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Peggy Franck

Black II: Lessons, 2006
C-print, 120 x 150 cm

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Galleria Klerkx, Milan
13 November 2008 – 16 January 2009

Review by Andrew Smaldone in ArtReview. Issue 29

For her first one-person exhibition in Italy, the young Dutch artist Peggy Franck continues to build on a practice based on the act of extending a flat, two-dimensional photograph into space. She does this through a process that begins with the making of ensembles in her studio, using quotidian objects and simple materials like Plexiglas, tape and paper that she subsequently photographs and exhibits as photo images displayed on the gallery wall. The artist also manipulates these photographs by rolling them into tubelike forms that are subsequently placed on the floor as three-dimensional objects and sculptures. This process stems from her work at the Rijksakademie in 2005–6, and recent one-person and group shows throughout Europe and the UK. Franck's show in Milan, consequently, builds on her latest projects by continuing to employ a variety of media to investigate the dialectical tension between the centre and the periphery, between the fragment and the whole.

As a viewer begins to take in the entirety of the artist’s intervention, one notices that the gallery consists of areas with a strong sense of horror vacui, and those areas that are more thematically minimal. A case in point is the large installation near the gallery's entrance, which from a short distance most closely resembles a bunch of stuff thrown together. This perception, however, changes as one becomes aware of the photograph the installation is based on, inviting reflection on the idea that Franck has attempted to reproduce in a new setting a moment that has already passed. The forms, objects and shapes present in the photograph can then be seen in other smaller installations, which also include two photo-objects, sculptures and several photographs in the show. A triangle made out of copper, for example, can be seen in the photo the large installation was based on, but is also physically present just a few feet away in a minimalist curvilinear floor sculpture.

This process of echoing takes on an intriguing note, as at least three photos in the last room – which refigure a repeated blue bow tie as floor pattern – can also be found on a large sheet of paper on the floor in the large installation. The re-presentation of the motif and photo images recalls painting, and may be described as having the atmospheric qualities of Richard Diebenkorn abstracts with the compositional precision of Matthias Weischer interiors. The photos vary in size and are displayed off-centre and at the edges of the wall, bringing attention to the fact that what was once so central (the floor bow-tie piece in the large installation) is now a simple floor pattern in a photograph.

The Conversation You and I Never Had hence reads as a sort of problem that can never be solved: an exhibition that highlights the process of navigating the everyday; a reality in the artist's world that is shiny and colourful, as well as poor and casual, which ultimately adds to the mystery Franck is able to create through a playfully dramatic yet contradictory narrative.

Peggy Franck

1978 born in Zevenaar, Netherlands

Lives and works in Amsterdam And Berlin, Netherlands

Education

Akademie voor Kunst en Vormgeving, Den Bosch, NL, 1996-2001
Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten/Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, 2005-2006

Grants

2010-2011 Artist in Residence at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
2006, Stichting Ritsema van Eck Fonds
2006, 'Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds - "Chagall Fonds"'
2005, Stichting Ritsema van Eck Fonds

Solo Exhibitions

2013, OUTPOST, Norwich, UK, 'A household without responsibilities'
2012, Fons Welters, Amsterdam, NL, 'Sudden parallels between the sky and the concrete'
2012, Marion Scharmann, Cologne, DE, ' A cat had got up and left the room'
2011, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, DE, 'Drawing from a store of thought'
2009, Marion Scharmann, Cologne, DE, 'At home a stranger'
2009, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, DE, 'In Rocking Motion'
2008, Klerkx, Milano, IT, ‘The conversation you and I never had’
2008, Liste 08, Basel, Laurin, CH
2008, Raum für zeitgenössische Fotografie, Coalmine, Winterthur, CH
‘All the secret deaths I died’
2007, Kunstraum Marion Scharmann, Cologne, DE, 'Luxury is in the sky’
2006, ACF Amsterdams Centrum voor Fotografie, Amsterdam, NL
2002, Extrapool, Nijmegen, NL, 'Slave to the rhythm'

