Soft Pressing is a dynamic exhibition of recent works by Simon Degroot that use abstraction to engage with the urban environment, where lines and patterns waver between play and purpose, between observation and action.
‘Frottage,’ the artistic process of taking rubbings from a rough surface, is an important starting point and used by Degroot to capture textures of our built surroundings, from brick walls to footpaths. Frottage expresses a moment of direct and intimate contact with this environment alongside an openness to chance encounters and unpredictable results. Forming a ground for the works, Degroot overlays the transcribed surfaces of frottage with bold painted strokes that offer a stylised play on the marks, inscriptions and marginalia found scattered across the urban environment, another aspect of the urban environment. Degroot diffuses the territorial connotations of these forms to celebrate their immediacy and dynamism as spontaneous gestures.
Frottage connects us to the layers and stories of the city, and Degroot’s layered surfaces build on this ground to create a palimpsest of processes and references, where creative expression is realised through swirling flotsam of response, influence and distracted gestures as much as directed intention.
RAG, Cleveland
SUNDAY 13 OCTOBER 2024 –
TUESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2024
Opening Event:
6pm, Friday 11 October 2024
Artist Talk:
10am, Sunday 13 October 2024
Simon Degroot, Soft Pressing Right Here, 2024, oil on linen, 168cm x 122cm. Photograph courtesy of the artist.