Vogt Gallery is pleased to present Markus Draper’s latest video work, N.O.E., during Armory Arts Week 2011. The screening is a special preview preceding the gallery’s grand opening in April 2011.

Exploring the psychology of horror films, N.O.E. looks at the iconic movie “Nightmare on Elm Street”. In Draper’s re-interpretation, the actors have been intentionally excluded, shifting the focus of the work to the actual house depicted in the film. In the original movie series, there are 75 scenes that show an outside view of the house, which Draper has re-shot using a model setting. Draper’s recreated scenes of the house evoke the same frightening dream-like reality that Freddy Krueger provides in the film. “This metamorphosis of the house as a significant backdrop, if not character of the movie as a whole fascinated me a lot and I have been wanting to work with it in a long time”, says Draper.

Draper builds up on his previous work with fetish-like houses that he builds in model size. In order to accurately depict the house, he created four different models that replicate every detail of the house and set surroundings. The total re-filming of all scenes culminates in a seven-minute loop. According to Draper, “many of my videos almost have the character of a ?lm still, or at least they return as loop to the point of origin. In my opinion, this comes about through my training as a painter and hence the attempt to seek, in ?lm, an expansion of the painted image.“

As a trained and practicing painter, Markus Draper deliberately uses different artistic media, such as sculpture or site-specific installations, but since 2005, he has been focusing more on video. The integration of different types of media has become a defining element of his work. The film screening will be accompanied by a selection of photographs that chronicle the process of the making of the film.

Markus Draper’s work has been shown extensively in Europe. His works are part of museum collections such as Folkwang Museum Essen, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and Berlinische Galerie. He is also represented in major private collections such as the Goetz Collection in Munich. Draper has recently co-curated a series of group shows in Berlin titled Bel Etage. He lives and works in Berlin.

Reception: Thursday, February 24, 6 – 8 pm Artist talk: Markus Draper in conversation with David Cohen, Saturday, March 5, 12 pm