MasterMix Soundtrack for ‘OFF/GRID’ @David Bloch Gallery, Marrakech by 4x4tracktor on Mixcloud

Augustine Kofie has been in residence in Marrakech for his upcoming solo exhibition “OFF/GRID” since early March. The artist has been making the best of his time by establishing 2 mural interventions around town as well as working with local craftsman on a new series of work inspired and influenced by local traditions. OFF/GRID will be a collection and exhibition at David Bloch gallery where once again the gallery is not only able to bring the artist to the country to exhibit, but also able to have a cohesive experience during their stay. This residence portion of David Bloch’s exhibitions has made each show unique to the city,  bringing the best of art and local experience to be displayed at the opening. And as tradition goes, the artist compiled a soundtrack of sounds inspired by the possibilities of Morocco and the OFF/GRID collection.  A free download and stream of the soundtrack produced by A.Kofie [4x4Tracktor] is available below. Contact@Davidblochgallery.com for PDF of available works and all inquiries.

/GF

Presentation of the solo exhibition of Augustine Kofie from March 27 to April 26, 2015

OFF/GRID

#KOFGOESOFFGRID

Augustine Kofie, American artist from Los Angeles, will present from March 27, 2015 his solo exhibition “OFF/GRID” at the David Bloch Gallery – Marrakech.
The opening will be held in the presence of the artist at the gallery on March 27 at 7:00 pm.
—

OFF/GRID refers to the tension that animates his work: the juxtaposition, and then synthesis, of opposing forces.

This tension operates at a number of levels. In the arena of style, the vintage and the futurist collide.

In the arena of formal composition, shapes and lines are built within a strict grid format but then break from this grid, playing off a tilt, shifting off of the established pattern, in an improvisational, freestyle experimentation.

In the arena of medium, a collage technique using industrial packaging and office supply materials from the 1950s to the 1980s is filtered—rendered contemporary—through painting.

There is the constructivism of the work, which Kofie approaches like a builder—an architect or engineer—a draftsman, not a painter, making preliminary, two-dimensional sketches of a structure, but one which will never be built.

This produces a paradoxical sense of time: the structure simultaneously exists in a future that will never take place, while referring back to a past that has been forgotten.

OFF/GRID refers to this sci-fi temporality, a push and pull between past and future, a tilt off of the grid of time.

—

OFF/GRID pushes this ongoing exploration further, this time in dialogue with its context.

Kofie will be exploring oppositional synthesis by collaborating with craftsmen to produce work that merges established Moroccan artistic traditions with his own brand of American contemporary expression.

The title OFF/GRID therefore also refers to the way this body of work is made off the grid of Kofie’s usual cultural milieu.