Pierre Imhof

Pixel Shmixel

This is Pierre Imhof's second solo exhibition at Broadbent.

The show is centred on a new series of paintings collectively entitled Pixel Shmixel - an evocation of digital precision and its opposite, the precise imprecision of paint.

Imhof works with grids, squares and lines culled from computer technology, satellite imaging, bar-codes and photo-editing software, turning the geometrical patterns that provide the template for each work into faint memories; memories which with repeated recall build up the painted, painterly surface, palimpsest-like, its numerous layers each slightly offset from the others.

Each canvas is completely covered by its grids, checks or lines: yet the unevenness of the drawing and the introduction of deliberate "error" creates a strong sense of movement, drawing the eye on a journey across the whole surface. These works compel the viewer to zoom in and out, moving between a spatiality that is sometimes monumental and the lyrical intimacy of the concrete and irregular.

In a second series of works, entitled Habibi, mostly on paper, Imhof takes as his starting point the varying patterns and colours of the keffiyeh, the Palestinian scarf, which are then treated in a similar way to the underlying pattern in the Pixel Shmixel paintings. These pieces engage with their support, the paper itself, to create at times a more ravaged, peeling, pock-marked surface reminiscent of a rough wall or a worn, abandoned rug. The title Habibi is the Arabic for "love", "dear" or "darling."

Pierre Imhof was born in Fribourg, Switzerland and moved to London in 1979. There he studied painting and sculpture at Middlesex University, gaining his BA and being awarded the art purchase prize in 1986. He exhibits in Britain and Switzerland, and has also shown in Germany and in North and South America.

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Habibi 05



Pixel Shmixel (Black)

Cut and Paste