Artist: Alexandra Barth
Exhibition title: Scenography
Venue: Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles, US
Date: June 19 – July 31, 2021
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles
Chris Sharp Gallery is pleased to present the US solo debut of the Slovakian artist Alexandra Barth.
Alexandra Barth is essentially a still life painter. Working in air brush, Barth portrays stark and moody interiors of a relatively nondescript, middle European character. Her cold, quasi-pho-tographic imagery is freighted with a nebulous, if noirish narrative charge; far from cozy and welcoming, it contains a certain menace, as if these were forensic details of a crime scene. The uniform, Ikea-style furniture found in her interiors, which recalls the utopian production ideals of Bauhaus, Russian constructivism, and even post-war American design, assumes a somewhat dystoptian character here, by virtue of having all but fully realized the homogenizing tendancy of these movements. The unexpected angles of Barth’s compositions wield a rushed, snapshot qual-ity while recalling the dramatic angularity of constructivism– a drama that is heightened by the work’s penchant for chiaroscuro lighting. As such, these ostensibly simple still lives are full of a rich and dynamic strangeness which subtly upends their apparent banality while depicting certain legacies of modernism within every day life.
Alexandra Barth
(b. 1989 Malacky, Slovakia; lives and works in Bratislava)
Alexandra Barth received her degree from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava in 2013. A selection of solo exhibitions have been held at Phoinix, Bratislava (2020), Urban gallery, Pescara (2020), Hotdock project space, Bratislava (2019). Recent group exhibitions include Like a picture, Photoport, Bratislava (2020), The Elevator, Temporary Parapet, Bratislava (2019) and MDŽ, White&Weiss, Bratislava (2017).
Alexandra Barth, Scenography, 2021, exhibition view, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles
Alexandra Barth, Scenography, 2021, exhibition view, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles
Alexandra Barth, Yellow Table, 2021, Acrylic on canvas 47.2 x 74.8 in (120 x 190 cm)
Alexandra Barth, Stalk, 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 47.2 x 35.4 in (120 x 90 cm)
Alexandra Barth, Scenography, 2021, exhibition view, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles
Alexandra Barth, Scenography, 2021, exhibition view, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles
Alexandra Barth, Scenography, 2021, exhibition view, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles
Alexandra Barth, Blue Pillow, 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 47.2 x 35.4 in (120 x 90 cm)
Alexandra Barth, Scenography, 2021, exhibition view, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles
Alexandra Barth, Scenography, 2021, exhibition view, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles
Alexandra Barth, Scenography, 2021, exhibition view, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles
Alexandra Barth, Scenography, 2021, exhibition view, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles
Alexandra Barth, Scenography, 2021, exhibition view, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles
Alexandra Barth, Leaves, 2020, Acrylic on canvas, 59 x 47.2 in (150 x 120 cm)
Alexandra Barth, Scenography, 2021, exhibition view, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles
Alexandra Barth, Scenography, 2021, exhibition view, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles
Alexandra Barth, Tablecloth, 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 31.5 x 23.6 in (80 x 60 cm)
Alexandra Barth, Scenography, 2021, exhibition view, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles
Alexandra Barth, Carpet, 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 31.5 x 23.6 in (80 x 60 cm)
Alexandra Barth, Scenography, 2021, exhibition view, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles
