David Robbins at Raucci/Santamaria
Contemporary Art Daily 27 Jan 2012, 2:15 pm CET
Artist: David Robbins
Venue: Raucci/Santamaria, Naples
Exhibition Title: The Lift Trilogy
Date: November 25, 2011 – January 27, 2012
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Raucci/Santamaria. Photos by Enzo Velo.
Press Release:
“Sometimes it takes an artist to know an artist…”
From November 25 to January 27, artist and writer David Robbins (Whitefish Bay, USA, 1957 live and works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) presents The Lift Trilogy (2006-2011), his second exhibition in Naples since 1995. Comprising three videos along with related paintings and sculpture, the exhibition explores the evolution of Robbins’ complex interactions with personal trainer Joshua Van Schaick. Each of the three videos is integrated into a unique installation.delivering its own, self-contained pleasures, while together the three form a chain of revelations that establish a narrative arc and the exhibition whole.
Using as subject matter a recent social phenomenon–the personal trainer, emblem of our determined striving for physical health and beauty—The Lift Trilogy opens out onto questions about art and artist. In the social role of the personal trainer we can locate our own yearning for perfection, the tensions that attach to self-image, the perennial desire for self-transformation, and the fleeting nature of physical beauty. As much as a personal trainer addresses the mechanics of the body, then, he also plays a symbolic role in the mind. Thus could Robbins transpose a context of emphatic physicality–gym, weights, exercise, the figure–into a conceptual key, one that runs throughout the Trilogy. Evaluating Van Schaick’s own, decidedly soulful approach to training challenged Robbins to reach beyond mere ideas, however, for while any personal trainer might be credited with the attributes described above, Van Schaick seems to treat personal training as his medium, exploring and developing his approach to it in a manner similar to the way an artist explores and invents his art. In place of paint or clay, Van Schaick’s material is human interaction. Adopting a wholistic approach to training, in his professional capacity he works to shape his clients’ physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.
The Lift Trilogy developed from a video initially undertaken by Robbins to convey a sense of what it is like to train with Van Schaick. The resulting video, Lift (2006/2011), a portrait of a young man who transformed himself from a hot-tempered, violent adolescent into a compassionate and philosophical personal trainer, has been praised as “a new kind of monument” and is now included in several museum collections. In the course of the project, the pair’s multi-tiered roles— artist and model, director and subject, client and trainer—deepened and overlapped, with Van Schaick becoming muse to the artist Robbins, who gradually came to perceive Van Schaick as himself a kind of instinctive conceptual artist.
According to Robbins, The Lift Trilogy manifestation at Raucci/Santamaria presents “an artist using the exhibition format to argue that someone else is an artist” – an approach in pointed contrast to the prevailing conception, carried over from modernism, that an exhibition directly indexes an artist’s “self-expression.” Offered instead is art that celebrates and promotes another’s achievement. The Lift Trilogy exhibition charts the course of the project and attendant discoveries. In so doing it confronts our definition of “artist.” Who is an artist? How do we define art? Is “art” restricted to the art context? A brochure expanding on these questions, with an English-language text authored by Robbins, will be available to gallery visitors.
David Robbins
Ingrid Luche at Air de Paris
Contemporary Art Daily 26 Jan 2012, 2:15 pm CET
Artist: Ingrid Luche
Venue: Air de Paris, Paris
Exhibition Title: Le Lapin Turquoise
Date: December 10 – January 21, 2012
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Air de Paris, Paris. Photos by Marc Domage.
Press Release:
No question, Ingrid Luche’s works disconcert: in her sculptures and installations the viewer recognises the everyday functional forms she takes her inspiration from, but those forms are marked out by a gap that is none other than the one separating reality from dream. The spaces she creates in her exhibitions are remanences of places passed through and permeated with a now unconscious experience. “The Turquoise Rabbit”, her third solo exhibition at Air de Paris, is based on reminiscences of a museumlike world; a distinctive museum in which the exhibits are affected by the magical powers they supposedly represent: loose-fitting garments inspired by Amerindian ritual dances (the Ghost Dresses series), ethnography-inflected sculpture (Monsieur Pigman) and magic objects (Le Lapin turquoise). Here the museum is no longer a detached presentation of distant objects, but an experience in its own right; a place not of knowledge but of recognition for the viewer. A space that speaks to us of our desires and our memories, and sketches a collective history of the present time: a history in which accounts of the past live on like markers of the history we want to see now.
Ingrid Luche lives in Paris and teaches at the National School of Architecture in Bourges. Since her study years at the Villa Arson school of art near Nice she has been exploring the sensory perception of architecture and public spaces and its recreation via sculpture, photography and site-specific installations. She recently held a solo exhibition, Le Lapin Turquoise, at La Station in Nice and Le Rutebeuf in Clichy-la-Garenne will be presenting her next show, Ailleurs, in November (18.11.11–15.01.12). Last summer the large site-specific work The May Riving Pavilion was part of the exhibition De la Neige en Eté at Le Confort Moderne in Poitiers.
Group Show at Mathew
Contemporary Art Daily 25 Jan 2012, 2:15 pm CET
Artists: Carissa Rodriguez, Dirk von Lowtzow, Dorota Jurczak, Flame, Heike-Karin Foell, Jana Euler, Jutta Pohlmann, Louise Lawler, Megan Francis Sullivan, Murk, Nick Mauss, Nina Koennemann, Sam Pulitzer, Stefan Thater, Taslima Ahmed
Venue: Mathew, Berlin
Exhibition Title: Grand Opening Part II
Date: January 11 – February 1, 2012
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Mathew, Berlin
Press Release:
After a grand opening with a carefully curated group exhibition in December 2011, the second chapter of Mathew now follows, in which the new space proves itself again to be a long overdue addition to established Berlin galleries. While one could certainly complain that Mathew takes the problems of an insider-based art world to new extremes by relying programmatically on recommendations it is however important to note that Mathew is rather transparent in its approach and doesn’t claim to make isolated discoveries. Another point of criticism – that the percentage of female artists in Mathew’s first exhibition was too low – is taken up and corrected in the current exhibition, as it is dominated by women. For instance, the Brussels-based Jana Euler (born 1982) produced an image loosely relating to the aesthetic of Neue Sachlichkeit, which asserts the (anonymous) body as the central agent in the “power game” of life. Whoever wishes to keep their head above water, must evidently struggle enormously, and will nevertheless nearly drown. Taslima Ahmed’s work (born 1983, lives in Berlin) can be read as a commentary on the return of the human figure in contemporary sculpture. Here utility knives form a body, whose head is figured by a mask. The mask doesn’t only point to the figurative potential of the readymade; it moreover reminds us that the desire for something as familiar as the human figure is particulary strong in times regarded as precarious and unstable. Carissa Rodriguez (born 1970, lives in New York) presents the bible of the Occupy movement, David Graeber’s Debt, as a fetish. The imprints of pearl earrings placed on it remind us of the fact that “Occupy” when situated in the art world encompasses a moment of “radical chic” while it can´t be reduced to it. There’s more to say, but for reasons of time and space, I will end here.
