Gestural Reflective & Inquiring Tales (G.R.I.T.) 2024, shown first in Berlin, Germany, and then in Dundee, Scotland has closed. Dissemination is underway with the intention to produce a publication beyond the exhibition and public program in 2025.
G.R.I.T. assembled a group of fourteen painters, and the exhibition illuminated the ways painting relates to its viewers by focusing on the idea of bodily engagement through gesture. The titular acronym hints at the complexity of this relation: gestural, reflective, inquiring tales. The artworks in this show invited contemplation and, at the same time, revealed an experience that mirrors the process of making a painting. The works provoke thought and exert a pull upon viewers. They demand commitment. However, G.R.I.T. does not attempt to oversimplify the mystery of the relationships that painting engages. In his 2019 essay collection, The Observer Effect: On Contemporary Painting, the critic and poet Barry Schwabsky speaks about this engagement. “(We) should not overlook,” writes Schwabsky, “what gives painting its importance to art, is that it derives from the essence (body) of both the maker and the viewer.” Accordingly, G.R.I.T. centred the presence of the artists’ process, as found in the raw and immediate marks which physically and psychologically resonate with the viewers.
G.R.I.T. Berlin 9.-31. August, KUNSTPUNKT Berlin, Schlegelstr. 6, 10115 Berlin-Mitte & G.R.I.T. Dundee 13 September - 12 October, Drawing Projects UK, Scotland - Corner of West Bell Street & Constitution Road, Dundee, DD1 1EX
Artworks from left to right: 1. Geraldine Swayne, Henry Ward, Michaela Zimmer, Eglė Otto, Jacopo Dal Bello, Rao Fu, Alex Roberts, Angove; 2. Henry Ward; 3. Jacopo Dal Bello, Erika Krause (photo credits: Laurin Gutwin Photography); 4. Geraldine Swayne; 5. Michaela Zimmer; 6. Jenny Eden (photo credits: @painting_grit) 2024.