JOHN M ARMLEDER: QUASI NOCTURNE

Almine Rech Monaco is pleased to announce Quasi Nocturne, John M Armleder's fifth solo exhibition.

September 24 – November 23, 2024

John M. Armleder’s Quasi Nocturne, the artist’s fifth show at Almine Rech, presents a new group of “Pour paintings” in the company of a furniture sculpture, a puddle painting and a glass mosaic.

Encouraging connections (and reflections) that transcend materiality, style and modes of production, the exhibition is a continuation of the artist’s on-going endeavor to confound categories and confuse distinctions.

The core of the exhibition is a dozen recent medium-format “Pour paintings.” Characterized by colorful flows and drips that overlap and mix directly on the canvas, these paintings illustrate Armleder’s interest in challenging authorial intent with acts of serendipity.

Avoiding the brush (an extension of the proverbial “artist’s hand”), he instead encourages viscous liquid materials to do what they will on the surface of the canvas—drip, splatter, mix, repel, congeal, absorb, and so on. If this process recalls Helen Frankenthaler’s soak-stain technique, Armleder’s execution is intentionally less controlled.

Emphasizing the interconnectedness of the artist’s oeuvre, Quasi Nocturne encourages the viewer to look from different perspectives in order to eventually see more similarities than differences.

Throughout the exhibition, literal and figurative reflections as well as colorful filters—as exemplified by the transparent glass mosaic, Dense clouds, 2024—confirm that there are multiple angles and attitudes from which to consider any and all of the works on view.