-Isabelle Graw
Link: Group Show at Mathew
Bjarne Melgaard at Guido W. Baudach
Contemporary Art Daily 24 Jan 2012, 2:15 pm CET
Artist: Bjarne Melgaard
Venue: Guido W. Baudach, Berlin
Exhibition Title: The Night Within Us!
Date: November 26, 2011 – February 25, 2012
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin
Press Release:
Galerie Guido W. Baudach is pleased to present the third solo exhibition of work by the New York based Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard (b. 1967).
Bjarne Melgaard has curated a number of themed group exhibitions this year, and his own installations have consistently formed their spatial and thematic nucleus. Apart maybe from the bright orange carpet laid out on the otherwise grey floor of the gallery, one’s first impression of The Night Within Us! is that of a conventional Bjarne Melgaard solo show. There are a total of four paintings, all of them expressive abstract portraits executed in Melgaard’s characteristically light palette, ranging from light blues and pinks through oranges, while darker shades are employed only for the contours of figurative elements and the integral lettering of the images. All paintings are in a horizontal format that explodes the given proportions of the cabinet-like exhibition space. Distributed across all four walls, the paintings engender a physical presence that is almost claustrophobic in its penetration. Most of the heads in Melgaard’s portraits are painted against scenic backgrounds and here they are tilted to the side as though this were their only means of making any room for themselves in the spatial situation of the gallery. Bjarne Melgaard once again tests the limits here; both of the given space, and of the portrait genre.
But The Night Within Us! is more than just an exhibition of contemporary art. A framed poster hangs in the midst of the paintings. At its centre, surrounded by almost surreal sketches of the artist’s alter-ego, stands a young woman wearing the glad rags of an eighties teenager and looking out at the viewer somewhat timidly. This is a depiction of 33 year-old Anne Lilia Berger Strand – better known by her stage name, Annie – a Norwegian singer-songwriter who has been making her own variant of danceable independent electro-pop for over a decade and has frequently worked with music greats such as British producer Richard X, Timo Kaukolampi from the Finnish synth-nerds Op:l Bastards, and singer and guitarist Alex Kapranos from Glasgow’s Franz Ferdinand.
The poster points to the fact that the exhibition is part of a planned collaboration between pop music and contemporary visual art. Bjarne Melgaard himself has already realized a number of similar ‘interdisciplinary’ projects with Indie musicians such as Kim Gordon, bassist of Sonic Youth, and No Wave co-founder Lydia Lunch. Here he references his compatriot Annie in the title: The Night Within Us!is also the name of her forthcoming single. The accompanying video will be shot over the coming weeks, partly in Melgaard’s New York studio and partly at the exhibition in Berlin. This in turn was inspired by the lyrics of Annie’s song, which deal with love and loss, those apparently banal subjects that nevertheless always retain their currency and have always been an influence on Bjarne Melgaard’s artistic practice. They are present everywhere in his work, at least as a subtext, even if the works are about Satanism (Black Low, 2002), snuff (LeTeaser, 2005) or child prostitution (Kidwhore in Manhattan, 2008) on the face of it.
The central motifs in the portrait paintings created for The Night Within Us! – which can be seen as self-portaits of the artist as Annie -are the existential human need for tenderness, trust and partnership on the one hand, and the painful realisation of lies, deceit and abandonment; themes that are emphatically reflected in the pastose tears that flow from the wide eyes of the faces. But caution: Bjarne Melgaard’s Annies are smiling.
Bjarne Melgaard has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions at home and abroad (selection): Absolute Installation, Nasjonalmuseet for Kunst, Arkitektur og Design, Oslo (2012-2011) / In the context of Biennale Di Venezia 54: Guest ProfessorBeyond Death: Viral Discontents And Contemporary Notions About Aids, Graduate Programme of Visual Arts at the Faculty of Design and Arts, Università IUAV di Venezia, Venice; curator of the exhibition Baton Sinister, Palazzo Contarini Corfù, Venice (2011) / Bjarne Melgaard / Rod Bianco “Super Normal”, De Appel arts centre, Amsterdam (2010) / Jealous, Bergen Kunstmuseum and Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo (2010) / Norse Soul: the legacy of Edvard Munch, social democracy, old myths, anarchy and death longings, Katzen Art Center, American University, Washington DC (2010) / LOSS OF CONTROL, Marta Herford (2008) / Marie-Louise Ekman & Bjarne Melgaard, Malmö Konstmuseum (2007) / Paul Thek – Werkschau im Kontext zeitgenössischer Kunst, ZKM, Karlsruhe and Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg (2007-2008) / Euro-Centric. Part 1, Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2007) / Hallo Maybe, Haugar Vestfold Museum, Oslo (2005) / PLAYLIST, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2004) / Scam, Bergen Kunsthall (2003), Black Low: The Punk Movement Was Just Hippies with Short Hair, Marta Herford (2002) / The Myth Of A Young Washingmachine, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo (2000).
Georg Herold at Barbel Graesslin
Contemporary Art Daily 23 Jan 2012, 2:15 pm CET
Artist: Georg Herold
Venue: Barbel Graesslin, Frankfurt
Exhibition Title: RESTLESSEGGS
Date: December 19, 2011 – January 28, 2012
Full gallery of images and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Barbel Graesslin, Frankfurt
Week in Review: January 22, 2012
Contemporary Art Daily 22 Jan 2012, 7:45 pm CET
Welcome to Week in Review, our Sunday round-up of the last 7 days of activity here at Contemporary Art Daily. Please subscribe to our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, follow us on Tumblr, and become a fan on Facebook.
