ARTSLANT'S SPECIAL EDITION
GALLERY WEEKEND BERLIN 2012
Katharina Grosse, One floor up more highly, 2010, installation view MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA, © Katharina Grosse & VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, photo by Art Evans.
Home Turf: Berlin Gallery Weekend Picks with Nicole Rodriguez
An abundance of international art in Berlin nowadays is a given. Rivaling London and New York’s expat allure, international creatives are flocking to Berlin more than ever before—filling studio spaces and getting imported for major gallery shows. This year’s Gallery Weekend boasts some of these major international headliners likeJenny Holzer at Sprüth Magers, Douglas Gordon at Niels Borch Jensen and Diane Arbus at Kicken, but also features many home-grown talents. With a total of 51 galleries opening special exhibitions, Nicole Rodriguez highlights some of the German artists, both on and off the official roster.
This week Johann König is bringing out the big guns — literally — with his solo-show of internationally exhibited Katharina Grosse. Wielding an industrial spray gun and a predilection for otherworldly, near-psychedelic landscapes, Grosse’s first exhibition at the Berlin-based gallery, titled They Had Taken Things Along To Eat Together,includes a new series of paintings as well as a site-specific installation. A typical exhibition by the Freiburg-born artist goes a little something like this: massive polystyrene objects or cavernous white spaces are covered with graffiti-inspired spray-paint, towering above viewers, enveloping them in a juxtaposition of blending color, inorganic shapes and often mounds of piled dirt on the floor. This fusion of sculpture, architecture and painting produce a visceral play of light and shadow, color and texture. Highly aesthetically driven, the massive constructions and unabashedly grand gestures suggest we’ve missed a fantastical performance by mere seconds.
XOOOOX, Hamburg, stencil, courtesy of Circleculture Gallery.
Berlin streets are of course covered themselves with spray-paint. The ubiquity of graffiti has made Berlin a destination for urban art, and amongst the most noted locally isXOOOOX. If you have ever walked through Berlin Mitte, you are probably already familiar with his work — sharp stencil portraits featuring sartorial nods and the artist’s signature x’s and o’s. Utilizing ephemeral canvases like exposed building facades, decaying wood and rusting metals both inside and out of the gallery, the undercover artist appropriates the language of high fashion to pay homage to couture and beauty, and to simultaneously critique consumer-driven hype. Coinciding with Gallery Weekend and a group exhibition, Circleculture Gallery is launching the artist’s first monograph recently published by Gestalten Verlag. This first book documents XOOOOX’s work on the streets, from the studio, and selected exhibitions.
Thomas Zipp, Blue Flowers in a Pot, 2012, acrylic and oil on canvas, 110 x 80cm, courtesy Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin. Photo by Roman März.
This week Johann König is bringing out the big guns — literally — with his solo-show of internationally exhibited Katharina Grosse. Wielding an industrial spray gun and a predilection for otherworldly, near-psychedelic landscapes, Grosse’s first exhibition at the Berlin-based gallery, titled They Had Taken Things Along To Eat Together,includes a new series of paintings as well as a site-specific installation. A typical exhibition by the Freiburg-born artist goes a little something like this: massive polystyrene objects or cavernous white spaces are covered with graffiti-inspired spray-paint, towering above viewers, enveloping them in a juxtaposition of blending color, inorganic shapes and often mounds of piled dirt on the floor. This fusion of sculpture, architecture and painting produce a visceral play of light and shadow, color and texture. Highly aesthetically driven, the massive constructions and unabashedly grand gestures suggest we’ve missed a fantastical performance by mere seconds.
XOOOOX, Hamburg, stencil, courtesy of Circleculture Gallery.
Berlin streets are of course covered themselves with spray-paint. The ubiquity of graffiti has made Berlin a destination for urban art, and amongst the most noted locally isXOOOOX. If you have ever walked through Berlin Mitte, you are probably already familiar with his work — sharp stencil portraits featuring sartorial nods and the artist’s signature x’s and o’s. Utilizing ephemeral canvases like exposed building facades, decaying wood and rusting metals both inside and out of the gallery, the undercover artist appropriates the language of high fashion to pay homage to couture and beauty, and to simultaneously critique consumer-driven hype. Coinciding with Gallery Weekend and a group exhibition, Circleculture Gallery is launching the artist’s first monograph recently published by Gestalten Verlag. This first book documents XOOOOX’s work on the streets, from the studio, and selected exhibitions.
