Escher in The Palace recently acquired the sculpture Antigravity (2019) by Canadian sculptor and architect David Umemoto through a special acquisition fund. The sculpture is currently on view in room 9 at the museum, between M.C. Escher’s prints.
Antigravity, David Umemoto, 2019
Antigravity, David Umemoto, 2019
The art of David Umemoto (Hamilton, Canada, 1975) balances on the border between sculpture and architecture. Umemoto originally is an architect, but has increasingly been focusing on sculpture. In his sleek concrete statues of buildings, he explores the twilight zone of both disciplines: staircases lead nowhere and walls stop at the wrong places.
M.C. Escher, Relativiteit, litho, juli 1953
In 2019, Escher in The Palace organised the exhibition David Umemoto: Architect of the Impossible. Following this exhibition, and inspired by Escher’s print Relativity (1953), Umemoto created this sculpture. In both works of art, gravity does not seem to exist. Both below and above, and left and right are stairs that can only be tread in the absence of gravity.
David Umemoto is represented by Modern Shapes Gallery in Antwerp.