by Julia Mazal // Oct. 4, 2022
Much more than just a picturesque landscape, the fragmented patterns of Berlin native Michelle Jezierski’s work are beautifully captured in the recently published book ‘Simultaneous Spaces.’ Her paintings are a study of color, depth, and illusion, which in turn facilitate visual and emotional tension between the concurrent spaces she creates within her canvases.
Michelle Jezierski: ‘Simultaneous Spaces,’ 2022, front and back cover // Courtesy of the artist and DCV
Published by Berlin-based contemporary art publishing company DCV, the book presents the artist’s first comprehensive monograph with a selection of 45 works painted between 2017 and 2022. Her work is emblematic of a contemporary interpretation of landscape, complete with glitches and manual reconfigurations of the horizon. These glitches are manifested through a geometric fracturing and shifts in the image. The pages of the book go back and forth from exhibition views and stand alone images of her canvases, thus echoing the tension she creates between opposing forces: the organic and gestural vs. the geometric, light vs. dark as evidenced in her layered hues. The work is driven by contrasts abstractly portrayed through, as the artist puts it, the “feeling of landscape.“
Michelle Jezierski: ‘Simultaneous Spaces,’ 2022, inside spread // Courtesy of the artist and DCV
The monograph presents an insight into her particular style, but also highlights her flexibility as a painter. The selection of work demonstrates a progression of experimentation with color and light, which seem to radiate through the soft blanket of liquid hues. The one deliberate consistency in her paintings is the allusion to clouds and sky.
The book format unintentionally mirrors the logic of her work; it is an organic flow of images and multiple-page spreads punctuated with sudden interruptions in the forms of illuminating essays and an interview. Towards the beginning a conversation with editor and writer Kimberly Bradley, provides insight into more personal origins of inspiration. Her work is informed by her musical upbringing—she cites rhythm and beat as forms of intensity in her work. Jezierski studied with sculptor Tony Cragg at Udk Berlin, where her sculptural practice and background become apparent in the way she takes flat images apart and puts them back together.
Michelle Jezierski: ‘Simultaneous Spaces,’2022 inside spread// courtesy of the artist and DCV
The two essays by author and critic Kristian Vistrup Madsen and writer and curator Jurriaan Benschop dive into the artist’s deconstruction of landscape and her simultaneous expression of the inner and the outer. They present her work not only as a reflection on the medium of painting, but also an expression of internal feelings prompted by landscape.
Additional Info
DCV
Michelle Jezierski: ‘Simultaneous Spaces’
Book Launch: Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022; 5–7pm; RSVP here
Talk with Michelle Jezierski, Jeni Fulton, Kimberly Bradley: Friday, Oct. 8, 2022; 5:30pm
dcv-books.com/…/michelle-jezierski-simultaneous-spaces
Sammlung Glampe, Südstern 6, 10961 Berlin; click here for map
