Join Galerie Eva Presenhuber and Pilar Corrias at The Craig Robins Collection in the Miami Design District to celebrate the launch of Tschabalala Self’s new book Make Room (2023), published on the occasion of her recent solo exhibitions at Consortium Museum in Dijon, France, and Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, Switzerland. The artist will be signing copies.
We are pleased to share an artist talk between Sofia Mitsola and art historian Dr. Pamela Kort, which took place on November 10, 2023, on the occasion of the opening of Villa Venus: An Organized Dream, Mitsola's first solo show with the gallery.
"The effect, both of Hall’s individual paintings and, in a more profound way, of his cumulative work, is a refreshing challenge. Hall forces us to meet the people he depicts on their own terms, without the usual lens—or crutch—of our inherited, fetishizing, or condescending projections. One of his central goals, as he put it to me later, is “redefining our relationship with the landscape, outside of basketball, enslavement.” He’s concerned with matters of agency, world building, and individuality—what he calls “post-victimhood” storytelling. “I really believe in life,” he told me. “I go out and try to make the best of it.”"
Peter Fischli David Weiss, Douglas Gordon, Ugo Rondinone, Doug Aitken, Tschabalala Self and Franz West were selected among this year’s Kunstkompass Top 100 contemporary artists rankings in Capital Magazin! Rondinone additionally ranked 72th in the top 100 of Monopol Magazin. The artists are selected based on a thorough assessment of their recent activities, including participation in major international biennales, institutional exhibitions, public art installations, awards, and reviews in prestigious journals. Fischli Weiss (30th), Gordon (40th), Rondinone (52nd), and Aitken (96th) ranked among the top 100 in the overall ranking. Self ranked 43rd among the top 100 with the highest increase in points (Stars of Tomorrow). West ranked 9th among the top 20 influential posthumous artists (Olymp).
Hanno Hauenstein from Artnet visited Adam Pendleton in his New York studio: "Asked whether it would be fair to say that he is currently moving away from words and more towards abstraction, he said: “A little bit, but it is much more ‘both-and’ instead of ‘either-or.’” His answer not only explains an art practice, but it might also be useful to keep in one’s mind amid the political debates swirling in recent weeks. While he might be reluctant to admit it, the artist’s engagement with politics excels beyond the canvas or his studio."
The exhibition Candida Höfer: Epic Gaze is a curatorial selection chosen from the body of work developed by Candida Höfer over the last 20 years. It features a variety of pieces organised in six major themes: ‘Passages’, ‘Theatres’, ‘Museums’, ‘Libraries’, ‘Worldview’ and ‘Unseen Works’. These themes are enclosed in separate sections and placed in a bespoke exhibition layout as a way to promote a paced and sequential contemplation in the viewer.
"Presented in Vienna by Galerie Eva Presenhuber, “Jean-Marie Appriou: Gemini” is the artist’s third exhibition with the gallery and is thematically focused on the celestial twins. The concepts of Gemini, twins, dualities, and dichotomies have long been present in the history of art, but here Appriou looks at ideas around these concepts and forms a new, unique parallel, that of poetry and sculpture."
"According to the vaguely trustworthy website we all use, Lars von Trier’s apocalyptic film Melancholia (2011) was inspired by a depressive episode he had. Apparently, a therapist told him “Depressive people tend to act more calmly than others under heavy pressure because they already expect bad things to happen.” However the current group show at Galerie Eva Presenhuber has nothing to do with this but rather Albrecht Dürer’s engraving Melencolia 1 (1514), which was the initial reference to the exhibition of the first major group show curated by the gallerist in 1988 at Galerie Grita Insam..."
Candida Höfer will be honoured with the Käthe Kollwitz Prize 2024. The Akademie der Künste is honouring one of the world's most recognized German photographers with the prize. Candida Höfer's oeuvre, which has grown over five decades, ranks among the photographic avant-garde of the present day. Her large-format photographs show public and semi-public spaces in striking historical libraries, museums and opera houses. The motifs show places of encounter, communication, remembrance and knowledge, but also of relaxation and recreation. The artist herself describes her works not as architectural photographs, but as portraits of spaces.
"For Jean-Marie Appriou and Andrew Lord, sculpture provides a means to explore the material essence of life and, imbued within it, history, personal experiences, myths, and memories. At Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Vienna, two concurrent solo presentations of Jean-Marie Appriou's bronze and casted glass sculptures in Gemini and Andrew Lord's intimate, entangled forms in a sculpture of my left hand and five embraces (9 November–22 December 2023) act as containers to these threads."
From November 8, 2023, to January 1, 2024, the Fosun Foundation presents the Ugo Rondinone solo exhibition burn to shine. The exhibition takes its title from American poet and artist John Giorno’s 1994 poem of the same name. A Buddhist maxim equating life and death, it evokes a range of metaphors of death and rebirth from ancient Greek to Chinese folk mythology, inspiring contemplation of life and nature.
