Display Gallery is proud to present ‘Gabriel Klasmer: A Group Show' an eclectic exhibition curated by Naomi Friedman, showcasing recent works from Klasmer's prolific oeuvre in his first UK solo show since 2007. Gabriel Klasmer is an accomplished and celebrated artist, whose work has been exhibited internationally and can be found in some major collections such as the Museum Of Modern Art in New York and the Tel Aviv Museum.

Starting out in the 1970's, Klasmer's initial practice centred around performative and conceptual works, often as part of the duo "Gabi and Sharon Present". His artistic production developed in the 1980's to include painting and sculpture, much of which was the perceptible product of solitary conceptual and performative studio practice that experimented with a multitude of materials and processes.

Klasmer's oeuvre offers a vast array of subjects, techniques and mediums. These range from monochromatic paintings, geometric abstracts and 'mechanical paintings' produced using self-made, low-tech painting devices to his anonymous portraiture painted from fleeting memory without an actual model. He has also created photographic, video and diverse sculptural works using low tech materials, such as heads and torsos made of compressed aluminium foil and inflatable bubbles using polyethylene, PVC and electric fans.

Reflection on both the works themselves as well as on the scholarly writings about Klasmer's practice produces little in the way of a clear-cut categorisation. While his position and concepts are consistent, his many styles and subjects are often seemingly incongruous. Consequently, this exhibition aims to free Klasmer from attempts to define the thread running through his artistic production.

The exhibition is neither chronological nor a presentation of a new seriate work. Instead, it aims to unpack a complex body of work that demonstrates Klasmer's many dispositional facets. There are familiar ingredients at play, such as figurative abstraction and conceptual romanticism that are recognisably Klasmarian. There is a playful, spirited quality to this array although it is firmly anchored in the canon of art and teems with historical references.

The fragmented figures allude to the long Tribal, Oriental and European traditions of head and torso sculptures. Klasmer uses compressed aluminium foil which, with its deceptive weightlessness, introduces a contemporary and conceptual point of view that contradicts the substantiality of traditional artefacts. The shapes may be conventional but the effect is dazzling. The paintings articulate fleeting memories while bearing witness to gestures of randomness. Both mediums offer a certain emotional distance, formulating a dynamic, yet unsentimental, expression. The inflatable bubbles reinforce this contrariety. As an exploration of space, boundaries and void, they underscore a spatial tension. They invade and obstruct but at the same time appear to be on the verge of collapse owing to their low-tech materials and construction. They are intrusive and confrontational, but are also intrinsically fragile. They are simultaneously alienating and alluring.

There is an underlying sense of irony and conflict in the works. Klasmer reiterates his ability to evade a straightforward identification of his position and subject matter. Instead he offers a multiplicity of views and nuances through his use of materials, gestural expression and visual references. The coexistence of contrasting elements, of distance and proximity, of familiarity and oddity, of pragmatism and poetic subtlety in each work lends itself therefore, to the sense of a one-man group show and celebrates the diversity of Klasmer's work.