This week’s featured exhibitions:
Ei Arakawa and Sergei Tcherepnin at Taka Ishii
Cosima von Bonin at Museum Ludwig
Leonor Antunes at Kunstverein Dusseldorf
“The Nascent Knowledge” at Salzburger Kunstverein
Joachim Koester at Institut d’Art Contemporain
Be sure to e-mail us with any tips, observations or complaints and comment on the shows you feel strongly about. If your company is interested in sponsoring the site, please visit our sponsorship page. Have an excellent week.
Joachim Koester at Institut d’Art Contemporain
Contemporary Art Daily 22 Jan 2012, 2:30 pm CET
Artist: Joachim Koester
Venue: Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes
Exhibition Title: December 10, 2011 – February 19, 2012
Date: Of Spirits and Empty Spaces
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Institut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes
Press Release:
The Institut d’art contemporain has invited Joachim Koester for his first large monographic exhibition. Born in 1962 in Copenhagen (Denmark), Joachim Koester lives and works in Copenhagen and New York.
Joachim Koester participated in Documenta 10 in Kassel (1997) and in the Venice Biennial (2005). He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world. Recent monographic exhibitions were held at Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2010), Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover(2010), Turker Art Museum, Finland (2009), Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2007) and in France, in particular at Frac Lorraine, Metz (2009), La Galerie, Noisy-le-Sec (2007) and the Centre National de la Photographie, Paris (2001).
The exhibition at the Institute assembles a large set of existing works, most of which were made since 2005, and new works, consisting mainly of films and photographs. Joachim Koester has designed the exhibition like a pathway in half-light through a maze that fills all the space available. This exhibition is for him a matrix whose components (ideas, characters, subjects and emotions) weave links from one room to another.
Drawing on both the documentary and fiction, Joachim Koester’s work re-examines and reactivates certain forms from the past while paying attention to the questions of conscience and the fading of the senses.In a cinematographic spirit, he develops a recurrent principle of image editing to grasp a collective memory and perform both mental and geographic exploration. In this permanent investigation of the test of time and of erasure, Joachim Koester draws on the duality of the scientific relationship with the real and sensitive experience. Thus the representation as photos or film of places full of history and then deserted to which he turns often accomplishes this voluntary abolition of the frontiers between rationality and empiricism.
Message from Andrée (2005), corresponding to a turning point for Joachim Koester, is his first work to include a film with a flicker effect and whose documentary dimension is a pretext for a perceptual experiment. From there, the artist concentrated more and more on a quest for ‘spirits’.
Joachim Koester’s ‘ghost-hunting’ in his works to bring back forgotten people or places often involves occultism or rituals experimenting with different types of perception. Mention is made of Carlos Castaneda’s research on shamanism, places associated with black magic, outlaw communities and areas subjected to psychogeographic examination.
Within the framework of his interest in the exploration of an unknown mental world, the artist goes back to Henri Michaux’s drawings made under mescaline by making a ‘psychedelic’ film whose blinding effect is provided by flicker aesthetics.Joachim Koester’s recent works display the human body by creating a gestural language evoking in a minimal mode the question of trance, a body that is ‘inhabited’ as if possessed.
Variations of Incomplete Open Cubes is one of the new works that Joachim Koester has made for the exhibition at the Institute. Starting from one of Sol LeWitt’s minimalist sculptures, the artist has created a ‘dance for the hands’ and gives the body the role of ‘recording machine’.
Joachim Koester’s conceptual and experimental approach, with tension between rational and irrational, matches in part the research conducted by the IAC’s Laboratoire espace cerveau*. Within this framework, the artist proposes as works to be studied Le rideau des rêves. Visions hypnagogiques presented by Yann Chateigné, art critic, exhibition curator and head of the Visual Arts Department at HEAD (Haute École d’Art et de Design), Geneva.
“The Nascent Knowledge” at Salzburger Kunstverein
Contemporary Art Daily 21 Jan 2012, 2:30 pm CET
Artists: Steffi Old / Eva Seiler, Peter Haas, Renate Hausenblas,Gisela Katzengruber, Barbara Keller, Mary Morschitzky, Noël Ody, Christian Ruchnewitz, Dorota Walentynowicz, Christian Wallner, Wolfgang Wolleschak, Siegfried Zaworka
Venue: Salzburger Kunstverein
Exhibition Title: The Nascent Knowledge
Date: December 18, 2011 – January 29. 2012
Curated by: Christian Kobald
Full gallery of images and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Salzburger Kunstverein
Emanuel Rossetti at 1m3
Contemporary Art Daily 21 Jan 2012, 1:09 am CET
Artist: Emanuel Rossetti
Venue: 1m3, Lausanne
Exhibition Title: Another Day at the TCCA
Date: December 22, 2011 – January 14, 2012
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of 1m3, Lausanne. Photos by Mathilde Agius.
Press Release:
(Conversation between a cat and a wall at 11:25 AM =
« Oh- somebody is running after me, i saw myself all over the walls on the street. 33333333333333333.
+What ? Strange.
« The walls aren’t supporting anything, and I can walk through them !!!
There is another layer over there, made by lines and curves. It’s moving.
I can’t see them, dazzled by the absence of the sun. It hasn’t rise since ever.
Why are U building those strange architecture. Do you think the world operates this way ? No it’s not. It’s not working !!
? Are you dancing with your shadow ? This shadow – difficult to have my head in place inside of this.
Anyhow, I can’t understand how this all works, I see all the side at the same time. I have thousands eyes. And those volumes. I can’t touch them, I can’t touch anything.
? but where does thoses trees come from ? There weren’t here one minute ago… !!!
Where are U ?
Just over there, the only thing I even recognise are those graffitis.
hmm… My feet are leaving the ground, HEHE, I can’t touch the ground. I have no weight anymore, strange…
* And I’m upside down now, interesting seeing you from the top !
I see the blue forms. Everything is turning blue. And darker.
Is this a garden ? Are WE in a garden !? The leaves spakle. I’m blind !
What time is it ?
