Matthew Antezzo
SUN IN MY HANDS

Klosterfelde Gallery is pleased to be showing new works by American artist Matthew Antezzo (b. 1962) for
its 10 year anniversary. In 1996, the Gallery opened with a solo show by Antezzo. Now, in 2006, the circle
is closing and this cyclical motif also appears in Antezzo’s current show SUN IN MY HANDS.
At first the exhibition seems to consist of three parts - a homage to the artists Hanne Darboven and Jack
Goldstein; the eight different depictions of the moon cycle and paintings that thematically play with the
motif of light.
The framework of the exhibition consists of Gewidmet meiner Mutter in which Antezzo paints Hanne Dar-
boven’s handwriting, who had once written the same words underneath a photograph showing her and
her mother, and of the red canvas onto which, as in the credits of a movie, the text and Jack Goldstein
appears. To underline the cinematic aspect that is already apparent in the title of the work From the Forth-
coming Motion Picture The Diamond Cutter, the red canvas is illuminated by a single spotlight and ac-
companied with sound effects like the scream of a hawk, the rolls of thunder or bangs of exploding new
year’s rockets. Antezzo has created a theatrical “Gesamtkunstwerk“: he puts the painting that only con-
sists of text, sound and colour on the stage and he therefore not only quotes Goldstein’s works like the
Metro Goldwyn Meyer lion that roars out of the TV set in an infinite loop. He raises a monument to the
artist Jack Goldstein who suffered under the pressure of the art world and finally committed suicide.
The dedication still does not only pertain to the two artists - its meaning is much more universal as it
combines the life-giving female, symbolized by the mother, and the death that is associated with Gold-
stein.
This becoming and fading is also a theme in various other paintings. In eight black canvases Antezzo
shows the different phases of the moon during one month.
The title of the exhibition “Sun In My Hands” can best be seen in the paintings where Matthew Antezzo
depicts various sources of light and where he plays with the variations of light: the profile of an italian
artist lit by a lamp, a young gallery assistant with a slide projector in one and a camera in the other hand -
two devices, that either project or reflect light, the still life with the burning candle, a Berlin curator illu-
minated by the strong light rays of a projector.
SUN IN MY HANDS shows both sides - the light and the shadow.

For images or further information please contact the gallery.

opening: 13. January 2006, 6 - 9 pm
duration of the exhibition: 14. January - 11. March 2006
opening hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays 11 - 6 pm