Rike Droescher and Danielle Fretwell
MINOR ATTRACTIONS
8 – 13 OCTOBER, 2024
The Mandrake
20-21 Newman St, London W1T 1PG
Alice Amati is pleased to present a duo show presentation, featuring the works of German artist Rike Droescher (b. 1990) and American artist Danielle Fretwell (b.1996).
Through the creation of spatial staging within paintings, sculptures, and installations, Danielle Fretwell and Rike Droescher explore the poetics of space and the delicate balance between accessibility and occlusion. Their presentations are populated with barriers and obstacles, such as a carpet made of dust that cannot be walked on and trompe-l'oeil drapery that obscures the view of represented objects. Through their individual practices, Fretwell and Droescher question the constructs of our daily life and suggest a possibility for a slower and more engaged way of experiencing images and our surroundings.
Droescher seamlessly merges natural and architectural spaces, employing ancient manufacturing techniques to create new objects that transcend functionality while retaining their organic origins. The spaces she constructs serve as both places of refuge and public passages, where the interplay between the physical, social, and architectural aspects intertwines, forming unique and unexpected associations that can only be experienced through the senses.
In her paintings, Danielle Fretwell strives to recreate sensory experiences through visual translations of everyday objects. Seemingly classical still-life, in which the objects are presented at a 1:1 scale to real-life, are concealed through the use of visual barriers to allow for a slow reveal of their details over time. Along with concealing information about the objects, Fretwell uses a combination of printmaking techniques with traditional modes of painting to complicate the understanding of her process and to draw attention to the slowness her medium demands from both the creator and the viewer.