Another large-scale installation is Thomas Zipp’s multi-gallery Blackout Chambers, L'Arc de Cercle and Dissociative Amnesia at Galerie Guido W. Baudach in Wedding and Charlottenburg. Born in Heppenheim and trained as a painter, Zipp brings together media from across the board — paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings and installations — to create a dual-gallery concept that strives to integrate the spaces of the tandem exhibition venues, leaving the viewer slightly disassociated. Self-reflection and the rupture in the unity of consciousness and environment are crucial to Zipp, and force the viewers into moments of self-confrontation...
...Click here for more Berliner highlights from Nicole...
See you in Berlin!
–the ArtSlant Team
ARTIST WATCH - Angela Liosi
Angela Liosi, Photo by Maxime Ballesteros.
Ana Finel Honigman recently chatted with the Berlin-based Greek artist Angela Liosi about her sculptures and drawings, mysterious rocks, and the effect Berlin has had on her work. Read more about Liosi in this week's Rackroom interview:
...AFH: How has living in Berlin affected your practice and the issues you address in your work?AL: ...The architecture and the structure of the city have been a great influence...The fact that houses here have no shutters excited me. I could peep into people‘s homes. Watching a family having dinner, I would think of how easily an extreme moment of rage can destroy what appears to be calm and perfect...
ARTSLANT INSIDER* - William T. Rohe
William T. Rohe, Beethoven's Two 5's, acrylic, steel rods, wire and wood dowels on board, 64 x 74cm.
William T. Rohe - An artist and architect, William T. Rohe works in sculptural montage, as well as painting, drawing, and mixed-media. In his montages, such as the piece pictured above, a primary concern is the interplay of light, shadow, and form. Rohe lives on the island of Aegina, in Greece.
EDITOR'S CHOICE - Gallery Weekend Picks
Alfredo Jaar, Kultur=Kapital, 2012, Neon lights, 800 x 100 cm. Courtesy of Galerie Thomas Schulte.
Berlin editor Andrea Alessi gives us her list of must-see openings for Gallery Weekend:Alfredo Jaar and Victor Burgin at Galerie Thomas Schulte, Roman Ondák atDeutsche Guggenheim, Robert Longo at Capitain Petzel, Dave McDermott atDUVE, Marjatta Oja at Galerie Suvi Lehtinen, Robert Elfgen at Sprüth Magers,Alexander Ross at Nolan Judin, Leo Gabin at Peres Projects, and Alejandro Cesarco at Tanya Leighton. That should keep you busy!
For more information keep your eye on the editor's choice listings here. Updated every day for Gallery Weekend!
TALK OF THE TOWN - 100% Berlin by Erik Wenzel
Berlin, Potzdamer Platz, October 22, 2011. Photo by Erik Wenzel.
Recently lots of rumors have surrounded the inner workings of the Berlin art world. Articles have been written about the rumored “art cartel” that holds a chokehold on which galleries make it into Art Basel. Ousted gallerists have made public accusations. The best anecdote so far came in Kai Müller’s piece in Der Tagespiegellast September about a dealer speaking under the condition of anonymity drawing a diagram mapping out the major players in the city and then promptly tearing it up into little pieces and shoving them in his pocket. We can only assume the mysterious dealer, already excluded from the inner circle and fearing further retribution, then disposed of this incriminating evidence by dousing it in kerosene and setting it alight it in some secluded part of Görlitzer Park at 3 o’clock in the morning. But let’s face it: every day in the art world is a slow news day. Most of the time stories like this seem like an attempt to maintain interest and entertain people in an industry that is kind of boring.
I bring this up, because if you’re going to talk about the upcoming Gallery Weekend, you have to mention this cloud that somewhat looms over the affair. The galleries in question that control the Basel selection committee and run the abc (art berlin contemporary) art fair are also the ones who founded the Gallery Weekend. OK maybe Deepthroat has a point. But no one ever said one of the least regulated industries in the world wasn’t cliquish...
Read more of Erik's thoughts on Gallery Weekend and the Berlin Biennale here...
ARTSLANT INSIDER* - galerie OPEN
galerie OPEN - galerie OPEN by Alexandra Rockelmann, founded in March 2008, is located between the Berlin districts Kreuzberg and Mitte at the Engelbecken. galerie OPEN is dedicated exclusively to young contemporary art. All artists have a strong individual position.Consciously no definition takes place on a certain medium, since the focus is on the quality and the concept behind the works. In galerie OPEN's current exhibition, Detail, Florian Japp, Madeline Stillwell and Peter Truschner show which moments of their perception influence their practice.
For Berlin Gallery Weekend, galerie OPEN is hosting a bagel and prosecco brunch on Saturday April 28th, from 12 to 4pm. The three artists will be present and the brunch is open to the public. The gallery will also be open on Sunday the 29th from 12-4pm. The exhibition runs until May 26th.