Jeanne Graff
Link: Emanuel Rossetti at 1m3
Trevor Shimizu at 47 Canal
Contemporary Art Daily 20 Jan 2012, 2:30 pm CET
Artist: Trevor Shimizu
Venue: 47 Canal
Exhibition Title: Late Work
Date: January 5 – February 12, 2012
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of 47 Canal. Photos by Joerg Lohse.
Press Release:
Trevor Shimizu was born March 30, 1978 of Japanese-born Americanized parents. Like President Obama, he is from humble Hawaiian beginnings. Hawaii, a tourist destination in the mid-‘50s, was popularized by the TV personality Arthur Godfrey. Godfrey also introduced to the American public the ukulele. American pop culture was fixated on Hawaii in the ‘50s. “Hawaii became an American cliché.” Pop culture is very important to Shimizu. He is an aficionado of film and considered becoming a filmmaker. Francis Ford Coppola, the Aries filmmaker, had a big influence on San Francisco, where many films were made, and where Shimizu was introduced to media and performance art. Here, he was introduced to the work of William Wegman, Ernie Kovaks, and Andy Kaufman. He found a very idealistic situation in New York. The great women artists Carolee Schneemann, Shigeko Kubota, Dara Birnbaum, and Joan Jonas have been important in his development. He also does technical work for Dan Graham. His studio work is different from his day job. Trevor Shimizu’s work has a conceptual, laconic humor. This element of humor is especially important. Shimizu’s Japanese background informs his practice, relating to Japanese Manga and Anime. When he discovered he shared a birthday with Vincent Van Gogh and Francisco Goya, he wanted to paint. His self-portraits locate him in commonplace situations, and for this show he projects himself into the future as a 70- to 80-year-old man. Trevor Shimizu’s goal is to have fun and live a good life.
Peter Fend at Essex Street
Contemporary Art Daily 19 Jan 2012, 2:30 pm CET
Artist: Peter Fend
Venue: Essex Street, New York
Exhibition Title: Über Die Grenze
Date: January 8 – February 12, 2012
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Essex Street, New York
Press Release:
Über die Grenze is the term used by the German Ministry of Science and Technology, Art Department, to describe, in 1991, the work of Peter Fend. It means “out of bounds.”
Since that time, and especially in the past decade, most of the work Fend produces is Über die Grenze and hasn’t been seen or read or done.
ESSEX STREET presents a survey of several Über die Grenze projects.
These projects include:
-proposing a channel near Chernobyl to reduce river pressure on the reactor site -producing satellite imagery of contested sites for global mass-media, and demonstrating the rights and duties of civilian artists to work with such imagery -conceiving and testing an offshore rig for rapid growth of giant algae—to yield bio-gas -drawing maps based on the world’s saltwater systems, and not present-day nation states, to develop rational policies for renewable resources and reverse environmental decline -restoring water-flows into the Arabian/Persian Gulf, in order to bring back animal habitat -designing and deploying lightweight, undershot waterwheels reducing dependency on river-blocking dams -organizing the efficient collection of weeds that accumulate in sluggish waters—to clear the water, and then processing them in silaging and fermenting tanks for methane -showing the parallels of the borderline layout of NY, CT, NJ and PA to that of Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, which previsioned the strategies of the eventual attack on Iraq in 2003
In every case, these projects were initially invited or commissioned for exhibition or publication by various institutions, including Documenta; the Venice Biennale; the Venice Architecture Biennale; Semiotext(e); the European Capital of Culture Ruhr 2010; Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren; the New Museum; Gallery Marc Jancou, London; U.S. Congress; Tokyo Metropolitan Government; Kunsthalle Graz; FRAC PACA, Marseilles; Grand Street magazine; the Sharjah Biennial; Heidelberg Kunstverein; the Contemporary Arts Center of Cincinnati; Museum Ludwig, Koln; Migros Museum, Zurich; Kunsthalle Wien; Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Indiana; Royal Academy of Art, London and elsewhere.
However, none of the projects were realized to their necessary extent. One must understand the scope of Fend’s ambitions. To show a proposal in a gallery, which is then elaborated in a Biennial, then acquired by an institution, and then reviewed in a magazine, yet isn’t funded or allowed real world implementation, is for Fend a kind of failure. The works, their contained ideas and potentials, have ultimately been censored, stolen, discarded, filed as confidential and otherwise submerged because the projects, or Fend’s role in them, were deemed Über die Grenze. But for Fend the very goal is just that: to be Über die Grenze, to use the supposed freedom and catalytic nature of the avant-garde to go beyond.
One might respond, Perhaps the art world isn’t the most suitable context for Fend’s efforts. If so, we must acknowledge the following: How very little do we ask, or even allow, from art?
Other well-known artists, such as Gordon Matta-Clark or Dennis Oppenheim, ended up with much of their intended work unrevealed or unbuilt. The artist is often devalued as unqualified to do anything real. Need he or she gain credentials and become an engineer, an architect, or a scientist? But what about the gaps between these disciplines? What about the scarcely imaginable projections of a society that defies logical and linear progression? Why does the state of art so often merely imply a passive reaction to past events?
Fend is in business: he wants the legal contract rights he has with many experts for collaborative efforts enforced; he wants the ability to exercise his constitutional rights and duties to the fullest extent; he wants to maintain his intellectual property. The specialization of disciplines causes rupture of such rights, with deadlyconsequences for society’s ability to cope with ecological and technological change. Fend wants to build his ideas, not disperse them as objects and gestures.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Remarks about Fend:
Il fait la pornographie politique. Paul Virilio, Paris, on French TV 1, 1985
What he does: real estate. Leo Castelli, NY, on visiting a Fend exhibition at American Fine Arts, 1991
He’s the Lawrence of Arabia of the Art World. Richard Prince, NY, in “Arts” Magazine, 1991
I like his work but don’t like him. Benjamin Buchloh, NY, as stated to Kate Glazer, who went on to marry Fend
If every time you read the name Damien Hirst in the newspaper it said Peter Fend instead, we wouldn’t have this BP mess in the Gulf of Mexico. If Peter Fend were as famous as Jeff Koons, there would be no toxic nightmare in our oceans.
Rachel Harrison, NY, in “Spike” Magazine, Vienna, 2010
Peter Fend has, among other activities that transcend the usual artist’s remit, published scientific papers and articles in New Scientist, produced press conferences at the UN and lecture on military analysis. … As happens so often, the role of art in discussions of such gravity as nuclear power, decommission of weapons and negotiation of international borders must be called into question.
