Mist & Thunder
Xie Lei & Leyla Aydoslu
Curated by Àngels Miralda
Opening Toast
Friday, March 18th, 2022
18:00–21:00
Closing
Saturday, April 23rd, 2022
Sculpture and painting are often positioned at odds against each other. Limited to a glance the paintings of Mist & Thunder hold apparently weightless images, while the sculptures demand their space as a material abstractions. But that is only the beginning of the conversation between these opposing forces.
Xie Lei & Leyla Aydoslu both investigate the limits of the human body through lightness & weight, grace & gravity in this first exhibition at Sally’s Fault in Amsterdam.
In Xie’s paintings the body is represented through portraiture with blurred and unrecognizable features. In his previous work, the expressions chronicle liminal states such as the invisible difference between sleep & death, or pain & orgasm. These limits of consciousness define the emphatic visages of Xie’s figures.
In the Thriver series seen here, the body is repeated in a symbolic form — a downturned head looks towards upturned hands. In the hands, a ball of energy or flame-like form is exposed. The painterly brushstrokes evoke a spiritual energy within the landscape referencing invisible weights and centers of gravity that we all carry within.
In Leyla Aydoslu’s sculptures, material is attached and collaged, forming weighty pillars. Stretching horizontally or vertically, the works are made up to the extremes of Aydoslu’s own body, limited by the reach of her arms, and the edges of her capabilities to physically manipulate material. These forms pushed to Aydoslu’s limits mirror the liminality of Xie’s figures. Thresholds which he sensitively describes through the bodily proportions, and expressions of the fleshy containers that we each inhabit. Between the material and the spiritual, these works all contain surfaces that oscillate between the transitory and the eternal.
Xie Lei
Xie is known for his figurative paintings; often on dark backgrounds, his figures fade between distinction and abstraction, such as the human into nature, or the spirit into air. Xie has developed a recognizable painting style characterized by the mythic or folkloric elements of a dream-world.
Recent exhibitions have taken place at Meessen de Clercq (Brussels), Galería Marta Cervera (Madrid), HdM Gallery (London), Yima Gallery (Chengdu), Collection Lambert (Avignon), Lyles & King (New York), Mendes Wood (São Paulo), and Casa de Velázquez (Madrid) among others.
Leyla Aydoslu
Aydoslu often works with found materials that are constructed and rearranged around the scale of the body, and through architecture. The new forms test the limits of materiality through scale and assemblage.
Recent exhibitions have taken place at: Plagia Rama (Brussels), Roger Raveel Museum (Machelen-aan-de-Leie), Fred & Ferry (Antwerp), Ten Bogaerde (Koksijde), Museum M (Leuven), Watou 2021, P/////AKT (Amsterdam), CC Strombeek (Strombeek-Bever), SMAK (Gent), and Loods 12 (Wetteren), among others.
With thanks to:
Fred & Ferry, Frederik Vergaert, Johan de Cocker, Meessen de Clercq, Olivier Meessen, Sally Graves De Witt, Sarah Jane Savage, Shaun McAdam
Thursdays, Fridays, & Saturdays
14:00–18:00
and by appointment
on instagram @sallysfault
hello(at)sallysfault.com
Bloemgracht 56, 1015TK Amsterdam