David Breuer-Weil: Project 4

Project 4, the latest in David Breuer-Weil’s series of epic solo projects, includes around 70 canvases alongside a number of sculptures. Breuer-Weil has a gift for finding dramatic and unusual venues; the Project exhibitions have always been staged in quirky, cavernous spaces. In 2001, the Project was in the crypt of the Roundhouse. Two years later, in 2003, Project 2 took place in the Bargehouse on the South Bank, and, in 2007, Project 3 was held in a disused multi-story car park in Covent Garden. Now, Project 4 is to be housed in the atmospheric vaults of Leake Street, Waterloo, in London, from February 7 to March 24, 2013.

Reveling in a diverse and unruly mix of colors, Project 4 fuses the themes of place, time, and cause, which have dominated Breuer-Weil’s work since the mid-1990s, with new concerns about the human condition and the artist’s role as commentator and creator. Leitmotifs of humanity, philosophy, and politics flit between the tragic and the joyous in a visual language that is as much absurdist as it is emotive.

Compared to previous Project series, the angles of vision in Project 4 are even more eccentric and disorientating, sometimes positively cinematic. Underlying the works is a profound sense of unease, but an element of hope seeps through. The Project series represents Breuer-Weil’s most comprehensive production; it is a monument to humanity and modern life and, as such, is a testament to the city that inspired it.