Every Ending Is A New Beginning

Every Ending Is A New Beginning is an exhibition of work by Andrew Birk shown at Galeria Karen Huber in Mexico City from November 15th 2018 – January 18th 2019.

In a postcard, the sunset pours impossible colors onto the ocean and the land.
With the small piece of printed paper in his hands, the new romantic subject
imagines himself alone and shrunk before the wonder of nature, staring into the
distance, beholding speechless and breathless.

The sunset is the image of a promise, an expectation, the dream of a future; the
breaking day brings brand new possibilities wrapped in the veil of dawn. We
imagine the new day as the Paradise that the postcard was trying to sell: cutting
off everything that falls outside of the vision field, it turns into an idyllic framed image.

Seascape IV
Andrew Birk
Watercolor on denim
200 x 150 cm
2018

Seascape IV
Andrew Birk
Watercolor on denim
200 x 150 cm
2018

When we think about what our desires will be like, we take things that we already
know and organize them in new compositions that excite us and soothe us,
against the background of unknown fate.

Every time we draw onto nothingness
we move forward. With every trace, new branches are born. Every void is a canvas
and every line can be a horizon.

Andrew Birk presents a series of large-scale paintings for his first exhibition at Karen Huber Gallery in Mexico City. Going back to one of the most rejected materials in contemporary art, reserved for amateurs, Birk uses watercolor in large format to paint enormous bodies of water and air. These two elements, of everchanging appearance and total dependence on the light projected on them, are shown in Birk’s work in the whole spectrum of their possibilities. Embracing the corny quality associated with both the material and the image of the postcard, the artist shows a candid optimism before great life changes, the end of a cycle and a new start. After all, bound by the spectator, dusk and dawn are only two specific points of one same circle.

BIO (English):
Andrew Birk (b. 1985, Corvallis, OR, USA) lived and worked in Mexico City between 2011 and 2018. He has recently relocated to the Alt Empordá region of Spain. His work approaches painting as a multi-faceted contemporary medium, where materials – always common and accessible in other facets outside of art – are used in an indivisible relationship with the subject matter. Each of his consecutive bodies of work are conceived as specific projects, with their own distinctive logic about context, gesture, and matter. Ranging from the observation of the apparent inconsequential moments of quotidian life, to an exploration of untrained aesthetics, or an almost archival look at urban and digital imagery, his latest work focuses on the perception of the body moving through space and the imprint of nature on it. Andrew has exhibited in 24 countries, including solo and group shows in Paris, Berlin, London, New York, Lisbon, Vienna, and widely in Mexico. Recent presentation include Dwelling Poetically: Mexico City, A Case Study, Australian Center for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2018), A Finger Pointing to the Moon, SORT, Vienna (2018), México: Pintura Reactiva, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (2018), I Am The Body Of A Human, Malta Contemporary Art, Valletta (2017), Callejero, Anonymous Gallery, Mexico City (2016), Infiernos Artificiales, Museo Del Chopo, Mexico City (2015), TRU AF, Johannes Vogt Gallery, New York City (2015), and Executive Producer, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Oaxaca, Oaxaca City (2014). He has upcoming shows at Riña in Guatemala City, at Purbentotal
in Tunis, and at YOPE in Oaxaca City. His work has been reviewed in publications such as Proceso, Reforma, Economista, Terremoto, ArtReview, Artnews, Flash Art, Hyperallergic, Artspace, OFLUXO, Tzvetnik, Art Viewer, AQNB, Aujourd’Hui, Vice, I-D, and Huffington Post, among others.

BIO (Spanish):
Andrew Birk (b. 1985, Corvallis, OR, USA) ha vivido y trabajado en Ciudad de México entre 2011 y 2018. Recientemente se ha establecido en la región del Alt Empordà en España. Su trabajo se aproxima a la pintura como medio contemporáneo, donde los materiales- siempre comunes y accesibles en otras facetas fuera del arte – son utilizadosen una relación indivisible con el tema. Cada uno de sus consecutivos cuerpos de trabajo es concebido como un proyecto específico, con su propia lógica distintiva sobre el contexto, el gesto y la materia. Desde la observación de los momentos aparentemente inconsecuentes de la vida cotidiana, hasta una exploración de la estética de lo inexperto, o una mirada casi archivística al imaginario urbano y digital, su trabajo reciente se centra en la percepción del cuerpo moviéndose en el espacio y la huella de la naturaleza sobre él. Andrew ha expuesto en 24 países, incluyendo presentaciones individuales y colectivas en París, Berlín, Londres, Nueva York, Viena, y extensamente en México. Entre las muestras recientes se incluyen Dwelling Poetically: Mexico City, A Case Study, Australian Center for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2018), A Finger Pointing to the Moon, SORT, Vienna (2018), México: Pintura Reactiva, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (2018), I Am The Body Of A Human, Malta Contemporary Art, Valletta (2017), Callejero, Anonymous Gallery, Mexico City (2016), Infiernos Artificiales, Museo Del Chopo, Mexico City (2015), TRU AF, Johannes Vogt Gallery, New York City (2015), y Executive Producer, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Oaxaca, Oaxaca City (2014). Próximamente su trabajo se expondrá en Riña, Guatemala City; Purbentotal en Tunis, y YOPE en Oaxaca. Su trabajo ha sido reseñado en publicaciones como Proceso, Reforma, Economista, Terremoto, ArtReview, Artnews, Flash Art, Hyperallergic, Artspace, OFLUXO, Tzvetnik, Art Viewer, AQNB, Aujourd’Hui, Vice, I-D, y Huffington Post, entre otros.

info@karen-huber.com
andrewbirk.com
@andrewbirk (instagram)

Photo credit: PJ Rountree
All photos courtesy of Galeria Karen Huber and Andrew Birk