical gadgets. Today these tools are transformed. The ceramic sculptures for which he is renowned sit, majestic and collapsed, eyeing the world around them with their primary, pastel and silvery glazes. It is the metaphor which compels us to touch them. For as CONSTABLE s sight diminishes, so his fascination with the way we see intensifies. His objects are talismans. They challenge us and the meaning of our sight, at a time when perception is defined by a digital lens. ALAN CONSTABLE has been based at the Arts Project Australia studio in Melbourne for 25 years. Through their advocacy, his work is now in significant public and private collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria (Australia). Exhibitions include The Museum of Everything in London in 2011 and Rotterdam in 2016. UNTITLED, 2016
UNTITLED, 1980 THE GALLERY OF EVERYTHING is London s first and only commercial space dedicated to non-academic and private art-making. The Gallery s roster includes major historical master artists and newly discovered authors and creators. The gallery has received substantial critical support for its program and artists and serves as an HQ for a wide range of exhibitions, talks, readings and happenings. All proceeds from sales go to support THE MUSEUM OF EVERYTHING, a British non-profit organisation, dedicated to the exhibition, advancement and integration of artists working beyond the cultural mainstream. Please visit www.musevery.com.