» Hong Kong – Raoul de Keyser: “Replay Again” at David Zwirner Through August 6th, 2022

Raoul de Keyser, Come on, play it again nr. 2 (2001), via David Zwirner

On view through the end of this week at David Zwirner’s Hong Kong location, artist Raoul de Keyser presents a selection of works the continues and elaborates on a previous show at the gallery in 2021. Among the notable works that will be on view are representative paintings from the Belgian artist’s seminal Come on, play it again; Hal, and Hayward series, made during the height of his career, from the middle of the 1980s to the 2000s.

Raoul de Keyser, De Geglige (2021), via David Zwirner

De Keyser is known for his sophisticated and tempered paintings that subtly and evocatively explore the relationship between color and form. Made up of simple shapes and painterly marks, his works allude to the natural world and representational imagery while avoiding suggestions of narrative or reductive frameworks that limit experience and interpretation. Despite—or precisely because of—their spare compositions, De Keyser’s works convey a visual intensity that inspires prolonged contemplation, mirroring the artist’s own sustained, reflective process.

Raoul de Keyser, Replay Again (Installation View), via David Zwirner

Here, that focus is clarified through a range of series, including the seminal Come on, play it again series. First shown at De Keyser’s inaugural show at David Zwirner in 2001 in New York (also titled after the series), each of these works seems to follow a different compositional logic, while nevertheless relying on an economical use of biomorphic and geometric forms, squares, lines, and dots. The title of the series carries musical connotations, as if encouraging an improvisational jazz pianist, while simultaneously suggesting the possibility of infinite variation. Hayward I (1993), part of a series of works that De Keyser made on the occasion of the 1994 group exhibition Unbound: Possibilities in Painting at the Hayward Gallery, London, are also included in the show. Featuring planes of paint that hug the edges and margins of the support and push toward—yet remain separate from—the central vertical axis, the work exemplifies the artist’s dynamic and expressive approach to the canvas.

Raoul de Keyser, Replay Again (Installation View), via David Zwirner

The predominant themes here underscore an artist whose work as has long worked at the notion of the canvas existing between external and internal geometries, negotiating its place as a point of focus and a separate site for the eye along the wall. Here, with a range of works and varied focal notions on view, the show underscores an artist whose mastery of these concepts brought him to create compelling, enigmatic pieces.

The show closes August 6th.

– D. Creahan

Read more:
Raoul de Keyser at David Zwirner [Exhibition Site]

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