(The precarious future of) Sustainable Trash.

Is art nothing more than sustainable waste: Garbage with purpose and a place in the future? Maybe. But if something endures, has it been wasted? Is it still qualified as trash or does it speak of alternative possibilities for value?

The recent work of Stefan Gross sees him as a sort of scientist setting out to transform both material and immaterial cultural waste by employing a formalistic approach to physical properties and a slapstick approach to cultural underpinnings. Found objects, rescued toys and human practical and spiritual necessity are employed as the artist works to recreate a problematic that concerns him: “The world is a serious place these days. This is the problem that I try to solve with my work.”

Following “The Superhero Project,” “More Future,” “Moussism” (with Jeroen Jongeleen) and the creation of the signature “Golden Mousse” (Tobias Allanson), HLP will close the year with a 5^th Mousse Process Exhibition. This December, Stefan Gross will present figurative and abstract works with polymer, offering a colorful twist to pressing social contradictions.

A preview of works will be available on request from December 1^st.

Stefan Gross is the recipient of the AEG Art prize, the Kunstverein Drawing Prize and the Frits Philips Art Prize. He has been awarded funding for his ‘art you can hit’ project with Stella Boess (Love, Hate, Punch) by the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture. In 2009, he participated to the ‘Inside Job’ Group Exhibition at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen (Rotterdam, curated by Jeroen Jongeleen).

For more info: Harlan Levey Projects & Stefan Gross