GEROLD MILLER

Posted on 2017-08-21

Whilst new sculptures from the “Verstärker“ series are on view at Mommsenstrasse, the series “section“ is presented for the frst time on Fasanenplatz. These radical wall works represent the latest development in Gerold Miller’s production, to date the most far-reaching step of his defying attitude against traditional forms of painting and sculpture. The “section“ piece is surrounded by works from the series “set“ and “monoform“, that are characteristic of the artist’s thorough refection on a reduced approach of representation, which he has been developing since the 1990s.
Through “section“, Gerold Miller broadens the classical concept of painting, merging the work with the architecture of the gallery space. It consists of a tilted truncated black and white square that immediately evokes the Russian avantgarde and Malevitch. The painting becomes a relief, a sculpture within the wall, which is turn changed into a pictorial space. The artist plays here with a subtle balance between the surface, the room, light and shadow, in order to question or way of seeing, his monochrome felds and black stripes both catching and withstanding the viewer’s gaze. Gerold Miller’s strategy is purely abstract, focusing solely on the materiality of the and of the space itself.

Opposite – Set 411, 2017

Exhibition runs through to September 2nd, 2017

Mehdi Chouakri
Fasanenstrasse 61
Fasanenplatz
10719 Berlin

www.hauserwirthsomerset.com

   Tweet

RASHID JOHNSON – STRANGER

Posted on 2017-08-21

Rashid Johnson employs a wide range of materials and images to explore themes of art history, literature, philosophy, and personal and cultural identity. His exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Somerset unfolds throughout the entire gallery, with a combination of painting, sculpture, installation, and drawing, all completed during his residency.

The exhibition takes its title from an essay ‘Stranger in the Village’ by James Baldwin. Originally published in Harper’s Magazine in 1953, it is the account of Baldwin’s experiences as a young African-American man, living in a small village in Switzerland.

Opposite – Untitled Beach Collage, 2017

Exhibition runs through to September 10th, 2017

Hauser & Wirth Somerset
Durslade Farm
Dropping Lane, Bruton
BA10 0NL Somerset

www.hauserwirthsomerset.com

   Tweet

SARAH MORRIS – CLOAK AND DAGGER

Posted on 2017-08-14

The exhibition point towards the fictional, internal and external architectural landscape inhabited by Lang. For the show the artist realizes the large site-specific wall painting Elixir and a series of new paintings and drawings. Morris´s film Finite and Infinite Games as well as a new film Mimosa Tank: A Prologue for a Film will be on view.
“Finite and Infinite Games” which Morris completed earlier this year, casts German theorist, writer and filmmaker Alexander Kluge in a philosophical conflict and performance juxtaposed to the empty and not yet opened Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Morris sees this space as a »void«. She used the concert hall in juxtaposition with a reading and dialogue between Alexander Kluge and herself on James P. Carse’s book »Finite and Infinite Games«, published in 1986. The seminal text lays out two opposing world-views of structuring activity, politics, thinking, navigation, strategy and creativity. Morris asks Kluge to speak of his beginnings as the Frankfurt School’s lawyer, later working for Fritz Lang and eventually becoming one of the main figures of New German Cinema. Carse’s game theory becomes a focal point and encompasses all sociological and individual movements, whether aesthetic or otherwise, and questions the role of the artist in this scenario. The relations between the freedoms of infinite possibilities versus the rule-based operations of finite game playing are at the center of a dichotomy laid out by Morris and Kluge.

Opposite – “M”, 2017

Exhibition runs through to August 26th, 2017

Capitain Petzel
Karl-Marx-Allee 45
10178 Berlin

www.capitainpetzel.de

   Tweet

JULIAN LETHBRIDGE – INSIDE OUT

Posted on 2017-08-14

Working in layers of oil paint and pigment stick and employing the vocabularies of abstraction and minimalism, Lethbridge creates an illusion of textured impasto surfaces. The often contrasting palettes contribute to a sense of three-dimensionality and depth, however, closer inspection reveals that the surfaces are, in fact, flat.

Lethbridge’s illusionistic play demonstrates his interest in the materials and techniques of painting, and is also echoed compositionally. Initially appearing chaotic or random. Linear patterns are also incised into the painted surface, interrupting and complementing the soft, swirling organic forms. Through such juxtapositions and formal explorations Lethbridge develops a dynamic visual language and an immersive, cerebral experience of painting.

Opposite – Boreas, 2017

Exhibition runs through to September 9th, 2017

Contemporary Fine Arts – CFA
Grolmanstrasse 32/33
Charlottenburg
10623 Berlin

cfa-berlin.de

   Tweet

KYUNGAH HAM

Posted on 2017-08-14

At first glance, Kyungah Ham’s embroidered canvases are beautifully seductive. From afar the works seem to be brightly coloured high-resolution prints. It’s only up close that one sees the tightly woven stitches, like millions of tiny pixels that make up the detailed embroidery. And after a deeper investigation, the stories behind the works begin to surface, washed up by the tides of history.
For her first comprehensive solo exhibition in Europe, Seoul-based artist Kyungah Ham presents three different series: What you see is the unseen / Chandeliers for Five Cities; Abstract Weave / Morris Louis; and the SMS Series. Ham’s Embroidery Project began in 2008 and has unfolded into several different series. Through a complicated, lengthy and dangerous process, Ham uses an intermediary to smuggle the blueprints of works she wants embroidered into North Korea through middle countries where they eventually, but not always, make their way into the hands of the artisans. The process is often fraught with obstacles: the work becomes an abstract embodiment of the tension and conflict between the two sides of the divided Korean peninsula, making a forbidden meeting temporarily possible.

Opposite – Abstract Weave / Morris Louis Alpha Upsilon 1960 NB001-01, 2014

Exhibition runs through to September 9th, 2017

Carlier – Gebauer
Markgrafenstraße 67
D-10969 Berlin
Germany

www.carliergebauer.com

   Tweet

ZHANG WANQING – LONELY HILLS

Posted on 2017-08-07

Zhang Wanqing, born in 1985, emerged as an up-and-coming artist in China in 2011. At that time, she decided to live a recluse life in Shenyang in Northeastern China. She continued to paint and remained almost invisible to the outside world, which is very rare among young Chinese artists. The exhibition Lonely Hills shows her work after five years of solitude and confinement. The title Lonely Hills derives from the poem The Deer Enclosure by Wang Wei, one of the famous poets of the Tang Dynasty. The poem opens with:

So lone seem the hills; there is no one in sight there,
But whence is the echo of voice I hear?

This describes the first impression of Zhang’s paintings. During the past five years, she focused on landscape, the Lonely Hills without any human traces. However they embody a strong human presence by addressing a psychological and emotional experience.

Opposite – Landscape 201401, 2014

Exhibition runs through to August 26th, 2017

Aurel Scheibler
Schöneberger Ufer 71
D-10785 Berlin

aurelscheibler.com

   Tweet