BERLIN WATCH - The Return of Anthony McCall, by Joel Kuennen
Opening April 20th, a large exhibition of Anthony McCall's new works, both horizontal and vertical projections, entitled Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture will open in Berlin at the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart. Joel Kuennen discusses McCall's work and history:
Anthony McCall, Installation view at Hangar Bicocca Milan, 2009. Photo: Giulio Buono.
...People crowded into the space defined by the beams of light, inching forward to the source of projection, mesmerized by the play of form and formlessness like a swarm of Icaruses. Film theorist, Tom Gunning, was present and the smile on his face was of a child as he walked down the tunnel towards the light, experiencing for the first time what he had devoted his life to studying. This experience of Line 2.0 was much less about the solitary contemplation as was my first encounter with the work—the sounds of my murmuring mind becoming the soundtrack; this screening was celebratory...
...Read more in this week's GEOslant blog...
ARTSLANT INSIDER* - Sing Sweet Songs of Conviction
Sing Sweet Songs of Conviction - An itinerant project by Lisa Wade, curated by Perennial Art, Sing Sweet Songs of Conviction features six artists from six nations--Alessia Armeni, Helena Hamilton, Denise Hickey, Francesca Romana Pinzari, Pernette Scholte, and Lisa Wade--showing in each home city of the participating artists. Over the span of a year, starting in April 2012, the show will take to the road: Belfast, Berlin, London, Mexico City, New York City and Rome. Sing Sweet Songs of Conviction kicks off in Berlin on April 19th and 20th at Schau Fenster, with guest artist Jennifer Hope Davy, and a series of events accompanying the exhibition, including a 24-hour painting performance and a 19th century hymn revisited by Cradle of Filth sung a capella.
ARTSLANT INSIDER* - David Normal
David Normal, The Illuminations, installation, foreground Chemical Imbalance.
David Normal - California painter, David Normal, makes his debut in Berlin for Gallery Weekend to exhibitThe Illuminations at BAGL Springtime 2012 Arts Festival. Derived from Normal’s highly imaginative and satirical oil paintings, the Illuminations comprise a glowing gallery of images that float as though disembodied, and at odd angles, in the center of a darkened room. The effect is at once ethereal and sculptural, sacred and profane. The Illuminations subvert the ordinary gallery experience and usher the viewer into an intensely direct relationship with the vision of the artist.
ARTSLANT INSIDER* - Gordon Huether
Gordon Huether, Big Baby Blue #1, 2007, salvaged metal, paint and glass, 46 x 73 x 4 in.
Gordon Huether - Napa artist Gordon Huether has been creating large-scale public projects, residential commissions and fine art for more than 25 years. During this time his work has been exhibited at museums and galleries across the country, with more than 50 public art commissions and more than 150 private commissions. Much of his work is inspired by the effects that nature has on man-made materials such as patterns of rust that develop in deteriorating metal. These materials, translated into works of art, serve as a reminder of the temporal character of man’s achievements and the awe-inspiring forces of nature.
ARTSLANT INSIDER* - Donald Woodman
Donald Woodman, The Rodeo and the West #23, c1980s, archival pigment print on canvas from 4x5 Polaroid type p/n negative, 176 x 147 in
Donald Woodman - Donald Woodman's work has been included in exhibitions both nationally and internationally, and he has worked with a variety of subject matter, specializing in large-format photography. From 1980 to 1985, he created several major series of black-and-white photographs using 4×5 Polaroid positive/negative film. In addition to his fine art photography, Woodman is an accomplished commercial photographer. Donald Woodman resides in New Mexico.
ARTSLANT INSIDER* - Manuella Muerner Marioni
Manuella Muerner Marioni - Manuella Muerner Marioni has studied art at the New Art School Zurich, and has collaborated with the Niki De St. Phalle Foundation in Germany, Switzerland, France and USA. Marioni's work plays with contradictions and confrontations of form and color, stems from an interest in mosaic and glass work, and often utilizes recycled materials. Her work, Brainstorming, will be on view at Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in New York from June 8 - July 9, 2012. Marioni lives and works in Switzerland.
Manuella Muerner Marioni, Brainstorming, 2011, acrylic, 23.5 x 31.5 x 1.5 in.
Thank you to Gallery Weekend Berlin and all of the galleries, organizations, institutions, curators and artists who bring us this Berlin extravaganza.
For more information on our Special Edition packages featuring ArtSlant Insiders and Watchlist for galleries, artists and art services, please contact Sunny@artslant.com.
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