Tessa Perutz
Jardin du Midi
October 25, 2019 - December 19, 2019
Opening: October 24, 2019 | 18:00
Press Release
MLF l Marie-Laure Fleisch is pleased to announce Tessa Perutz’ first solo exhibition at the gallery, Jardin du Midi. Perutz’ immersive installation features paintings of abstract, spiritual landscapes, which share the space with a large embroidered textile work and a thick carpet of lavender flowers from the Lavanderaie des Hautes Baronnies, coating the entire floor of the gallery. The lavender’s calming scent provides an environs of tranquility and reflection, in which the viewer is presented works that explore the depths of natural worlds, life cycles, and collective memory. The simultaneous individuality and universality of these considerations resonates strongly, revealing the works as landscapes of the soul.
Specific sceneries and substances in the works are chosen as mementos, demarking periods in time. By utilizing these locations and materials, the artist explores nature’s capability to unify viewer and maker, as well as the sharing of memories via the familiarity of the landscape. Perutz produces works that memorialize people and experiences through direct visual sensations. Motifs of bodies of water, forest canopies, botanicals and the sun and moon play freely in her works, opening up spaces to consider personal and universal themes of connection and separation.
By incorporating materials such as sand, lavender and hibiscus Perutz references the healing properties found in nature. Influenced by traditions in Eastern medicine, the artist aligns the artworks as also referencing Western practices such as herbalism, naturopathy and other disciplines. The physicality of the materials works in harmony with the visuals of the landscapes, gracefully balancing colour, rhythm and symmetry. For the first time, Perutz includes these materials in the paintings themselves, mixing in sand sourced from various locations to create texture but also to physically integrate places and ritual into the artworks.
Notions of spirituality are also key; in both personal and more interconnected ideologies. Concerned with the cyclical nature of life and afterlife, the artist repeats specific abstract and representational motifs to simulate the recurring waves of energy found in all life forms. Allusions to natural symmetries or patterning, via reflections in water, sun cycles, or split horizons, reflect an inquiry into the infinite nature of regeneration and rebirth - constant in both the human and natural worlds. In this way, mirroring is used frequently as a philosophical device.
An essential element in Perutz’s practice is colour, often reminiscent of psychedelia. A wide palette is used to delineate familiar forms, which become wondrous and dreamy, evoking feelings of wanderlust. Fields or forests are depicted in vivid hues of tropicalia, freeing them from notions of temporality of geography. Mixing signals for night and day, the works exist a fantastical world which is available to us only through Perutz’ unique vision.
Artist Biography
Born in Chicago, USA, 1988
Lives and works in Brussels and New York.
Education
2011
BFA in Painting, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2009
Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London, UK
Solo Exhibitions
2019
La Lune Lavande, Stems Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
UPCOMING Jardin du Midi, MLF | MARIE-LAURE FLEISCH, Brussels, Belgium
2018
Sans Souci, 3-D Foundation, Verbier, Switzerland
Letters from Abroad, Serving The People, New York, USA
Karma Solaire, Pablo's Birthday, New York, USA
2017
Wayfinders, duo show with Jessica Hans, Dayspace, Philadelphia, USA
Bay Pictures, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2016
Staring Into The Sea, Pablo's Birthday, New York, USA
Sail Baby, duo show with Jordan Kasey, In Limbo, Brooklyn, USA
2015
Hashtag Nation, Museum of Americabooks, Brooklyn, USA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2019
Benefit For Museum Dhondt Dhaenens, Belgium
Mona Lisa Must Have Had The Highway Blues, Underdonk, Brooklyn, USA
Imagined Realities, Marie Laure Fleisch, Brussels, Belgium
Set For The Sun, Lobe Block, Berlin, Germany
Clear Objects, Like Lalique, curated by Nick Farhi, Ventanas Techo, Mexico City, Mexico
Salon de Peinture, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Looking At The World Through Rose Coloured Glasses, Sofie Van de Velde & Plus-One, Antwerp, Belgium
A meeting with Erna Schilling, Pablo's Birthday, New York, USA
Group Show at Grand Buffet & Pulver's Glass, Babayaga Gallery, Hudson, USA
2018
Underdonk Selects, Underdonk, Brooklyn, USA
