Read It
February 7-March 6, 2004
Andrew Kreps Gallery is pleased to present “Read It” by Jan Mancuska, an artist based in Prague, Czech Republic. Mancuska’s first solo-show in the US will open with a reception for the artist on Saturday, February 7th, from 6-8 PM.
A solitary room is constructed within the gallery. Through the artist’s design, the walls of this room are a permeable barrier by which the space can be experienced – literally – through words. While the voids of letters illuminate the contours of a space that viewers are denied access to, Mancuska’s treatment of the situation heightens our experience of the language describing our encounter. With “Read It,” Mancuska activates the space between what is perceived and what is experienced.
For 800 Ways to Describe A Chair, Mancuska placed a chair against the gallery wall, and fired hundreds and hundreds of shots at it with a pellet gun. The chair is removed, leaving behind a silhouette, a ghost of itself.
Jan Mancuska’s work has been featured in exhibitions at the National Gallery, Veletrzni Palac in Prague; in Manifesta 4 in Frankfurt, Germany; at the Neue Berliner Kunstverein in Berlin; and in the 8th Baltic Triennial of International Art at the Center for Contemporary Art in Vilnius, Lithuania.