Peppi Bottrop

Peppi Bottrop is an abstract painter, who experiments with coal, graphite, acrylic and soot. Bottrop grew up in the 1990s in the industrial district of Ruhrgebiet, a once prosperous coal-mining region of the Ruhr that faced processes of foreclosure during his childhood. Unused buildings began to be reclaimed by nature, with soot, coal and fauna cohabitating in increasingly wild forested areas. These post-fossil ruinous sites left a lasting impression on Bottrop, and the dynamics between manufactured and organic materials still inspires his canvases today. Working in a distinct palette of greys, blacks and deep blues, the artist assuredly marks his canvases with tangled knots of gestures. Concrete lines slashed through the composition meet tender curves and tousled, loose forms resembling petals, stems or trunks. Each of these large-scale pieces is charged with an immense sense of admiration for nature’s perseverance, while the dark hues also offer mournful sentiments to both the families facing precarity in post-industrial areas and the destruction of the habitat itself. While studying at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Bottrop had Albert Oehlen, Andreas Shulze and Jutta Koether as tutors who each undoubtedly informed his confident mark making, eye for abstract compositions and assertive deployment of colour. ...

Pilar Corrias Gallery is a contemporary art gallery owned by Pilar Corrias. The 3,800 square foot gallery in London's Fitzrovia, designed by Rem Koolhaas, is made up of two exhibition spaces, located in the heart of London's West End. Pilar Corrias opened a second London gallery space at 2 Savile Row in July 2021, designed by London and Oslo-based architect firm Hesselbrand. Since its inception, the gallery has worked with emerging and established artists with the central aim of allowing their work to grow both in terms of production of new projects and the making of new exhibitions. Pilar Corrias now represents a total of thirty-two international artists, two-thirds of whom are female. ...