Roster Crow – Groupshow

68projects is pleased to present its inaugural exhibition entitled “RosterCrow: William Bradley, Alexander Kroll, Jennifer Packer”, on view from 6 September through 8 November 2014.

Invited by Quang Bao, 68projects’ first artistic director, to launch a new artist project space in Berlin, these three emerging artists from London, Los Angeles and New York City demonstrate the invigorating new possibilities of abstract and figurative painting. RosterCrow also introduces 68projects’ rotating roster—an invitation-based program designed to help artists expand their careers into Europe through exhibitions and publications.

All three artists pursue complex and engaging painting practices. William Bradley employs a multi-step process involving drawings, watercolours and computer renderings before beginning to paint. Jennifer Packer works with live models who pose for extended periods, lending her paintings intimacy and vitality without prioritising realistic portraiture. Alexander Kroll approaches the canvas with physical energy, layering paint and using tools for erasure and transformation, often relinquishing control to the process.

By exhibiting two abstract painters and one figurative painter, 68projects asserts the continued relevance and potential of oil painting while underscoring its commitment to presenting emerging artists to new European audiences.

“A painting can make you instantly happy,” says Bao. “I gush in front of the wondrous works of these three painters, but my thoughts settle on their deeper potential contributions to the oldest art form.”

The Artists

William Bradley
William Bradley graduated with a Master’s degree from Wimbledon College of the University of the Arts London in 2008. He has since been selected for FutureMap 08 and shortlisted for the Catlin Art Prize in 2009 and 2011. His work is included in several major collections. Bradley’s practice engages both abstract art and the history of abstraction, incorporating references to Abstract Expressionism and artists such as John Hoyland, Sandra Blow and Eduardo Chillida. By recycling and distorting historical formulas, he questions abstraction’s role in modernism and contemporary art. As Vincent Honoré, Director of the David Roberts Art Foundation, has remarked: “William Bradley is a perverse Abstract Expressionist.” Bradley lives and works in London and Yorkshire.

Jennifer Packer
Jennifer Packer holds an MFA from Yale University School of Art. From 2012 to 2013 she was artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Her work has been widely exhibited in the United States, and in 2013 she received the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant. Packer’s portraits initially appear restrained, only to gradually reveal complex narratives about their subjects. Her ability to merge personal experience with broader art-historical narratives earned her recognition, including inclusion in the Huffington Post list of “30 Black Artists Under 40.” She lives and works in New York.

Alexander Kroll
Alexander Kroll graduated with an MFA from Otis College of Art and Design. Abstraction and improvisation are central to his practice. His mixed-media works are built through layered applications of oil, acrylic and enamel, employing underpainting, collage and subtractive techniques. Kroll’s paintings reflect a balance between gestural fluidity and architectural structure. He has exhibited widely in the United States, including at James Harris Gallery (Los Angeles) and Fredric Snitzer Gallery (Miami). He lives and works in Los Angeles.