Sally O’Reilly, London, in “Art Monthly” Magazine, 2008 ___________________________________________________________________________________
-Peter Fend’s first showed, suddenly, in a group exhibition at the Baxter Art Museum at Caltech in 1978. -His first solo show was at the Peter Nadin Gallery, New York in 1979. -In 1979 he co-formed The Offices of Fend, Fitzgibbon, Holzer, Nadin, Prince & Winters. -The Offices expired in 1980 at which point Fend followed a lawyer’s advice about collaboration and founded a business corporation for art ideas, now called Ocean Earth. Other investors and participants were Coleen Fitzgibbon, Wolfgang Staehle, Taro Suzuki, Bill Dolson, Eve Vaterlaus, Jonathan Crary and Paul Sharits. Since the reincorporation of Ocean Earth in 2008, Heidi Mardon and Catherine Griffiths have become significantly involved. -Galerie Buchholz, Koln, published the first monograph of Fend’s work in 1990. -Fend has had solo exhibitions at Esther Schipper, Koln; Le Casa D’Arte, Milan; Christian Nagel, Berlin; Tanja Grunnert, Koln; Anne de Villepoix, Paris; Marta Cervera, Madrid; Marc Jancou, London; Mars Gallery, Tokyo; Nicola von Senger, Zurich; and with George Kargl in Vienna. -From 1988-2004, Fend worked with Colin De Land/American Fine Arts, New York.
Leonor Antunes at Kunstverein Dusseldorf
Contemporary Art Daily 18 Jan 2012, 2:15 pm CET
Artist: Leonor Antunes
Venue: Kunstverein Dusseldorf
Exhibition Title: villa, how to use
Date: October 22, 2011 – January 15, 2012
Full gallery of images and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Kunstverein Dusseldorf
Cosima von Bonin at Museum Ludwig
Contemporary Art Daily 17 Jan 2012, 2:15 pm CET
Artist: Cosima von Bonin
Venue: Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Exhibition Title: Cosima von Bonin’s Cut! Cut! Cut! For Museum Ludwig’s Sloth Section, Loop # 04 of the Lazy Susan Series, A Rotating Exhibition 2010 – 2012, One, Two, Three, Four
Date: November 5, 2011 – May 13, 2012
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Press Release:
LOOPS OF THE LAZY SUSAN SERIES LOOP # 01: WITTE DE WITH, ROTTERDAM (10 OCT 2010 – 9 JAN 2011) LOOP # 02: ARNOLFINI, BRISTOL (19 FEB – 25 APR 2011) LOOP # 03: MAMCO, GENEVA (1 JUN – 18 SEP 2011) LOOP # 04: MUSEUM LUDWIG, COLOGNE (5 NOV 2011 – 13 MAY 2012)
Cosima von Bonin’s (*1962) exhibition at the Museum Ludwig is the final chapter of an exhibition series connecting four European cities. Conceived as a work in progress – similar yet totally different in each location -, the cycle began in Rotterdam, continued to unfold in Bristol and then in Geneva. The cycle ends with a big bang where it all began: in Cologne, the artist’s home base. Cologne thus forms the final “loop” in this circular exhibition concept, as indicated in its title. Lazy Susan is a colloquial term referring to a rotating platter centrally placed on a dining table – and particularly common in Chinese Restaurants – enabling easy access to different dishes. The choice of a household accessory that bears a female name is no coincidence. Just as significant is the idea of laziness, a recurring motif in Cosima von Bonin’s work. The central new piece of the LAZY SUSAN SERIES, AMATEUR DRAMATICS (2010), was co-produced by the participating institutions and takes the form of the eponymous Lazy Susan: a large rotating disc that looks like a mix between carousel and presentation platform. The artist placed various previously created works from her repertoire on the disc, including the PURPLE SLOTH RABBIT (2010) – a large reclining rabbit figure with the word SLOTH embroidered underneath its feet. With irony and provocation, Cosima von Bonin thus makes laziness – simultaneously a vice and a dream in today’s times in which every minute counts – the leitmotif of an exhibition cycle that has more to do with manic production and hyperactivity than with idleness and indolence.
For the Museum Ludwig’s vast skylight gallery, Bonin created a spectacular installation that is simultaneously a clever exhibition design. Six oversized tables ranging in height from 2.7 to 5.4 meters fill the space and offer various presentation levels, with the table surfaces as well as the space beneath used for display. Here, the artist actively incorporates the special features of this high-ceilinged hall with its suspended gallery into her work, offering the visitor a completely new and unaccustomed viewing perspective. Across five rooms and various media settings, the exhibition continues to unfold outside the south entrance of the museum, with the monumental TAGEDIEB (2010) a long-nosed – and hence obviously dishonest – Pinocchio sitting on a towering umpire’s chair, acting as both sculpture and streetlight. Altogether, the exhibition unites over 70 works, among them numerous new productions and a few rarely exhibited pieces from private Cologne-based collections.
Cosima von Bonin does not focus exclusively on a specific technique or style. However, she often privileges soft materials and embroidered textiles, which not only summon associations with stereotypical female pastimes, but also express the apparent lassitude of her cast of characters. The artist picks up on a host of references and associations – from Kippenberger to Disney – and mixes them all together, reminiscent of a DJ’s sampling technique.
Collaboration, appropriation and delegation play central and vital roles for the artist. She turns herself into a producer or “Master of Ceremonies,” associating colleagues and friends from a wide variety of disciplines – music, theater, literature, film and art – to take part in her exhibition. They are involved in both the supporting events and the exhibition itself. Thus, for example, the visitor is invited to look at certain works while listening to musical beats by Moritz von Oswald, read a booklet with a fictitious interview by Dirk von Lowtzow and a science fiction story by Mark von Schlegell, and look at films by Frances Scholz (who like Bonin and Schlegell is based in Cologne) inspired by the Schlegell’s “Starlite” story. All of these works were specially commissioned by the artist for her exhibition. These different elements merge in the show, generating a remix that is delightfully absurd and thought provoking, with plenty of surprises in store for the viewer.
