Gathering is thrilled to announce Cliff and Cleft, Harminder Judge’s (b.1982, Rotherham, UK) exhibition opening on the 28th of September at Gathering Ibiza. The artist’s first solo show in Spain probes the notion of artmaking as alchemy, building upon the conceptual concerns that shaped A Ghost Dance, the artist’s recent presentation of free standing sculptures, wall-based plaster works and processional performance exhibited across The Sunday Painter and Matt’s Gallery in London.

Installation Views (6 images)

Harminder Judge creates richly energetic work. Vibrant, wall-based plaster and pigment pieces explode out from a central line; others look as though they could suck everything around them into a formidable void. From floor-based installations to hefty works that at first appear akin to paintings, each contains a magnetic sense of life and movement, drawing the viewer into a dynamic relationship.

For Cliff and Cleft at Gathering, Judge returns to his characteristically frenetic eruptions of colour. This follows A Ghost Dance, his recent, black-drenched dual exhibition at Matt’s Gallery and the Sunday Painter in London, which drew upon traditional funeral rites and spiritual processions. In Cliff and Cleft, three large,two-panel works hang on the walls, with effervescent bursts of green, pink and black snaking across them. The artist enjoys a naïve, joyful relationship with colour, working quickly and instinctively to apply primary pigments to wet plaster, with the final results falling outside of his control. Through this process, he searches for a sense of internal harmony, using elemental colours to stira powerful emotional response. Once the plaster has set, these pieces are meticulously polished, embedding the pigment within them. It is as though the colour becomes part of the material, rather than having been applied to the surface, imbuing the works with asculptural rather than simply painterly presence.

Selected Works (8 images)

Within these large, energetic pieces, there are also moments of intense darkness, suggestive of a vacuum or third dimension that the viewer might be able to tentatively enter. Three smaller monochrome works further evoke this somewhat supernatural force. These intimately scaled pieces contain potent blasts of energy, conjuring an infinite depth which belies their simple colour palette. Judge has long combined the stirring techniques of contemporary art movements such as abstract expressionism with the spiritual potency of transcendental and neo-tantric painting. Plaster and colour become more than the sum of their parts in Judge’s pieces, moving beyond the realm of artwork and becoming objects with their own dynamic life. While specific rituals and traditions often feed into Judge’s exhibitions in the form of performance, at Gathering, these pieces are presented devoid of narrative, inviting open interpretation.

Cliff and Cleft also features two new sculptural works. Untitled (rock risen cleft cliff) almost covers the floor of the top mezzanine level. It is craggy and organic in shape, appearing like a natural slab of rock, though formed from the same plaster as Judge’s wall-hung pieces. A five-centimetre gap divides the work and the walls, rendering it in an in-between state, as both a walkable floor surface and independent sculpture. Likewise, Judge’s mercurial treatment of his material throughout the exhibition reflects upon the alchemical potential of many items in this world – including the human body. This connects with Judge’s ongoing interests in the transition of the body from it physical fleshy form into ash upon death and ceremonial burning. Untitled (rock risen cleft) is a tall sculpture which reflects upon the coffin-like piece originally shown in Judge’s Sunday Painter installation. This new work stands on one end, with a thick line traversing its length from top to bottom. It is totemic in feel, carved symmetrically on either side of the dividing line, mirroring the centre point that runs through his larger wall-hung works. This piece could be read as bodily in its shape and form, while also veering between the appearance of natural rock, paleolithic carving, and pagan figure.

Judge intentionally keeps his work slippery. It moves with ease from suggestions of human-made to natural origin; sculpture to painting; artistic to spiritual roots. He embraces the untethered nature of abstraction, evoking an abundant range of feelings and connections depending upon the viewer’s own background and experience. In front of these pieces – or indeed while walking upon Untitled (rock risen cleft cliff) – the visitor’s personal history becomes important, given space to make their own connections, as the artist himself revels in the ineffable and intangible potential of his materials.