Photo London 2020

Whitney McVeigh | Nicolas Feldmeyer

7 - 18 October 2020

Encounter is pleased to present a dual booth of internationally acclaimed artists Whitney McVeigh and Nicolas Feldmeyer.

McVeigh brings to Photo London a unique series of altered found photographs. The artist is widely acclaimed for her collections of objects and interventions into the archive having previously exhibited at institutions such as The Getty Villa (Los Angeles) and Kettles Yard (Cambridge). Embodying a sense of time and human imprint these previously unseen portraits occupy an engaging space somewhere between vision and knowledge, accumulation and erasure. Concerned with ‘the archaeology of memory’, McVeigh’s sensitive ‘interventions’ reflect an ongoing engagement with the potential of objects as channels for personal and collective history. McVeigh recently commented on this series stating;

‘The drawings form in collaboration, as if led by the existing photographic image. There’s a sense of waiting to be shown what the material brings. Jung believed images exist in us before we are born, and I believe the task in this lifetime is to draw these out. I work with space and time and preexisting matter. Like all of life, everything passes, has an end and we are left with traces.’

Preoccupied with ‘the experience of places and spaces in dreams’ Feldmeyer painstakingly creates imagined landscapes that do not exist in the ‘real’ world. These places are not derived from photographs but are instead digitally constructed three dimensional models which occupy an new virtual space somewhere between painting and architecture. As Feldmeyer says;

‘I am fascinated by the process of reconstructing in great detail small everyday moments - the evening sun on a brick courtyard, or the trees at the end of the park, familiar scenes that seem to say something very clear to me, although I never know exactly what.’

In his ‘Estate’ series semi tangible details, such as the netting of a basketball hoop, fade into darkness and merge with more illusionary visual suggestions, creating an altogether disorientating effect. In his new ‘Archway’ series, imposing architectural structures overlap with expansive images reminiscent of Swiss mountainscapes, setting compositional stages from which the images can perform their subtle poetry. Feldmeyer examines and redevelops the Renaissance tradition of paintings within paintings, creating minute landscapes that operate as windows onto his own imagination. The presentation also includes two unique works from his ongoing postcard collage series several works from which entered The British Museum’s permanent collection last year.

view full presentation of available works Via link below

WHITNEY MCVEIGH
Whitney McVeigh studied a BA in painting at Edinburgh College of Art (1993-6). She has travelled extensively to carry out her practice and held residencies in Mexico, India, China and South Africa. Her work investigates personal and collective memory and alludes to the layering of time. Upcoming exhibitions include; Photo London, Somerset House, London (2020) and Artist Rooms, Encounter, London (2020). Recent solo exhibitions include; ‘Temporality, Cardi Projects, Cardi Gallery (2020), What is Worthwhile Doing in this World, Mount Stuart Visual Arts, Scotland (2019), Elegy to Nature, Eykyn Maclean, New York (2018), Language of Memory, Summerhall Arts, Edinburgh (2016), Inventory: Invisible Companion, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (2015) and presentation of the film ‘Birth’: Origins at the end of life at the Royal Academy, London (2015). Recent group exhibitions include Plato in LA: Contemporary Artists’ Visions, Getty Villa, Los Angeles (2018), Not a Sngle Story, The Wanas Foundation, Sweden and Nirox Foundation, South Africa (2018), Culture Lines: Sans Frontieres, Metamatic-Taf Foundation, Athens (2016), Unlocking the Diary, The Archiving of Nameless Memories, Folkestone Triennial, Kent (2014) and Glass Stress, White Light/White Heat, 55th Venice Biennale, Venice (2013).

Whitney McVeigh was featured in the BBC4 television documentary, Where is Modern Art Now (2009) alongside Sir Anthony Caro, Michael Landy, Grayson Perry and Cornelia Parker. Simon Schama’s recent essay on McVeigh’s practice ‘The Happenstance of Illumination’(2018) was included in his book Wordy (Simon & Schuster), published in June 2019. Her work will be included in ‘Imagined Spaces’ edited by Kirsty Gunn & Gail Low (Autumn 2020) with Voyage Out Press & Saraband Books, an anthology that creates a “space” between understanding and the imagination.

NICOLAS FELDMEYER
Nicolas K Feldmeyer was born 1980 in Switzerland. After completing an MSc in Architecture in Zurich he went on to study Fine Arts at the San Francisco Art Institute on a Fulbright Grant. Feldmeyer received an MFA with distinction from the Slade in 2012. His work has been awarded the Saatchi and Channel 4’s New Sensations First Prize 2012 and the William Coldstream Prize amongst others. Alongside his ongoing collaboration with Encounter, Feldmeyer has exhibited at galleries and institutions internationally including; Photographer’s Gallery, Flowers Gallery, China Academy of Art, Maddox Arts, MC2 Gallery, UCL Art Museum, Angus Hughes, Griffin Gallery, Onassis Cultural Centre. His work has been reviewed in The Times, Sunday Times, Art Monthly and published extensively. Feldmeyer is a guest lecturer at the AA School of Architecture, The CASS, Metropolitan University and is Associate Lecturer at Camberwell College, University of the Arts London. His work is included in numerous public and private collections worldwide including The British Museum, UCL Art Museum, British Land and The Leslie Collection.