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Julian Hoeber at Jessica Silverman Gallery

36.Hoeber_Thought of Forms_Form of Thoughts 02, 2015_JH00056ST (2)

Artist: Julian Hoeber

Exhibition title: The Inward Turn

Venue: Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, US

Date: November 6 – December 19, 2015

Photography: images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco

Jessica Silverman Gallery is pleased to present “The Inward Turn,” a solo exhibition of new sculptures, paintings and works on paper by Julian Hoeber.

For the past year, Hoeber has been imagining a universe of architectural and corporeal interiors whose ambiguous forms invite the viewer to free associate. This work continues the artist’s dual exploration of the expressive potential of mathematical geometry and the conceptual discipline (and furtive rationality) of expressionistic artistic styles. The result is the artist’s own breed of surreal abstraction.

“The Inward Turn” is about a journey that repeatedly returns to its center, a physical manifestation of introspection, a seemingly inefficient but ultimately rewarding way of working, characterized by the loop. For Hoeber, the key term is rumination, which is a synonym for contemplation, musing and mediation, but also chewing and digesting. Indeed, the Latin etymology of “rumen” refers to the first chamber of a cow’s stomach. As is so often the case, a physical process elucidates an abstract one; a metaphor becomes standard vocabulary; “chewing the cud” invariably leads to “pondering.” In keeping with this theme, the show has a quiet, thoughtful palette of grays, creams, beiges and fleshy pinks.

The aesthetic forms of “The Inward Turn” are structural and biomorphic, mathematical and intuitive. Discovered in 1858, the Möbius strip is a surface with only one side, which is homeomorphic to a circle and non-orientable. As such, it is analogous to the circumlocutions of introspection. First described in 1882 by German mathematician Felix Klein, the Klein bottle is also a one-sided, non- orientable surface, which, if strolled along, would take the walker back to their point of origin but, upon arrival, they would find themselves upside down. These two forms are among many visual puzzles that are integral to the sculptures, paintings and drawings in this show, which generally blur the boundaries between positive and negative space, inside and outside, rational and irrational.

An important backstory for the artist relates to a narrative he recounts to himself in the studio about a project called “Going Nowhere” that is centered on the design of an imaginary airport terminal in which people fly off only to land back in the same place. Whether the building is constructed or not is irrelevant. The point of the project is to concoct and then solve a particular set of problems in which Hoeber finds himself engaged with the thinking of architects such as Aldo Van Eyck, Eero Saarinen and Robert Venturi, sculptors such as Lee Bontecou and Anish Kapoor, painters as varied as Jim Shaw and the early Francis Picabia. Indeed, one idiosyncratic reference is Marcel Duchamp’s Chocolate Grinder no 1 (1914), which Hoeber, a native of Philadelphia, saw in the museum regularly and as a poster in his grandmother’s living room all the time.

1.Hoeber_The Inward Turn_Install_01

2.Hoeber_The Inward Turn_Install_02

3.Hoeber_The Inward Turn_Install_03

4.Hoeber_The Inward Turn_Install_04

5.Hoeber_The Inward Turn_Install_05

6.Hoeber_The Inward Turn_Install_06

7.Hoeber_The Inward Turn_Install_07

8.Hoeber_The Inward Turn_Install_08

9.Hoeber_The Inward Turn_Install_09

10.Hoeber_The Inward Turn_Install_10

23.Hoeber_Triple Klein Bottle Cross Section, 2015_Flashe, colored pencil and acrylic on linen with artist's frame_48.5x34.5in

Julian Hoeber, Triple Klein Bottle Cross Section, 2015

16.Hoeber_Style Knot, 2015_Flashe and acrylic on linen with artist's frame_48.5x34.5in

Julian Hoeber, Style Knot, 2015

20.Hoeber_Intestinal Floorplan_Security Apparatus, 2015_Flashe and acrylic on linen with artist's frame_48.5x34.5in

Julian Hoeber, Intestinal Floorplan / Security Apparatus, 2015

24.Hoeber_Cardiac Section, 2015_Flashe and acrylic on linen with artist's frame_48.5x34.5in

Julian Hoeber, Cardiac Section, 2015

26.Hoeber_Ruminating Elevation 01_JH00042PNT

Julian Hoeber, Ruminating Elevation, 2015

31.Hoeber_Thought of Forms_Form of Thoughts 01-08, 2015 (installation view)

Julian Hoeber, Thought of Forms/Form of Thoughts 01-08, 2015

34.Hoeber_Thought of Forms_Form of Thoughts 01, 2015_JH00055ST (2)

Julian Hoeber, Thought of Forms/Form of Thoughts 01, 2015

35.Hoeber_Thought of Forms_Form of Thoughts 02, 2015_JH00056ST (1)

