Gallery Network
Shop the Show: See German Artist Christina Kruse’s Whimsical Playground-Like Sculptures, Now on View in New York
"Plasterheads" on view at Helwaser Gallery through the end of July.
"Plasterheads" on view at Helwaser Gallery through the end of July.
Artnet Gallery Network ShareShare This Article
Every month, hundreds of galleries showcase new exhibitions on the Artnet Gallery Network—and every week, we shine a spotlight on the exhibitions we think you should see. Check out what we have in store, and inquire more with one simple click.
What You Need to Know: German artist Christina Kruse has honed a distinctive sculptural lexicon of abstracted figural forms, oftentimes balancing rounded shapes against plinth-like rectangles. In her new exhibition “Plasterheads” at New York’s Helwaser Gallery, the artist presents recent sculpture, including Lunapark (2021), a never-before-seen installation of a miniature world in which itty-bitty figure-like maquettes appear set amid architectural elements. Also on view is an installation of four sculptures, with contrasting volumetric forms. Made of wood, marble, plaster, and soapstone, these works offer a calming sense of steadiness.
Why We Like It: Kruse’s sculptures possess the kind of exuberant imagination and playfulness usually associated with childhood. Here, her small, human-like maquettes are each caught in a world of individual activities and motions, climbing, looking, exploring, each on their own. One is drawn into inserting all sorts of narratives onto their inanimate forms.
What the Gallery Says: “Her works expand on the formal and metaphorical binaries that can be found between the dynamics of the two antimonious installations—play/rest, chaos/order, and instability/balance. Building on her fascination with interior and exterior states of being, Kruse’s latest works trace a connection between the formal practice of sculpture and the psychological conditions of continuous becoming.”
“Christina Kruse: Plasterheads” is on view at Helwaser Gallery through July 30, 2021.