The Henry Art Gallery presents Videowatercolors. Carel Balth Among His Contemporaries an exhibition on view October 15, 2011 – January 22, 2012.
Carel Balth. Skyscape (Blue Horizon). 2003. Inkjet print. Private collection
Dutch artist Carel Balth is one of a steadily growing group of artists exploring the intersections between photography, painting, and new media. In his most recent series Videowatercolors (2001— ), Balth combines on watercolor paper or canvas two or more nearly identical moments from a digital video recording, thereby drawing analogies between the constant flow of pixels and the fluidity of watercolor. Ostensibly simple, the subtle differences between the images trace complex shifts in time, movement, rhythm, orientation, light, and color, blending into a multifaceted ensemble and reflecting on essential conditions of perception, imaging, and imagination. This exhibition will place Balth’s oeuvre of four decades in the context of a group of his contemporaries from the Henry’s collection, among them Gerhard Richter, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Luisa Lambri.
This exhibition will place Balth’s oeuvre of four decades in the context of a group of his contemporaries from the Henry’s collection, among them Gerhard Richter, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Luisa Lambri. Carel Balth (born November 25, 1939, Rotterdam) is a Dutch artist and curator. His work is characterised by the innovative use of new media, where a synthesis of light, motion and space occupies a central position and where new means of perception are investigated. Balth uses a wide array of tools to get to the core of human perception and consistently utilises unconventional means and materials, from vinyl to Plexiglas to deliberately pixilated images. Important influences in his work are Mondriaan and Lucio Fontana. “Videowatercolors: Carel Balth Among His Contemporaries” is curated by Marek Wieczorek, University of Washington Associate Professor of Art History with generous support from the Mondriaan Foundation.
