David Syre: Nooksack Harvest | July 17 – August 14, 2019 | Werkkunst Gallery, Hamburg, GERMANY

Nooksack Harvest is the first solo exhibition in Germany of the American artist David Syre, featuring a selection of paintings and drawings that shed light on his relationship with his native landscape and line geometry as a narrative element. The exhibition opens with a public vernissage on July 17, from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., and runs through August 14, 2019.

Since 2010, Syre has developed a prolific and expansive body of paintings and drawings inspired by a search for spirituality and inner transformation. As an avid observer of his surroundings, Syre depicts nature and people, mixing reality and emotions into an energetic play of simple lines and colors, rendered in a style that is decidedly and uniquely his own.

Nooksack Harvest, curated by Ana Palacio, features an array of Syre’s recent works—abstract and surreal paintings, drawings, and sculptures—inspired by the eponymous waterway (the Nooksack River) that runs alongside his farmhouse studio. The river, plus components of his private life—his active meditation practice and exploration of other levels of consciousness—all influence his artistic output.

Hero Dancer (2019), a recent large-scale painting, sets the tone of the exhibition. A bold, twisted yellow line stands out from a dark purple background, a metaphoric image of a spiritual journey, a path, a physical movement, a universal energy. The river, the trail, and landscape views are a recurrent theme in Syre’s works, often represented through visual metaphors and in different styles. The exhibition features both energy-loaded paintings of complex structure, made with several layers of fine lines and archetypal symbols, and more minimalistic works, created with few audacious strokes and monochrome backgrounds. The line, so closely associated with the river and the trail—the two cornerstones of Syre’s life—assumes explicit and suggestive qualities.

The exhibition’s curatorial concept rests on these paintings, in addition to a selection of drawings and sculptures, all born from Syre’s attentive survey of his environment. The reduction of any narrative element to only a few details is evident. Like in his paintings, the effortless strokes and colored pencil streaks seem to walk, almost dance, on the canvas/paper, driven by an internal impulse to tell profound stories. Installed all together, the viewer is invited to contemplate a creative harvest of many years of incessant art-making.

Werkkunst Gallery Hamburg
Eppendorfer Weg 235
20251 Hamburg - Germany

Vernissage: July 17th, from 7-10 PM
Exhibition: July 17 - August 14, 2019

Opening hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 12 am-6 pm.