Gallery 46 say they are “proud to present the first joint exhibition in London and first full collaboration by Paul Renner and Paul Sakoilsky”, Looks like an interesting one, as it always is with Mr Sakoilsky of course.  The gallery go on to say, “working around themes of transformation, corruption and conservation, the show presents a banquet of the senses and a magic bullet for these dark times”

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THIS IS THE GATE OF HEAVEN refers to the numerous doors of Gallery 46, where Renner & Sakoilsky show their latest art works. Here the artists traverse a multi-dimensional labyrinth within the gallery’s three 18th century terraced houses and a series of 7 specially created rooms

Renner creates environments where the aesthetic takes on the infinite, where all divisions collapse and the six senses fuse into one. His method is anarchic, subversive and experimental, following William Blake’s words: ´The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom’. And if it doesn’t, so much the better.

Sakoilsky’s darkly humorous, subversive media hijackings of his potlatch newspaper ‘The Dark Times’ sit alongside the iconography of expressive cityscapes, at once banal and cosmological, revealing the barbarity and beauty of contemporary London. And a series of still lifes accords with another of Blake’s notions – the glimpsing of Heaven in a grain of sand.

The artists first met working for the Viennese Aktionnist, Hermann Nitsch, in his Orgien Mysterien Theater. At the core of both their work is a vital, sensual and conceptual engagement with the world, embracing travel, arcane histories, pataphysical realities, and a shared fascination with historical and contemporary artwork, as well as the literature of the ‘anti-tradition’. Renner and Sakoilsky have exhibited and collaborated in past group expositions, most recently, ‘Transformazione’ at the Palazzo Ducale, Massa, Italy (2017).

Rooms:

THE GATE OF HEAVEN ROOM contains a hybrid and collaborative extension of Renner’s The Hell Fire Touring Club and Sakoilsky’s The Gate to Heaven artworks, (incorporating his LSD Capri nonstop, Napoli 2013, with a new large ‘celestial’ painting.

SIR JOHN SOANE`S CABINET is a rococo compression chamber created in homage to the eccentric 18th century collector. Renner panels the entire room and displays objects of Pataphysical design and inspiration.

THE DARK TIMES ROOM is totally ‘decorated’ with Sakoilsky’s The Dark Times ‘newspapers’ and related works. This includes works from 2007 until the present time.

THE MANIFESTO ROOM presents an accumulation of art manifestos, which have been processed and recycled by Renner and Sakoilsky as a journey through schizo-geographical space. To include: Lorenzo Brivio, Günter Brus, Hermann Nitsch, Paul Renner, Paul Sakoilsky, Lajos Adamik, Gavin Turk, Adam Dant, Luna De Rosa, Atlass Press, Martin Sexton, Joshua Compston/FN, The Armchair Mountaineering Club. More details tba.

THE LONDON PAINTINGS ROOM shows Sakoilsky’s oil paintings of London cityscapes. Hung salon style, selected from a body of paintings made over the past decade with an emphasis on the more recent work such as the ‘138 Balfron’ series, painted from his ex-studio on the top floor of Goldfinger’s Brutalist tower in East London. Including related writings.

THE BOURGEOIS-COCKNEY FINISHING SCHOOL BAR is a hybrid of Renner’s Bar & Food Installations and Sakoilsky’s Still Life paintings. This is the site of selected manifestations and readings and a place to relax in an atmosphere of terminally weird luxury. It is an environment in which the themes of heaven, hell, earth, transformation, corruption and conservation coil about each other in an air of heightened reality.

THE OYSTER ROCKET SCULPTURE is a ziggurat of oysters and alcohol from which Renner launches and celebrates his gastronomical theatre.

THIS IS THE GATE OF HEAVEN runs from 8th June until 7th July, the private view is on 7th June 7 – 10pm.   Gallery 46 is at 46 Ashfield Street, London, E1 2AJ

Paul Sakoilsky

FURTHER NOTES ON THE SHOW> 

Paul Renner’s work focuses on the idea of art as a Gesamtkunstwerk. He is particularly interested in art as synaesthetic perception. His exhibition projects culminate in the staging of theatrical soirées at which visual arts and performing arts are informed by culinary art and for which he designs buildings (Theatrum Anatomicum), stages festivals (Vakanz) and founds travel clubs (The Hell Fire Touring & Dining Club).

Paul Sakoilsky’s new series of impasto paintings for ‘This is The Gate of Heaven’ capture the barbarity and beauty of contemporary London. His unique series of ‘urban expressions’ accord with a city in transition, capturing the skyline as a sensual and conceptual engagement with the world: embracing change, arcane histories, & pataphysical realities. Sakoilsky’s chromatic fascination with architectural formalism juxtaposed with the sky’s naturalism can be seen in views of The Shard, Balfron Tower and the Grenfell Tower: ‘in memoriam’. Paul Sakoilsky is a London based artist and writer: his darkly humorous, subversive media hijackings of his potlatch newspaper ‘The Dark Times’ and his performance-based alter ego ‘Kunst-The-Clown’ sit alongside his iconographic and expressively painted cityscapes. He has exhibited across Europe and extensively in London. Sakoilsky’s artwork is collected and published internationally.

The Artists relationship to Herrman Nistch: Renner & Sakoilsky became instant friends/coleagues during Hermann Nitsch’s ‘2 day play’ at Schloss Prinzendorf in 2004, where Sakoilsky was a participating actor, and Renner ran the kitchen/feasts with his team as a gift to the artist and collaboration. As a young man of 17 Renner became Nitsch’s assistant for ten years, whilst simultaneously working on his own art. Sakoilsky co-curated Nitsch’s first UK exhibtion at 30 Underwood St Gallery, in a Shoredtich long gone, which led to a long standing respect and friendship and collaborations taking part in Nitsch’s actions, writing on his work, and exhibiting/ performing at shows & events organised by Paul Renner.

Gallery 46 This new art-space from Martin J Tickner, Sean McLusky, Martin Bell & Wai Hung Young in Whitechapel, London’s long-standing centre of radicalism and independence, has developed from the non-conformist curatorial approach they deployed at Redchurch Street’s infamous MEN Gallery. GALLERY 46 signifies arrival, departure and evolution for Tickner, McLusky, Bell & Young. This larger space, housed in a pair of Georgian houses in the grounds of Whitechapel Hospital and set over 3 floors and 8 rooms is a kaleidoscopic addition to Whitechapel’s burgeoning gallery scene and its artistic heart, the nearby Whitechapel Gallery.

Reference to: ‘This is The Gate of Heaven’ is borrowed from a concrete lintel at St Paul’s Bow Church, Mile End, London. “It’s red lettering reminiscent of a 70’s Chinese takeaway, for years it always made me laugh and fascinated me when driving by, the least likely gate to heaven one might imagine. I ended up in a nearby studio, and of course when Renner visited after food/drinks, I took our group, late one rainy night to view The Gate of Heavan.” (Sakoilsky). The church was built in 1960 and is a Grade-II listed building, and it’s Revd. Gersham Kirkby (1951-94) was a ‘Christian Anarchist’ and member, along with philosopher Bertrand Russell & co. of the Committee of 100.