Andrew Kerr

Andrew’s practice has generally been understood as one rooted in the hermetic space of the studio, with the artist consistently returning to a modest set of painterly materials. In size and theme his lyrical works are related to the tradition of easel painting – from Georges Braque to Prunella Clough and Raoul de Keyser. They depict relationships between shapes and colours organised in relatively shallow pictorial space; their enigmatic final forms can resemble vessels, emblems, still lifes or landscapes.

While sculptures have played a part in his work, something new seems to be taking shape in BQ. Andrew is himself staying in Berlin throughout November, working in the gallery. His approach is site-specific, with BQ’s spaces gradually becoming a kind of stage set, their character altered, ­ adorned and rearranged like shapes on a picture plane. Drawing is a foundational activity for Andrew and he begins his days at the studio with it. Choosing a single word, he repeatedly outlines its letterforms, pulling at their legibility, submerging their meaning in compositional play. The ­ abstraction of type becomes a conduit for pictorial ideas. Andrew’s interventions in BQ – the vocabulary of images, cut-outs and sculptures – are the direct result of this routine, transferred from page to architecture. A sketch-book of speculative set designs also aided the installation. In this way, two largely hidden aspects of his studio practice – letterform drawings and stage set design – are central to the exhibition in Berlin.

A catalogue featuring the letterform drawings will be published on the occasion of the show.

—Calum Sutherland