Sequential Gestures_Serial Approaches in Contemporary Art_28.11.24 — 18.01.25

Bartha_contemporary is pleased to announce Sequential Gestures: Serial Approaches in Contemporary Art, an exhibition that examines the enduring fascination with repetition, process, and order in art-making. This exhibition reflects on how contemporary artists build upon ideas of structure, temporality, and perception.

Inspired by landmark exhibitions such as the Guggenheim’s ‘Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated)’, this show delves into the creative potential of repetition as an inquiry tool. It contrasts the sequential logic of singular gestures with parallel processes that unfold simultaneously, revealing the nuanced interplay of control and spontaneity, simplicity and complexity.

The exhibition features the works of Stephan Baumkötter, Susan Morris, Giulia Ricci and Hadi Tabatabai. It brings together diverse practices that share a commitment to precision and an acute sensitivity to materials and methods. These artists explore repetition not as mere replication but as a mode of discovery, producing subtle shifts and unexpected variations through disciplined systems of mark-making, layering, and pattern generation.

Stephan Baumkötter uses layering and restrained colour palettes to create paintings that vibrate with understated energy and embody a meditative seriality.

Susan Morris investigates time and rhythm through visual data, transforming repetitive gestures into intricate patterns that reveal the hidden structures of daily life.

Giulia Ricci reinterprets geometric abstraction through dynamic patterns that challenge the boundaries between order and flux, inviting viewers into mesmerising fields of optical rhythm.

Hadi Tabatabai employs meticulously strung thread and hand-painted sections to construct liminal spaces where geometric precision and sensory experience converge.

Through this dynamic grouping, Sequential Gestures reflects on the power of disciplined processes to create engaging and emotionally resonant artworks. The exhibition encourages audiences to consider how repetition, often dismissed as monotonous, can instead become a wellspring of creativity and transformation.