WIR SIND VIELE FRANCES SCHOLZ DIRK VON LOWTZOW RENÉ POLLESCH MORITZ VON OSWALD MAX LODERBAUER GEORGE ROMERO JACQUES TATI CLAUS RICHTER PHANTOM GHOST MARK VON SCHLEGELL FRIEDRICH W. HEUBACH PRODUZENTIN VIOLA KLEIN WOLFGANG VOIGT & ANDREAS DORAU
Ei Arakawa and Sergei Tcherepnin at Taka Ishii
Contemporary Art Daily 16 Jan 2012, 7:45 pm CET
Artists: Ei Arakawa, Sergei Tcherepnin
Venue: Taka Ishii, Tokyo
Date: December 17, 2011 – January 14, 2012
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Taka Ishii Gallery, Toko
Press Release:
Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to announce a collaborative audio-visual performance installation by Ei Arakawa and Sergei Tcherepnin, on view from December 17 until January 14. Both artists will be present at the installation and on most of the exhibition dates from 3pm until 6pm with the exception of December 20, 27 and 28. The galleries will be closed for the winter holidays from December 29 until January 9.
Ei Arakawa (b. 1977) and Sergei Tcherepnin (b. 1981), both live in New York. They began collaboration in 2007. Previous solo exhibitions and projects include: Künstlarhaus Stuttgart, Germany (2009); Tbilisi 6.Never On Sunday, Georgia (2009); Casco, Utrecht, The Netherlands (2010), Vox Populi, Philadelphia, USA(2010); The Showroom, London (2011); CAC Brétigny, Paris (2011).
Ei Arakawa is based in New York since 1998. Working almost always collaboratively, his work “structurally evades forms of production that could be ascribed to, or referred back to a single subject.” Selected performances and exhibitions: Tate Modern, London (2012); Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland (2011 and 2009); Le Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France (2011); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011); DAAD Gallery, Berlin (2011); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2011); Wiels, Brussel, Belgium (2011); Frieze Project, London, United Kingdom (2010), Galerie Neu, Berlin (2010).
Sergei Tcherepnin is a Brooklyn-based artist who uses performance, composition, and installation to explore the materiality of sound and its physical and psychological effects on the listener. Selected performances and exhibitions: Performa11 at New Museum, New York (2011); Murray Guy, New York (2011); 47 Canal, New York (2011); Societé, Berlin (2011); Tokyo Wonder Site, Shibuya (2011); Audio Visual Arts, New York (2010); Roulette, New York (2010); The Stone, New York (2008); Merkin Hall, New York (2008). His compositions have been performed by Da Capo Chamber Players, St Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, American Wind Symphony Orchestra. He is a 2012 Artists-in-Residence at ISSUE PROJECT ROOM, New York.
Timur Si-Qin at Fluxia
Contemporary Art Daily 16 Jan 2012, 2:30 pm CET
Artist: Timur Si-Qin
Venue: Fluxia, Milan
Exhibition Title: Legend
Date: December 2, 2011 – January 21, 2012
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Fluxia, Milan
Press Release:
“In each new work [artists] will seek to raise the benefit—the attention-earning power—of their compositional efforts and lower their composition costs, through recombining existing solutions in new ways, while also raising the benefits and lowering their audience’s costs in time and effort.”
Brian Boyd, On The Origin Of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction, Harvard Press, 2009
Fluxia is pleased to present Legend, the first solo exhibition in Italy of work by Timur Si-Qin (Berlin, 1984).
For the project presented at Fluxia, Si-Qin activates the narrative potential surrounding the gallery by traveling to Oria, the hometown of Valentina, one of the gallerists. There he meets her father, Ennio, a medieval reenactment hobbyist, and proceeds to shoot a video of the gallerists (Valentina and Angelica) shooting modern firearms into the father’s pieces of medieval armor — a simulated anachronistic battle doubling as the act of artistic production. The video alongside the objects themselves are presented as works in the exhibition.
Legend is a context-specific project, dealing not only with the gallery as a physical entity, but also as a personal, social and material space of interaction. These multiple layers of networks and the connections between them constitute a system of stories surrounding the gallery and the production of each exhibition, a narrative potential that plays a significant role in determining the exhibition itself, becoming a sort of invisible extension of the artwork’s medium.
Starting from an interest in a biocultural perspective on art — namely a critical theory rooted in contemporary evolutionary theory — Si-Qin’s work develops a reflection on the mechanisms of art production and consumption, reliant on evolutionary themes in cultural artifacts and narratives.
Drawing on the writings of biocultural theorist Brian Boyd, Si-Qin believes that patterned cognitive play, in the form of a secondary-narrative surrounding an exhibition, is the dominant stage and medium of contemporary art. Also that art and culture in general ultimately derive from an adaptive history of the human species and continue to serve an adaptive role today. The more “basic” narrative themes of culture, such as those involving money, violence, romance and family are dominant and hyper-represented in mainstream culture because of their inherent relevance to biological survival. Concomitantly the human brain is largely hardwired to detect and respond to that relevance and is therefore predisposed to pay attention to such themes.
In a gesture of minimalism, Si-Qin uses these more basic themes in his work in order to signify and highlight the biocultural in general as well as benefiting from the material’s bio-cognitive ability to draw attention.
Link: Timur Si-Qin at Fluxia
Week in Review: January 15, 2012
Contemporary Art Daily 15 Jan 2012, 9:58 pm CET
Welcome to Week in Review, our Sunday round-up of the last 7 days of activity here at Contemporary Art Daily. Please subscribe to our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, follow us on Tumblr, and become a fan on Facebook.
This week’s featured exhibitions:
Sam Durant at Franco Soffiantino
Reena Spaulings at Chantal Crousel
Xanti Schawinsky at Tempo Rubato
Jordan Wolfson at Schmela Haus
Kerstin Brätsch, Adele Röder at Kunsthalle Zurich
Simon Dybbroe Møller at Fondazione Giuliani
Be sure to e-mail us with any tips, observations or complaints and comment on the shows you feel strongly about. If your company is interested in sponsoring the site, please visit our sponsorship page. Have an excellent week.
