G.T. Pellizzi - White Noise

31 October 2019 - 17 January 2020

Tobias Mueller Modern Art is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of works by G.T. Pellizzi in Switzerland.

 

White Noise is an exhibition that references the electromagnetic noise created by cosmic microwaves on old analogue television screens. White noise is generally associated with a lack of transmission signal, in what is now an obsolete technology. The transmissions and electromagnetic noises are waves much like the one generated in the string at the moment of snapping it.

 

Snapping also describes the technique used to create the paintings in the exhibition: A string gets passed through oil paint and then tensed over a canvas. By snapping the string the paint gets released onto the surface of the canvas. The resulting works are a product of the noise generated by the string and the resulting marks are even evocative of musical notation or a score.

 

Both technique and result highlight Pellizzi's interest in the history of abstraction and minimalism. By using the snapping as a technique he also translates his background of architecture into his work: The snapping is commonly used in the building trades where straight lines on vertical surfaces are often made with the help of chalked strings. Pellizzi's interest in materials used in constructions was also preeminent at his first solo show at Mary Boone Gallery in 2014 where all the works shown were made from construction materials.

 

G.T. Pellizzi was born in 1978 in Tlayacapan, Mexico. He studied literature and philosophy at St. Johns College before graduating from the Channin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union, New York. Before working as a solo artist, Pellizzi was a founding member of the Bruce High Quality Foundation, a Brooklyn-based art collective, with whom he exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney Biennial, MoMA PS1, the Pompidou Centre in Paris and various art galleries. In the past years he has participated in exhibitions at the Jeu de Paume in Paris, the Museo del Barrio in New York, the Biennial of the Americas in Denver, and at L&M. Gallery in Los Angeles. Pellizzi lives between Mexico and New York.