Rob Churm
Chocolatier
28 November – 23 December 2009

Chert is happy to present “Chocolatier”, the first solo project in Berlin by Glasgow-based artist Rob Churm.

The exhibition – consisting of a selection of recent drawings and a site-specific installation – is extended outside of the gallery perimeter.
Starting from a large-format poster outside the housing block, the show creates a passage through the insides and outsides of spaces, where the pieces installed in the old showcases in the courtyard are echos of advertising materials, flyers and bill-posting.
These remind of the artist’s early work, drawing album covers and posters for his own music band – used also as advertisement materials in Glasgow’s pubs and clubs. The show then ends in the Chino room with a big wall installation.
The use of the space here is reminiscent of a big showcase as well, as most of its content can be seen already through the big window – rendering the exhibition an almost completely outdoor project.
The large drawing presented here follows a recent development in the artist’s practice, in which he works on a large-scale format, expanding the technique he refined in his earlier production.
Paint, ink, pencil, ink-eraser and other “cheap” tools are employed in the work. The same meticulous precision he takes for a small-format paper drawing is maintained in the large wall installation, creating a surreal and abstract environment full of small details and open to various interpretations.

Churm was born in Epping Forest in 1979 and graduated in Fine Art from Glasgow School of Art in 2001. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, at Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow, as well as group shows at at Log, Bergamo, Broadway 1602, New York, and Whitechapel Project Space, London.

Rob Churm lives and works in Glasgow.