Simon Dybbroe Møller at Fondazione Giuliani
Contemporary Art Daily 15 Jan 2012, 2:30 pm CET
Artist: Simon Dybbroe Møller
Venue: Fondazione Giuliani, Rome
Exhibition Title: HELLO
Date: October 11, 2011 – January 28, 2012
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Fondazione Giuliani, Rome
Press Release:
Hello,
has a certain non-word-ness about it. It feels more like sound and less like communication of meaning than most words. When Thomas Edison discovered the principle of recorded sound, the first word he yelled into the machine was ‘halloo’. Hello is the title of the audio piece that, with a stressed correctness of tone and attempted neutrality, will speak to you when you enter the Fondazione Giuliani. Hello is also the title of this exhibition.
I often suffer from sudden dizziness when thinking that perhaps things gather in clusters by themselves.
- Pablo Henrik Llambias
It will be like this: when you stand or walk on O and No, a gym floor that has been assembled with a different intention than the ruliness of sports, you will see that the floor has been reduced to an image. An image of material excess. Or an image of nothing. An image of that which turns hell into hello. On the walls you will see O: in these inkjet prints, the same subject is reproduced over and over again, only in different colours and styles. They have their origin in Word, a program released in 1983 by Microsoft. In this program, one is offered a selected range of colours and sizes to produce and output letters and numbers. One is likewise offered the option to then cancel these choices. These O’s are unfinished. They have never gone full circle to become holes in language. They simply smile back at us. If O is a thing, it is a thing that signifies nothing.
Things Thinking Things consists of bundles of photographed objects chosen according to the simplest of all phonetic principles, that profane poetic tool: the rhyme. Here, the rhyme is a machine and it spits out objects. Each family of objects is arranged in stacks according to generation. And finally, Produce. Straight-from-the-package household-printers, hanging on the wall, sticking out their tongues. They have been unplugged in the midst of printing their very first piece of paper, and now they hang there, substituting the frame, which would otherwise have held the image. The new bike does not exist.
Hello is my second exhibition in Italy this autumn. The first, entitled O, opened in Milan some weeks ago. O, a sort of premature echo of Hello, oscillates between the too much and the less than little. The same could be said of Hello, but this show goes a step further. Hello takes on limitless expenditure and passive indifference as modes of resistance.
Yours truly,
Simon Dybbroe Møller
Berlin, September 2011
Kerstin Brätsch, Adele Röder at Kunsthalle Zurich
Contemporary Art Daily 14 Jan 2012, 2:30 pm CET
Artist: Kerstin Brätsch, Adele Röder
Venue: Kunsthalle Zurich
Exhibition Title: Vorahnung [United Brothers and Sisters]
Date: November 12, 2011 – January 15, 2012
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Kunsthalle Zurich. Photos by Stefan Altenburger.
Press Release:
Kerstin Brätsch and Adele Röder, who have presented their works in numerous exhibition and project formats in association with and under the banner of the collective DAS INSTITUT, present the first direct contrasting of their individual artistic positions at the Kunsthalle Zürich’s temporary home in the Museum Bärengasse. In a complex installation comprising reworked and fragmented elements from the architecture of the previous exhibition at the Kunsthalle Zürich, light elements and a new project with United Brothers which, again, takes up the idea of the collective, this show brings together paintings by Kerstin Brätsch and works by Adele Röder who uses a variety of media.
From the outset Kerstin Brätsch and Adele Röder’s works explore issues concerning the authentic-ity of artistic creation and the value and utility of art and artistic formulations. The polarisation between the deconstruction and confirmation of their own artistic practice and the instrumentalisa-tion of both art and the person of the artist herself take place in their works, in their individual practice and in the various collective formats, with which they operate. The two artists repeatedly explore the theme of the virulent marketing of art and the persona of the artist today as occurs in corporate design and in image branding strategies. However, the importance of social networks and the accompanying effects of “viral marketing” are also made explicit.
With this exhibition in the Kunsthalle Zürich the two artists explore their instrumentalisation of and through DAS INSTITUT. After the recent presentation at this year’s 54th Venice biennale and their participation in the exhibition project «Non-solo show, Non-group show» at Kunsthalle Zürich in December 2009, the artists opt for a “disclosure” of their individual artistic approaches and, in this way, for the renewed confirmation of what individual creativity, ways of exchange and conveyance can make possible.
As conceptual works, the paintings of Kerstin Brätsch (born in 1979, lives and works in Germany and the USA) focus their attention on the performative aspect of artistic images today and the ac-companying questions of presentation, distribution and the attribution of meaning. Her works are among the most exciting statements to be created in this medium in recent years. Just as she dia-metrically opposes the ideas of signature and authenticity associated with paintings with collec-tive, reproducing and performative artistic approaches, with an equal lightness of touch, Brätsch tests the boundaries between artistic fields of production. She uses her large-format oil paintings on paper as an abstract stage: she copies, multiplies and fragments them, or paints them on transparent Mylar sheets which enable the complex superimposition of images. This engenders the constant attempt to dismantle and convert painting itself with the aim of overhauling and re-building it. Brätsch instrumentalises her position as “painter”/publicly active “artist” by both questioning it and mixing it with possible alternative models – for example in the form of collabora-tion and in the resolute transparency of her artistic process. This approach becomes both the act and the consciously assailable projection surface.
In her works, Adele Röder (born in 1980, lives and works in the USA) operates with an abstract system of signs and symbols which she varies in numerous formal and material manifestations. Exploiting the possibilities but also conditions of digital “design” and production, she creates an artistic system that relates in its logic to the symbolism, exemplary nature and presence of signs while simultaneously exploring the ways in which they functions as the bearers of information in art, fashion and design. The forms in her digital designs are initially withheld from fixed materiali-zation. The artist subsequently allows them to be incorporated into wide-ranging realisations and also object versions – be they as slide projections, as backgrounds for posters/magazine advertise-ments or in highly diverse textile formations, all of which explore the characteristics and system of the design. Textiles assume an important role in her work here as they offer a broad field of ref-erence for human use and the man-world interface – in clothing, as dwellings, as the bearers of symbols in the decoration of the surface of our bodies and world. For Röder, textiles represent a cursory presence and, hence also, flexible fields of meaning and function – they are at once form and non-form. In the Starline – Necessary Couture and COMCORRÖDER (Adele Röder for DAS INSTITUT) series presented in this exhibition, she explores the boundaries of abstraction, symbol, mutation and pattern in relation to their materialization and makes it possible to experience the complex symbolism of the formal vocabulary used in association with the medium textile as the interrogation of the material together with the material itself as the bearer of information.