Sorry We Weren’t Here to Meet You, We Were Out Exploring, Usagi, Brooklyn, USA
Eddy's Room, curated by Austin Eddy, Usable Space, Milwaukee, WI, USA
Superposition, curated by Johnny Abrahams, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, USA
Shapeshifters, curated by Brian Willmont, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, USA
Group Show, curated by Lucien Smith, Milk Studios, New York, USA
2017
Everything is Going to Be Alright, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, USA
From out under, curated by Matthew Brown & Lucien Smith, Appointment Only, Los Angeles, USA
Parting and Together, curated by Trudy Benson, Greenpoint Hill, Brooklyn, USA
Somewhere, curated by Gallery 106 Green, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, USA
The Paperweight Show, Fisher Parrish Gallery, Brooklyn, USA
BAM Gala and Auction, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, USA
Post-Election, September Gallery, Hudson, New-York, USA
2016
The River, Hionas Gallery, New York, USA
Bosco, ROE Projects, Brooklyn, USA
The Congregation, curated by Joshua Abelow, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, USA
Whisper to me in HTML, with Imogen Lloyd and art404, Prelim Projects, London, UK
Gefa & Taka, Sim House, Reykjavik, Iceland
Presenting, In Limbo, Brooklyn, USA
2015
The Year of the Goose, Either Way, Los Angeles, USA
Change of Address, 139 Emerson Place, Brooklyn, USA
Naked Runaway, curated by Xi Garden, Middle Collegiate Church, New York, USA
Strangers Forming a Group Waiting to Kiss, Motel, Brooklyn, USA
99 Cent Plus Art Shop II, 99 Cent Plus, Brooklyn, USA
2011
An Exchange with Sol Lewitt, Mass MoCA, North Adams, USA
7 x 11, Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, USA
Postcards from the Edge, CRG Gallery, New York, USA
Three Men and a Baby, with Coleen Self, Impala Studios, Chicago, USA
2010
Spill, Betty Rymer Gallery, Chicago, USA
100 European Starlings, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, USA
Women's Bodies as Public Spaces, North Park University, Chicago, USA
Slade School at Swiss Cottage, Swiss Cottage, London, UK
Residencies & Awards
2019
The Macedonia Institute, Chatham, New York
2018
3D Foundation, Verbier Sculpture Park, Verbier, Switzerland
Sim, Berlin, Germany
2017
Herhusid, Siglufjordur, Iceland
Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, USA
2016
Sim, Reykjavik, Iceland
2011
School of the Art Institute of Chicago Merit Scholarship, USA
Curatorial
Founder of Massif Central, artist scarf editions, with exhibitions at:
Gagosian Gallery, New York;
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn;
NADA Art Fair 2016 and 2017, New York;
Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit;
Sincerely, Tommy, Brooklyn;
Sculpture Center, Queens;
Le Huit, Paris;
Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago;
Nationale, Portland; Spreadhouse, New York, USA
2018
Set Adrift on Memory Bliss, Pablo's Birthday, New York, USA
2015
Yin Yang, 99 Cent Plus, Brooklyn, USA
2010
Help Art Heal Haiti, benefit for Haitian Earthquake Relief, Evanston, USA
2009
Cadaver Corpse, Space 1026, Philadelphia, PA and Golden Age, Chicago, USA
Publications
Artist Feature, Maake Magazine, curated by Holly Coulis, 2018
Plein Air Drawings, Issue One, artmagazine.us, 2016
New York Studios, Issue 68, Packet Biweekly, 2015
the onesheet, foldout interview and poster, 2015
Exhumed Book One, drawings feature, 2011
Bibliography
M.V., "Quatuor Qui S'Accorde" Le Vif Weekend, 2019
"The Bright Side of Brussels" Ace & Tate Journal, 2019
Scott Indrisek, “6 Keys to a Good Artist-Gallerist Relationship,” Artsy, 2019
Laura Pitcher, "How to Collect Emerging Artists with Lolita Cros," i-D Magazine, 2018
"18 standout looks from Expo Chicago," Chicago Tribune, 2018
Alex Garner, "Tessa Perutz," Artforum, 2018
Sasha Bogojev, "Tessa Perutz: Karma Solaire at Pablo's Birthday," Juxtapoz Magazine, 2018
"Cody Hudson and Tessa Perutz Make Beautiful Abstractions," Juxtapoz Magazine, 2017
"Tessa Perutz," Milk Magazine, 2017
Yacine Fall, "30 Under 30," Art Zealous, 2016
Scott Indrisek, "Complex Simplicities: Tessa Perutz," Modern Painters, 2016
Scott Indrisek, "Discoveries (and Steals) at NADA New York 2016," Blouin ArtInfo, 2016
"Prelim Projects 01: Whisper to me in HTML," thisistomorrow, 2016
Grace Linden, "Whisper to me in HTML at Prelim Projects," Temporary Art Review, 2016
David Wilfert, "The Art of The Scarf," World's Best Ever, 2015
"Steal Her Style," TimeOut Chicago, December 2010
Bill Smith, "Art Auction for Haiti" Evanston Now, 2010
"Cadaver Corpse at Space 1026," Art in the Age, 2009
"Pieces by Parcel," Chicago Weekly, 2009
"First Friday Focus Feature," Philadelphia City Paper, 2009