Double Square 双方藝廊

Double Square Gallery is proud to present German artist Florian Claar’s solo exhibition, On First Sight, which will run from October 5 to November 16, 2019. Internationally known for his large-scale installations, Claar specializes to delineate dramatic tension in air flow and movement through large metal sculptures. His works engage space, landscape and architecture as the main components to de-contextualize daily elements people are familiar with and reinforce the hardly noticeable perception and connection between spectators and foreign objects. His public art commissions of large sculptures can be found in major cities around the world, such as Stadtpark Killesberg in Stuttgart, Germany; Tokyo Midtown in Tokyo and 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; IFS International Finance Center, Chengdu, China; National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts-Weiwuying, Kaohsiung and A18 Taoyuan HSR Station. On First Sight is Claar’s first collaboration with Double Square Gallery. While the artist has been known for his monumental public sculptures, this exhibition will showcase his mid- and small-scale works that are rarely seen before, encompassing video installations created in the past three years as well as an exquisite sculptural selection spanning a decade of his career. For the perfect presentation of Claar’s video works, the gallery especially collaborates with SAMSUNG to lead the audience into the artist’s creative world with SAMSUNG’s screen and stereo system.

The exhibition title, “On First Sight,” is inspired by Claar’s diverse cultural background. Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Claar grew up in Saudi Arabia and had traveled to various Muslim and African countries with his parents as a child. After finishing his college education, he departed for Japan and started his artist career. Having grown up and lived in countries that were not his native home, his personal experience, the landscape seen during countless trips, music, literature, popular culture and cinema, along with brimming thoughts and ideas, all become the source of his inspiration. He once stated that “inspiration appears on the first sight.” He believes that common feelings and awareness among different cultures can be evoked through art, and this commonality allows art to guide spectators into dream-like worlds to perceive familiar feelings, as if they were back in their own home. One simple feature can be found in all Claar’s works: the intuitive perception captured by diversified forms, which interpret the resonance and dialogue created by the emotional impact upon seeing his works. Claar uses a collage-like approach to create his works, constructing a fantastic world with memories and narratives. In addition to minimalistic, futuristic and industrial large sculptures, this exhibition also features his video works that have rarely been exhibited. For the artist, the combination of image and sound possesses the power to transport audiences back to specific moments in memory. Through collecting, combining and re-arranging these miniscule yet profound fragments of memory, they can be represented like mesmerizing montage scenes as though they were originally from the same scene and moment in time.

 

Florian Claar (b. 1968) was born in Germany and studied sculpture and stage design at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart. He currently resides in Japan and Germany. Claar launched a career in new media, installation art and film art after he went to Tokyo in 1994, and was awarded the 1st Prize of the Kajima Sculpture Competition (1998) and the 1st Prize of the Benesse Sculpture Competition. Since 1998 onward, he taught at Musashino Art University in Tokyo, Japan, and was Assistant Professor of Sculpture and Media Art at the California State University Long Beach in California, USA, and later, Assistant Professor at the Department of Sculpture Department at Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan. He has created public art commissions for numerous art institutions and organizations, among which are Midtown-Project Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; Changwon Museum of Modern Art, Changwon, Korea; IFS International Finance Center, Chengdu, China; National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts-Weiwuying, Kaohsiung and Taichung International Airport, Taichung, Taiwan. Some of his major solo and group exhibitions in recent years include Waldmärchenat at Nizayama Forest Art Museum, Toyama, Japan (2018); The Micro-cosmos of Florian Claar at Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori, Japan (2007); and Yokohama Triennial (2001).