Kerstin Brätsch and Adele Röder’s works emerge individually and repeatedly also for and as DAS INSTITUT. With this “Agency for Import and Export”, the two artists consider the problems asso-ciated with the identification of art in a world completely covered with goods. They are interested here in performances of things and their meanings, possible instruments of abstraction and in what art, fashion, design and our product world in general can produce in terms of models (design), infor-mation (advertising) and transfers of meaning (distribution). In the specific works which Kerstin Brätsch and Adele Röder create for or with DAS INSTITUT, they explore change and mistaken identities and categories offered to our identity as a cover by the customising and identity projects of our media-dominated everyday lives.
The series Glow Rod Tanning_Interchangeable Paintings (Kerstin Brätsch für DAS INSTITUT), which is presented in the Kunsthalle Zürich in the Museum Bärengasse for the first time, consists of paintings on transparent polyester films which can be layered and combined to create constantly changing images. These are contrasted with abstract light and textile elements (Adele Röder for DAS INSTITUT). As a display system, the artists have created a complex construct of encounter but also of the varied translated “use” of their works: Kerstin Brätsch’s paintings and Adele Röder’s textiles adopt fragments and actual ruins of the exhibition architecture from the Kunsthalle’s pre-vious show by Walid Raad. They have them dismantled and transform them into light benches and illuminated showcases. The artificial light opens up another level here: while the viewers are courted by this and associations with tanning studios are evoked, a disturbing complication in the encounter with the work of art also arises. Once again, the artists challenge traditional hierarchies through the “suffering” of painting evoked in this way. The presentation form of the light bench refers to a “consultation” with United Brothers (the artists Ei Arakawa and his brother Tomoo Arakawa, who runs the Blacky Iwaki tanning studio near Fukushima) and incorporates the exhibit-tion into a research project – presented through the exploration of Abstract Anxiety – which culmi-nates in the project «BLACKY Blocked Radiants sunbathed», a collaboration between DAS INSTITUT and United Brothers. In keeping with the title of the exhibition «Kerstin Brätsch / Adele Röder. Vorahnung [United Brothers and Sisters]», the anticipation and announcement of this pro-ject, which explores topics concerning social and energy participation, become part of the exhibit-ion through the naming of future exhibition projects (for example at the Halle für Kunst in Lüneburg eV) on a large poster and with posters, film trailers and objects in the exhibition itself.
Jordan Wolfson at Schmela Haus
Contemporary Art Daily 13 Jan 2012, 7:54 pm CET
Artist: Jordan Wolfson
Venue: Schmela Haus, Kunstsammlung NRW, Dusseldorf
Date: September 8, 2011 – January 15, 2012
Note: One of the videos included in the show, Crisis, 2004, has been uploaded here. Another, Con Leche, 2009, can be seen on Ubuweb here.
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Dusseldorf
Press Release:
The American Jordan Wolfson, born in 1980, is often regarded as one of the most exciting artists of his generation. Presented in the framework of his solo exhibition at the Schmela Haus is a selection of new and old works which represents a welcome opportunity to become acquainted with the full range of his creative production. His work centers on an investigation of our cultural unconscious as well as our consumer culture, which he pursues via filmic, painterly, and photographic approaches.
In order to adapt this small survey to the very special setting of the Schmela Haus, Wolfson visited the building a number of times in recent months and has conceptualized a series of artistic interventions especially for this context, transforming our perceptions of the architecture and making a visit to the Schmela Haus — independently of the presentation of his works — into an enduring experience.
Xanti Schawinsky at Tempo Rubato
Contemporary Art Daily 13 Jan 2012, 2:30 pm CET
Artist: Xanti Schawinsky
Venue: Tempo Rubato, Tel Aviv
Date: December 10, 2011 – January 14, 2012
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.
Images:
Images courtesy of Tempo Rubato, Tel Aviv
Press Release:
On the occasion of the second exhibition at TEMPO RUBATO gallery, Guillaume Rouchon is delighted to announce a presentation of historical works by Bauhaus artist ALEXANDER “XANTI” SCHAWINSKY (1904 -1979).
XANTI SCHAWNSKY belongs to the younger generation of Bauhaus students who still made direct contact with the Masters: Paul Klee, Walter Gropius, Wassily Kandinsky, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Later friends and collaborators include Mies van der Rohe, Herbert Beyer, Lyonel Feininger, and Marcel Breuer only to cite a few.
After art studies in Switzerland and Germany, Schawinsky starts teaching at the Bauhaus in 1924 in the theater department, first Weimar and then in Dessau as the school moves. In 1933, after clashes with the Nazi authorities that reproach him for being involved in efforts to set political prisoners free, he takes refuge in Switzerland and Italy. in 1936, as fascism rises in Europe, he is invited by Josef Albers to incorporate the teaching corpus at the legendary Black Mountain College in North Carolina, USA.
Exhibiting extensively in the USA and Canada alongside his teaching work, he is notably included in “The Bauhaus 1919-1928” exhibition at the MoMA in 1939, his participation earning him an award for his sculptural work.
From 1941, Schawinsky settles in New York where he creates some of his most iconic works and continues exhibiting.
In 1963-64, he returns to Europe – Italy and Switzerland – where, working until his death in 1979, he is invited to individual and group exhibitions by major institutions and galleries throughout Europe and the USA.
Schawinsky applied his universal talent to painting, design as well as stage and performance, which made him a typical representative of the Bauhaus intentions that focused on creating a totality of lifestyle instead of just independent artworks.
Characteristic of Schawinsky is his extensive experimentation: He not only tested constructivist forms of expression, but also explored abstracted objects and spontaneous-expressive manifestations as well as depictive geometry. Throughout this oeuvre there is a fundamental, connecting theme: The relationship of movement and space.
Multiple experimental works, executed by Schawinsky in the 30’s and 40’s, effectively make him a forerunner and Avant-Gardist to the art of the second half of the century.
Presented for the first time in Israel, the 17 works on show at TEMPO RUBATO will be graphite and airbrush drawings, lithographs, gouache on paper and collages, spanning the years 1926 to 1946.
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