We were able to spend the day with the talented Augustine Kofie as he prepared to hang his solo exhibition “Structurally Sound” at White Walls Gallery in San Francisco. Aside from an installation from the artist Kofie will be exhibiting for the first time a complete series of paintings. Kofie who also works with collage and paint on wood chose for this exhibition to focus in the work on paintings. The quality of the work shows through as he establishes a strong hand within this new work. Every piece, every medium used is thought about during and before the process of the show. Kofie established the structurally sound theme and worked his way through the work from there. The detailed execution of this concept is cemented with amazing paintings all the the way to the artist’s signature soundtrack the show. For those lucky enough to attend he has some special surprises for those in attendance so make sure you make the show that opens tomorrow.
GF
Structurally Sound:
New Works on paper, wood and canvas by Augustine Kofie
Opening Reception September 14, 2013 On View Through October 5, 2013
White Walls 886 Geary St, San Francisco, CA
White Walls is pleased to present Augustine Kofie’s Structurally Sound, as the artist’s third solo show with White Walls, directly following his sold-out exhibition in Paris. The opening reception will be Saturday, September 14, from 7-11 pm, and the exhibition is free and open to the public for viewing through October 05, 2013. Comprised of works crafted in his Los Angeles studio from May to August, 2013, this recent collection began with a series of small notes and doodles on found paper, “a usual task in the studio,” Kofie said, “but this go around I kept the idea in mind of sound structures and systems of reliability.” Case study-like illustrations on found file cards became the catalyst for large scale works on canvas that question if these shapes and forms can stand the weight; are they now and could they continue to be successfully reliable over time? Frequently praised for compositions that recall architectural drafting, Kofie’s new body of work was partially inspired by the idea of what would happen if these compositions could be physically constructed. With canvases reaching up to five by six feet, Kofie has crafted work that pulls viewers into a new realm of possibility. Sharply-defined angles butt up against cylindrical forms in complex arrangements of geometric potential. A mix of neutral tints, peach and copen blue add dimension, and provide expanses of space that balance areas of dense linework.
From the artist: I am a painter, yes. I fall under this category by default, but what I feel I do is construct and assemble. I build paintings. These pieces then go through a process of deconstruction to free the painting up to breathe, but that simplification could in turn weaken the foundation of the piece as a whole. In this show, a mock dialogue began with the search for relationships between an engineer’s tongue and a constructivist visual response. An affinity to compartmentalizing forms represented in both an angular and horizontal fashion leads to works that are visually strong, but subconsciously touch on the idea of instability.
