David Dale Gallery are pleased to present The Eclectic is Now, an exhibition of new work by Danish artist Sören Hüttel produced over a three-week residency. Working thematically with surface and appearance, Hüttel takes his cue from heterogeneous references such as Las Vegas casinos, Conceptaulism, the 1980?s TV series Dynasty, and Formalism.

For his solo exhibition at David Dale Gallery Hüttel will utilise Black Light, self-illuminating fluorescent sculptures and kinetic forms. The exhibition will be presented as a single work made of constituent parts. Citing Robert Morris’ Scatter Pieces, which was recently reinstalled at Leo Castelli Gallery in New York (where it was originally installed in 1968-1969), as an influencing methodology. Hüttel also approaches his work through the dichotomy of anti-formalism revised to formalism – or vice versa – though without the perennialism. Instead, accepting of both Conceptualism’s influence and the mitigating years since, to propose a style for the present, – everything. Hüttel’s installation, although presenting diametrically opposed aesthetics, is unified through materiality to present an uneasy totality for the viewer. Being drawn to aspects of the vulgar, garish, delicate and sentimental, Hüttel’s work involves an intense clash between colour and object. Trademark devices such as rainbows sit alongside both handmade and readymade objects in direct reference to the architecture of the gallery, which itself has been transformed into an immersive scene.

Referencing Barnett Newman’s 1948 text The Sublime is Now, Hüttel makes a case opposed to Newman’s ultimate art. For Hüttel, neither us, nor man are the Cathedral – everything is. In using the eclectic to mean diverse strategies, Hüttel advocates a multiplicity of equality – in which everything is valid, though only as a whole relying on perception and experience.

An interview between Sören Hüttel and members of the David Dale Gallery committee, focussing on the residency and exhibition, will be produced alongside the exhibition.

Sören Hüttel is from Randers, Denmark. He graduated from The Funen Academy of Fine Arts, Denmark in 2003, and went on to graduate from The Glasgow School of Art in 2005. Recent selected solo exhibitions include: Luleå Biennial, Luleå, Sweden, 2011; Views on the eclectic as idea and the generous space as an ideal, Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik, Odense, Denmark 2010; and Disco Volante, Traneudstillingen, Gentofte, Denmark, 2009. Selected recent group exhibitions include: Painterly Delight II, Ystad Museum of Art, Sweden, 2011, DHL – The Golden Age, The Danish Cultural Institute, Edinburgh, 2010; and No food no drink no sticky lollies, Stattbad, Berlin, 2010. Hüttel lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Aesthetic of Fans

Sören Hüttel in discussion with Max Slaven and Darren Tesar.

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