I really hate to think of Paul Schwer's new artworks – the first the German-born artist-sculptor has exhibited in the UK – leaving London.

Paul Schwer, 04-08/14, 2014, pigments, silkscreen lacquer
on PET-G, 106 x 88 x 67 cm, image courtesy of the artist
and Pi Artworks

I am giving his work an extra mention (see also the post below) in the hope that an institutional buyer might snap it up before the exhibition closes on Saturday 16 May.

The Shape of Things to Come is a depiction of the city of Istanbul where translucent brightly painted sculptural half-human shapes seem to cower, cringe, and hide from the glare of the sun.

They shelter in a pergola, a roofed space the city has set up specifically for the purpose. Are they 'people', vagrants perhaps, forced to seek shelter from this blinding light?

The shapes have actually been forged in an industrial oven: fed in as sheets of plexiglass (PET-G) and spun, folded and twisted out of (or into) shape. What were two-dimensional plexiglass paintings, screen prints or a map (there is a street map of the city – now resembling a sheet of crumpled paper destined to be hurled into space by some giant).

Schwer's sculptures inhabit the gallery space in a manner that almost displaces the viewer. For, using aluminium rods and fluorescent tubes, the artist has employed the gallery ceiling, walls and floor to construct a three-dimensional frame. Unaware, the viewer has ventured into that space; is held in the frame, and has now become part of it.

Curated by Stephan Berg..

Pi Artworks London

55 Eastcastle Street, London, W1 Nearest underground station: Oxford Circus london@piartworks.com Pi Artworks	Opening hours: Monday–Friday: 10:00–18:00Saturday: 11:00–18:00

STOP PRESS: Paul Schwer will discuss his current exhibition at Pi Artworks London, his recent practice and thoughts on contemporary painting on Thursday 14 May at the gallery. For further information, please contact: Neil Jefferies (nj@piartworks.com or +44 207 637 8403).