Jeppe Hein, All We Need Is Inside (Installation View), all photos via Art Observed
Currently on view at 303 Gallery, All We Need is Inside continues Jeppe Hein’s unique combination of reflective, sculptural and painterly works, investigating the powerful and playful combination of art and personal dialogue. The new show is a strong presentation of the artist’s approach to the act of interaction and the phenomenology of viewing art, and plays on notions of calming minimalism while incorporating immersive, challenging works throughout.
Jeppe Hein, Sine Curve (2015)
The space of Hein’s work initially presents itself as empty, yet is charged with a certain intangible energy.  Steps throughout the space reveal the remains of morning routine, as Sine Curve a centered mirror sculpture sheds its neutral white wall reflections by adopting the perspective of viewers.  Personal reflections bounce around the work, and each step provokes a shifting focus from personal to neutral, as mirrored panels quickly return to reflections of the gallery’s white walls.  Seizing viewers with its reflexive surface, Sine Curve steers viewers into a circular, almost hypnotic personal reflection.  Similar in nature are the three equidistant mirrored segments of Mirror Angle Fragments.  Here, Hein’s panels not only reflect the walls around them, but also the adjacent paneled mirrors connecting the gallery space and the viewer.
Jeppe Hein, All We Need is Inside (Installation View)
Gently altering the energy of the room, Hein devotes an entire wall to a single work, bearing a lightly-applied coat of deep blue, and titled Breathing Watercolor. Despite its intimidating size, this work one of the most welcoming in the space, reminiscent of Yves Klein’s magnetic potency in a single shade of blue.  Yet this blue closer to a seascape, varying in color and form. Marks in the painting are guided by Hein’s personal breathing pattern, with stripes that start heavy and slowly taper out. An aesthetic depiction of air escaping the lungs, it is human representation for surrounding works even when the gallery is empty.
Jeppe Hein, All We Need Is Inside (Installation View)
Disorienting and familiar at the same time, All We Need is Inside, is a reminder of how deep the self goes.  Showcasing Hein’s signature style, clean and sleek, yet topped with a bit of complex word play, the show’s titular work reinforces the necessity of the viewer, as its lights attract while its mirror reflects.  Viewers suddenly find themselves in a conceptual jam, stuck between forms that draw them in, yet collapse upon close inspection.  A great framing for Please Touch the Art, currently up in Brooklyn Bridge, Hein’s new exhibition offers a fitting start to the summer season in New York.
— R. Williams
Read more:
303 Gallery[Press Release]