Matthieu Jacquet reviewed the photograph Barbershop Scene by Torbjørn Rødland, on view at Consortium Museum, Dijon: "Rødland once compared his photographs to tarot cards, representations that are laden with symbols and multiple possible interpretations, none of which can be categorical, verified, or rationalized. The strength of works like Barbershop Scene is that Rødland can turn multiple potential readings into a psychological funhouse mirror, one that is both bewildering and captivating, causing viewers to constantly question their own assumptions."
Contemporary artists engage in conversation with the unique collection from the nineteenth-century art lover Fritz Mayer van den Bergh. They have been inspired by Dulle Griet (also known as Mad Meg) by Pieter Bruegel, the portraits by Cornelis De Vos and Alessandro Allori, still-lifes by Antwerp masters like Daniël Seghers, works by Jacob Jordaens, Joachim Patinir and Gerard de Lairesse, etc. The applied arts so richly represented in the museum collection also receive a contemporary response. The exhibibition includes a painting by Tobias Pils.
"Eva Presenhuber opens a group show in Zurich this week, giving equal prominence to the artists she represents and those she describes as having “different positions”, who are mostly lesser-known. The latter include Stanislava Kovalcikova, a Czech artist whose work Presenhuber discovered at Vienna’s Belvedere Museum last year, and Aleksandra Waliszewska, an artist with great success in her home country of Poland but less well known elsewhere. They join gallery stalwarts, including Ugo Rondinone, Franz West and Steven Shearer, in a show of about 80 works by about 26 artists (November 11 to February 24). The title of the exhibition is Melencolia, although Presenhuber says that the art is more “works that are all reflective and thoughtful”. This, she says, is relevant for some of today’s artists under the age of 40 who can get “abused by high prices at auction, when they need more time and energy to think about what they are making. I have a distinct preference for slow burners,” she says."
One-on-One: Ugo Rondinone / Louis Eilshemius juxtaposes paintings by Louis Michel Eilshemius (1864–1941) alongside works Ugo Rondinone. Rondinone has long been collecting paintings by American poet and painter Eilshemius, who is known for his expressive and lyrical depictions of landscapes, nature, and nudes. The presentation will feature paintings by Eilshemius drawn from both the Phillips’s collection and Rondinone’s expansive personal collection of the artist’s work. In dialogue with Eilshemius, large-scale forest landscapes by Rondinone will be on view. Redolent of 17th-century Dutch woodcuts, the scenes are based on sketches by Rondinone made in 1989 during walks in the woods surrounding Vienna.
"As the work rouses and relieves this anxiety of gazing, Sleep, Death’s Own Brother sets forth a vision of rebellion that often turns on itself, its enactment of the anti-hero dandy exerting pressure on the parameters and possibilities of portrait-making. It is also a fascinating study of how an artist can entice the viewer into a poetic scenography of cat and mouse, where existential dread looms and strategies of release do not always ease the pain."
Heinz Schütz interviewed Matthew Angelo Harrison for KUNSTFORUM International, stating: "The encapsulation of traditional African sculptures plays a central role in Matthew Angelo Harrison's work. Transparent, futuristic-looking plastic boxes preserve what has been encapsulated. With their purist minimalist aesthetics, they act like "coolers" that contain and dim down the once cultic-magical and highly expressive in a modernist way. What began as an exploration of Harrison's African-American roots points beyond and becomes a commentary on the present."
Ugo Rondinone presents work created specifically for Galerija Kula, featuring a lightning bolt as the motif, a bifurcated composition anchored in the gallery floor, entirely covered with sand. This creates an environment that includes visual, haptic, and auditory elements in the field of experience. The momentary appearance of a lightning bolt, typically observed in the distance, is brought closer to the visitor by means of a bronze body visually accentuated with yellow colour. Rondinone’s static lightning bolt, placed amidst friable material, actually becomes a mental polygon where, on one hand, creation and destruction unite in opposition, and on the other, it prompts and recalls various belief systems in which lightning appears as a symbol of divinity, from Greek mythology to Catholicism or Hinduism
The solo exhibition Oh My God You Guys by Torbjørn Rødland highlights Rødland’s photographs in which two contradictory characters are featured. The artist often employs this type of “disruptive casting” to emphasize the oddness in the photographed scenes. The "scenario" created by the curator for this exhibition – titled Oh My God You Guys as agreed with the artist – takes the viewers on a journey from the dawn to the dusk of life, exploring sophisticated and troubled human relationships. The show is on view at Consortium Museum, Dijon, from October 27, 2023, through March 31, 2024.
Around the Way features multi-material paintings and sculptures by Tschabalala Self, whose works will together form colourful spatial displays in EMMA’s concrete-dominated exhibition space. Self’s art often deals with the intersections of race and gender. The artist draws from her personal experiences as a Black American woman. She depicts bodies that are both exalted and objectified in Western imagery and art history. Through repetition, deconstruction and distortion of this imagery, she creates a new kind of narrative about the Black body.
Sam Falls was in conversation with Paul Laster from Ocula about his exhibition at Galerie Eva Presenhuber in Zurich. About his unique technique of imprinting by means of natural elements, Falls says: "The idea of removing my hand has always been important to me . . . With the patina changing, you see time passing—you see nature's take on the work."
