When abstraction meets emotional depth, sparks fly—and at Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery, they positively ignite. The gallery’s latest exhibition, + Days + Nights, brings together the haunting abstraction of Philippe Van Snick with the mythic, material explorations of Abraham Kritzman. Opening 11 April in Exmouth Market, this unmissable showcase will stretch until 8 June 2025, firmly planting a flag on London’s cultural calendar—right in time for London Gallery Weekend.
+ Days + Nights Exhibition: A Cross-Generational Creative Exchange
This exhibition marks the UK’s first major presentation of Philippe Van Snick’s work since his passing in 2019. But rather than dwelling in the past, + Days + Nights places Van Snick’s legacy squarely in the present by pairing him with Israeli artist Abraham Kritzman. Together, their works reflect a conversation—quiet at times, cacophonous at others—that cuts across decades, styles, and artistic codes.
Both artists reject rigid narratives. Instead, they invite audiences into evolving visual languages. With abstraction as their base, they build frameworks full of tension, tenderness, and transformation. Van Snick’s mathematical precision and binary codes meet Kritzman’s layered sculptures and dream-like prints in a striking creative clash. The result? A fresh look at how abstraction can remain gloriously human.
Abraham Kritzman: Movement, Memory, and Materiality
Kritzman isn’t afraid to make a mess—and that’s what makes his work so intriguing. His practice mixes sculpture, drawing, and painting, using architecture and mythology as recurring muses. For this exhibition, he unveils two new series that reflect both playful experimentation and poignant introspection.
First up are ten aluminium works cast at South London’s Make Touch foundry. These double-sided reliefs hang from the ceiling, creating an installation that’s architectural, fluid, and quietly emotional. On one side, each sculpture offers gestural marks inspired by drawings Kritzman made during a Greek residency. On the other, they piece together like a puzzle—revealing a large, abstracted kiss. How very Greek, indeed.
Also featured are carved wooden panels with layered ceramic inserts. Engravings swirl across black surfaces, while copper, iron, and chrome-infused ceramics tell smaller stories. The result is dynamic yet delicate—a visual representation of intimacy rendered through materials that feel both ancient and futuristic.
Philippe Van Snick: Systems, Colour, and the Beauty of Instability
Van Snick, ever the methodical romantic, created a system based on numbers (0–9) and ten iconic colours. His palette—red, blue, green, silver, black, white, orange, violet, yellow, and gold—became a tool to explore time, perception, and the existential push-pull of order versus chaos.
In + Days + Nights, Van Snick’s pieces feel timeless yet deeply contemporary. Key works like Dix Jours / Dix Nuits (1985) and Allies 1 and 2 (2012) reflect a lifelong obsession with the passage of time and the subtleties of change. His Symmetrische – Asymmetrische reeks op paneel (groen) from 1988 is another standout—a quiet meditation on duality, anchored by symmetry and gently disrupted by asymmetry.
Although Van Snick’s system might seem strict at first glance, it actually functions like a spiral. The more you engage with his work, the more layers unravel, challenging you to read between the lines—or between the colours.
Abstraction Finds a Home in East London
While the gallery is technically in Exmouth Market, + Days + Nights speaks directly to the Shoreditch mindset—bold, curious, and slightly defiant. In a city that thrives on creative collisions, this show provides the kind of intellectual friction that makes East London such a magnet for artists, designers, and cultural tastemakers.
Shoreditch’s own creative scene has long blurred the lines between tradition and innovation. This exhibition joins that lineage, giving Londoners a new way to look at abstraction—not as a distant concept but as a living, breathing dialogue.
Abstract Art with Soul and Substance
In a world addicted to speed and simplification, + Days + Nights offers something more enduring. Here, abstraction doesn’t distance the viewer—it draws them in. Kritzman and Van Snick show that design, like life, is rarely binary. Instead, it’s rhythmic, asymmetrical, and gloriously unresolved.
Elizabeth Xi Bauer has given these artists room to breathe—and to collide. The results are raw, poetic, and utterly vital.
So go ahead—recalibrate your creative compass, and take a detour into East London’s latest artistic revelation.