Group Exhibitions

2013, Multimedia Art Museum Moscow, RU 'Still/Life: Contemporary Dutch Photography' (forthcoming)
2013, Autocenter, Berlin DE, 'Stand alone, by my side - Conference 1'
2013, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, IE, 'False Optimism'
2013, Photographers Gallery, London, UK 'Perspectives on Collage'
2013, Nieuwe Vide, Haarlem, NL, Maarten Overdijk - Peggy Franck - Charl van Ark
2012, Koninklijke Prijs voor Vrije Schilderkunst 2012, Amsterdam, NL
2012, Point de vue, 's-Hertogenbosch, NL
2012, Wolvecampprijs, Hengelo, NL, 'Peggy Franck, Aukje Koks, Arjan van Helmond'
2012, Rokeby, London, UK, 'Bettina Buck invites Peggy Franck'
2012 (SIC), Brussels, BE, 'Secouer le cocotier' by Freek Wambacq with Peggy Franck, Nicolas Matrangas and Gert Verhoeven
2012, Dorothea Schlüter, Hamburg, DE, 'Zippy Zippy', duoshow with Maria Zahle
2012, Autocenter, Berlin, DE, 'Objects of dismissal'
2011, Bugada & Cargnel, Paris, FR, 'Were all the stars to dissapear or die...'
2011, FOAM, Amsterdam, NL, 'Still/Life'
2011, Museum de Pont, Tilburg, NL, 'Brabant Now 2011'
2011, Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK, 'The shape we're in'
2011, Lokaal 01, Breda, NL, 'Hard Shoulders Preview'
2009, Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, 'Made in Arnhem invites' with Suzy May Sho 'Probe'
2009, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, NL, ‘A days darkness in a lightbulb’
2009, X-initiative, with Next Visit Berlin, New York, USA, 'No soul for sale'
2009, Galerie Anne Barrault, Paris, FR, 'We would like to thank (again) the curators who wish to stay anonymous'
2008, Auto-italia south east, London, UK, ‘About’
2008, Biagiotti progetto arte, Florence, IT, ‘Mondriaan Download’, curated by Andrea Bruciati, (cat.)
2008, Askeaton, IE, ‘Welcome to the neighbourhood’
2008, Next Visit, Berlin, DE
2008, Klemm’s, Berlin, DE, Endless lowlands breaking up, part 2
2008, Binz 39, Zürich, CH, Endless lowlands breaking up, part 1
2007, Billytown, Rijswijk, NL
2007, Lambretto Art Project, Milan, IT, 'What remains… Quello che rimane’
2007, Villa Lautengarten, Basel, CH, 'Launch of port-de-suisse’
2006, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam, NL, 'Open Ateliers' (cat.)
2006, Parts, Xiamen City, CN, 'Rijksakademie at Parts'
2005, Loods 6, Amsterdam, NL, 'Art-for-Sail'
2005, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam, NL, 'Open Ateliers' (cat.)
2003, Rotterdam, NL, 'Kunstxpress'
2002, Artis, Den Bosch, NL, 'Prefab 4', presentation of book 'Strike a pose'

Bibliography

2013, Code Magazine #6, FR, Zoë Gray, 'Shape-shifter'
2013, Tubelight #84, NL 'Werk' Interview by Noor Mertens
2012, (H)Art, BE, Lilian Bense, 'Peggy Franck'
2012, Parool, NL, Kees Keijer, 'Tijd en ruimte worden even stilgezet'
2009, Kunstbeeld, NL, #6, Sandra Spijkerman, 'Signalement: Peggy Franck'
2009, Art Review, UK, Issue 29, Andrew Smaldone, ‘Peggy Franck. The Conversation You and I never Had’
2008, Süddeutsche Zeitung, DE, Catrin Lorch, ‘Eingestampfte Science-Fiction’
2008, Tagesanzeiger, CH, Feli Schindler, ‘Schneewitten im plexiglass’
2008, Landbote, CH, Iris Wolfensberger, ‘Orte der Kunst und Wirklichkeit’
2007, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, ‘Die wäscher von Mumbai’
2007, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, ‘Verhinderte Romantik’

www.marion-scharmann.com