Julian Hoeber, Thought of Forms/Form of Thoughts 02, 2015

42.Hoeber_Thought of Forms_Form of Thoughts 05, 2015_JH00059ST (2)

Julian Hoeber, Thought of Forms/Form of Thoughts 05, 2015

45.Hoeber_Thought of Forms_Form of Thoughts 06, 2015_JH00060ST (3)

Julian Hoeber, Thought of Forms/Form of Thoughts 06, 2015

49.Hoeber_Thought of Forms_Form of Thoughts 08, 2015_JH00062ST (2)

Julian Hoeber, Thought of Forms/Form of Thoughts 08, 2015

28.Hoeber_Compound Curved Wall, 2015_Sculpture

Julian Hoeber, Compound Curved Wall, 2015

29.Hoeber_Compound Curved Wall, 2015

Julian Hoeber, Compound Curved Wall, 2015

64.Hoeber_Scholars Rock Proxy, 2015_Sculpture-pigmented

Julian Hoeber, Scholars Rock Proxy, 2015

66.Hoeber_Scholars Rock Proxy, 2015_Sculpture-pigmented

Julian Hoeber, Scholars Rock Proxy, 2015 (detail)

57.Hoeber_Brutalist Organs, 2015_Sculpture-Fiberglass

Julian Hoeber, Brutalized Organs, 2015

60.Hoeber_Brutalist Organs, 2015_Sculpture-Fiberglass reinforced

Julian Hoeber, Brutalized Organs, 2015 (detail)

51.Hoeber_Negative Space of Organ (Core), 2015_Sculpture-OSB

Julian Hoeber, Negative Space of Organ (Core), 2015

62.Hoeber_Negative Space of Compound Curved Wall

Julian Hoeber, Negative Space of Compound Curved Wall, 2015

63.Hoeber_Negative Space of Compound Curved Wall

Julian Hoeber, Negative Space of Compound Curved Wall, 2015

55.Hoeber_Negative Space of Organ (Shell), 2015_Sculpture-OSB

Julian Hoeber, Negative Space of Organ (Shell), 2015

56.Hoeber_Negative Space of Organ (Shell), 2015_Sculpture-OSB

Julian Hoeber, Negative Space of Organ (Shell), 2015

74.Hoeber_Form Index, 2015_Materials variable_Installed dimensions variable; Shelving unit - 72x60x14 in_alt view

Julian Hoeber, Form Index, 2015

75.Hoeber_Form Index, 2015_Materials variable_Installed dimensions variable; Shelving unit - 72x60x14 in_detail

Julian Hoeber, Form Index, 2015 (detail)

68.Hoeber_Negative Space Thought, 2015_Plywood, glue, shellac, popsicle sticks and nails_55x25x9.5in_alt view

Julian Hoeber, Negative Space Thought, 2015

69.Hoeber_Negative Space Thought, 2015_Plywood, glue, shellac, popsicle sticks and nails

Julian Hoeber, Negative Space Thought, 2015 (detail)

70.Hoeber_Going Nowhere Vector Model, Bas Relief Tile

Julian Hoeber, Going Nowhere Vector Model, Bas Relief Tile, Second Level Complexity, Negative Spaces, 2015

72.Hoeber_Going Nowhere Vector Model, Bas Relief Tile, Second Level Complexity, Negative Spaces, 2015

Julian Hoeber, Going Nowhere Vector Model, Bas Relief Tile, Second Level Complexity, Negative Spaces, 2015 (detail)

81.Hoeber_Angular to Curved Experiments 1&2, 2015_Gouache and graphite on mulberry paper_Approx 18x7 in each piece

Julian Hoeber, Angular to Curved Experiments 1&2, 2015

86.Hoeber_Angular to Curved Experiments 3, 2015_Gouache and graphite on mulberry paper_Approx 7x18in

Julian Hoeber, Angular to Curved Experiments 3, 2015

76.Hoeber_Ten Form Experiments, 2015_Gouache and graphite on mulberry paper_Approx 30 x 40 in

Julian Hoeber, Ten Form Experiments, 2015

83.Hoeber_Melanie Klein Bottle, 2015_Graphite and gouache on mulberry paper_15x10 in

Julian Hoeber, Melanie Klein Bottle, 2015

84.Hoeber_Bas-Relief Tile and Facade, 2015_Gouache and graphite on mulberry paper_15 x 10in

Julian Hoeber, Bas-Relief Tile and Facade, 2015

78.Hoeber_Going Nowhere Plan, version 2, 2015_Graphite and flashe on paper_22x17 in

Julian Hoeber, Going Nowhere Plan, version 2, 2015

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