Nika Neelova
drifts (there is always ground, even at night)
September 7, 2018 - October 18, 2018
Works
Artworks
Press Release
MLF l Marie-Laure Fleisch is pleased to announce Nika Neelova’s first solo exhibition in a Belgian gallery, drifts (there is always ground, even at night). The word ‘drifts’ is essential to the comprehension of Neelova’s oeuvre, as her works are located in a space in which time is ambiguous and formal aspects of the work are displaced from our current points of reference. Drift references a continuous slow movement, or the motion of being carried along by a natural force such as wind or water. It alludes to both the passage of time and the power of the elements to sweep up and transform that which is in their path. The second part of the exhibition’s title, there is always ground, even at night, is a phrase from Max Frisch’s 1979 novel Man in the Holocene, in which the protagonist attempts to regain lost memories and interpret the world around him with the help of encyclopedia entries. The novel does not adhere to traditional plot progressions, preferring to represent a continuous flow of thought and the description of various strategies the protagonist uses to place himself in a larger, planetary context.
Interested in the function of architecture and manmade objects in an imagined post-human future, Neelova works at the interstice of objects and their ruins, of the concrete and the imagined. Her works place the viewer in a position where they are grasping for meaning. Recognizable aspects of the everyday objects which surround us are combined with abstract structures which are both reminiscent of real forms and yet impossible to place. Real life objects are replicated in materials which render them useless, creating both a synthetic and handmade feel to the artworks. Starting from a human scale, Neelova expands her works to reflect architectural and even geological extensions of the bodily form.
For her first exhibition with MLF | Marie-Laure Fleisch, the artist has created a narrative in which the gallery is host to ruins which have been exposed to the natural elements. Architectural structures are imagined in a possible future form, however their decay, as well as the imagined technological advances incorporated in the works, removes them from the temporal sphere. Upon arriving in the gallery, the viewer is confronted with a monumental sculpture composed of layers of compressed landscape forms, stacked one on top of another and held together by metal brackets. In other sculptures, the spectator is confronted with fragmented radiator shapes, yet their delicate jesmonite forms resemble bones or fossils more than architectural elements. The process of casting elements in jesmonite also plays on the fragility of the object, depriving it of its structural integrity and rendering strong, industrial objects made for human use into purely formal beings, devoid of any utility.
This exhibition explores an expansion of the artist’s research into questions of sustainability and geological references and offers a possible view of the future. One has the impression of nature taking over a built environment, which is exemplified by small pieces which consist of residues of past works in the artist’s studio. These leftovers are then cast together to create topographies, or maps of what was once present before a transformation which appears to have been caused by geological pressure. These works emphasize the lack of human presence in Neelova’s world. This is a universe in which the natural forces take over with no regard to the original purpose of the structures it is invading, and where objects created for human use and proportions become obsolete.
Artist Biography
Lives and works in London, England
Education
2011
MA Fine Art Sculpture, - distinction, Slade School of Art, London
2008
BA Fine Art Interdisciplinary, - distinction, Royal Art Academy, The Hague
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2017
Lemniscates, Independent, Vigo Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2015
FAULTS FOLDS FALLS, Vigo Gallery, London, England
2014
I lean to you numb as a fossil. Tell me I’m here, Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2013
Fragments Shored against the Ruins, Vigo Gallery, London, England
Northern Taurids, Royal British Society of Sculptors, London, England
2011
Fractions, Jarmuschek+Partner Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Monuments, Charlie Smith Gallery, London, England
Group Exhibitions
2017
XVII. The Age of Nymphs, Mimosa House, London, England
Theatre of the Absurd, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE
Tell me net, Osnova, VinZavod Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
Seventeen edition, Code Copenhagen, Denmark
Artist Rooms, Copeland Gallery Peckham, London, England
Micro Salon (1957-2017), Iris Clert Legacy, l’inlassable Paris, Paris, France
Contemporary Sculpture, Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, England
The Opposite of Now, Guest Projects, London, England
Blue Seventeen, Osnova gallery, VinZavod Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
New Material, Art in Perpetuity Trust, Arts Council England, London, England
Leidenschaft, Museum Art Plus, Donaueschingen, Germany
Seventeen, Centrala, Birmingham, England
2016
BUT BUT BUT, in collaboration with Mike Harvey, S1 Art Space, Sheffield, England
Antislip, Royal British Society of Sculptors, London, England
Habitus, curated by Matthew Burrows, The Observer Building, Hastings, England
A city without a song, curated by StudioCurArt Paris, The Averard, London, England
Playroom, Union Art’s Club Soho, London, England
2015
Archeologia e Architecture, by Institute for Emerging Art - New York, Fondazione 107, Turin, Italy
The Sky is a Mountain, Foundation Stifelsen 3,14, Bergen, Norway
The Presence of Absence, curated by Paul Carey-Kent, London, England
2014
Brand New Second Hand, Vigo Gallery, London, England
Lichtspiele, Museum Biedermann, Donaueschingen, Germany
Warp&Woof, The Hole Gallery, New York, USA
The Crisis Commission, curated by Laurence Sillars, London, England
2013
Great Men Die Twice, Mario Sequeira Gallery, Parada de Tibães, Portugal
Gaiety is most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union, Saatchi Gallery, London, England
White Nights, PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, Perm, Russia
It’s About Time, curated by Paul Carey-Kent, London, England
The Future Can Wait, Victoria House, London, England
2012
Royal British Society of Sculptors Bursary Award Exhibition, London, England
The Crisis Commission, Somerset House & Christie’s London, England
Saatchi New Sensations and The Future Can Wait, Victoria House, London, England
Recasting the Gods, Sumarria Lunn Gallery, London, England
Dividing Line, High House, Oxfordshire, England
2011
Reworking Memories, Federica Schiavo Gallery, Rome, Italy
The Future Can Wait, Victoria House, London, England
Polemically Small, Torrance Art Museum, California, USA
Charlie Sierra Lima, Charlie Smith, London, England
3 Worlds in 1, London International, Lithuania
2010
Saatchi Gallery and Channel 4’s New Sensations, London, England
Awards & Residencies
2017
2016-2017 Syllabus residency Wysing Art Centre, UK in association with Studio Voltaire, Spike Island Bristol, New Contemporaries, S1 Space, Eastside Projects
2016
Nova Art Commission London, UK
2015
Stiftelsen 3,14 Residency, Bergen, Norway
2013
Sculpture Shock Award & Residency, London, UK
Villa Lena Art Foundation Residency, Tuscany, Italy
2012
Royal British Society of Sculptors Bursary Award, London, UK
2011
Olga Roubinskaya Foundation Award, Moscow, Russia
The Land Securities Prize Award, London, UK
The Saatchi Gallery and Channel 4 New Sensations First Prize, London, UK
2010
Kenneth Armitage Foundation, The Fifth Annual Young Sculptors Prize
Residency at the Kurt Schwitters Merzbarn, Littoral Arts Trust, UK
Selected Commissions
2017
NOVA public art commission, Victoria, London, UK
2015
Land Securities Commission, One New Ludgate, London, UK
2012
The Crisis Commission, Somerset House, London, UK