Organised within the framework of the international celebrations marking the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) and curated by Eric Troncy, The Echo of Picasso relates Picasso’s oeuvre to that of contemporary artists who, in one way or another, have made or are making its echo resound. The exhibition includes work by Tobias Pils and Franz West.
The 5th edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial titled This is a Rehearsal with sculptures by Ugo Rondinone, Tschabalala Self and Jean-Marie Appriou is curated by the interdisciplinary arts collective Floating Museum and takes an expansive view of design as an iterative rehearsal process to explore architecture, cities, and the different social, ecological, economic and political forces that shape them.
Katinka Fischer from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung concludes about Doug Aitken's new show at SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen: "Even in the spacious Sindelfingen exhibition space, the volume of his works only allows for a limited selection of ten items, which nevertheless provide a representative overview of his work over the past 15 years. The fact that the architecture makes it possible (and that this possibility has been used) to assemble several exhibits in one room demonstrates to the eyes and ears that Aitken's heterogeneous works are more connected than would have been clear from a separate presentation. The fact that images, light and sound effects are superimposed on one another is conducive to the effect of art. One moves through them and feels as if one is in a landscape."
The exhibition Dawn of Humanity. Art in Periods of Upheaval presents works of art from the Kunstmuseum Bonn’s collection of classic modernism which were created during the first two decades of the twentieth century and are now entering into dialogue with contemporary artistic positions. Tschabalala Self is represented in the show with her works Fade (2019) and Red Legs (2019).
Recently, Tschabalala Self has developed an interest for sculpture, theatre and fashion. Central to the exhibition at Cultuurcentrum Strombeek is the work Sounding Board, an experimental video installation showing a recording of Self's first live performance that premiered in 2021 at the Performa Biennial in New York. The title of the exhibition, Feed Me, Kiss Me, Need Me, is taken from the accompanying script. Self is particularly interested in the dual nature of the private environment as an emotionally and socially charged locus. "The house has two realities," she states. "A desired reality — a place of comfort, inwardness and true self-expression." "In reality, it is a place full of expectations, where people are required to assume roles."
The exhibition The Love of Art Comes First. Art & Project at the Kröller-Müller Museum highlights the significance and history of Art & Project based on more than a hundred works from the collection by artists such as Andrew Lord. Art & Project (Amsterdam 1968-1989, Slootdorp 1990-1998) was one of the pioneering galleries of contemporary art in the Netherlands and far beyond. Its founders Geert van Beijeren (1933-2005) and Adriaan van Ravesteijn (1938-2015) presented a programme featuring national and international artists, which was initially closely associated with the rise of conceptual art, but later broadened its focus with an emphasis on sculpture and painting.
From September 2023, the SCHAUWERK shows a major solo exhibition by Doug Aitken. The sculptures and video installations include Migration from 2008 and his more recent work Wilderness. For the latter, which consists of several screens arranged in a circle, Aitken filmed the beach near his house in Los Angeles during the Covid-19 pandemic as people went about their everyday lives. Scored with a soundtrack generated by AI, the film is based on a rhythm of landscape shots alternating with images of people on the beach, showing a cycle from sunrise to nightfall.
This major solo exhibition spans the past five years Adam Pendleton’s work, with a marked emphasis on abstract composition. Encompassing all of the museum’s special exhibition galleries, To Divide By includes new paintings, drawings and ceramics, as well as two recent film portraits. For Pendleton, abstraction is a means of representation, a logic, and a space for theoretical and visual experimentation. “By working in and through abstraction,” noted Meredith Malone, curator at the Kemper Art Museum, who organized To Divide By in collaboration with the artist, “Pendleton calls for a more capacious, chaotic and fluid space, one capable of producing radically new expectations and outcomes, not only for himself but also for the viewer.”
Horizons is a monumental aluminum sculpture started by Jean-Marie Appriou in 2022 and was first exhibited at Art Basel Unlimited 2023. Horizons is a a large-scale aluminum boat carrying two ‘austronauts.’ According to the artist, these two characters, their eyes fixed on the distance, are ‘exo-humans’ in search of an advanced humanity. 'Horizons' also echoes two historical paintings which he references in his work as a sculptor: 'La barque de Dante' by Eugène Delacroix (1822) and 'Die Toteninsel' by Arnold Böcklin (1880). The boat, and more broadly the theme of navigation, are central to Appriou’s work, imbued with the idea of passage and elevated consciousness.
This group exhibition highlights how the repertoire of circus forms continues to explore current social issues on both micro and macro levels, question political structures, expose stigmatization and illuminate the human-animal relationship. In his piece If There Were Anywhere But Desert. Saturday (2011), Ugo Rondinone skillfully captures the poignant essence of clowns, evoking a sense of melancholy that resonates with viewers. The suspended shoes embody the fragility and transience of human emotions, a theme that has permeated the circus throughout its long history, not only in its moments of joy and celebration, but also in its more sombre and melancholy aspects.
For the exhibition series ReCollect!, Matias Faldbakken and Ida Ekblad are working together for the first time, creating a joint installation where they interpret selected works from the Kunsthaus Collection, as seen through their own hands-on activity. Their gestures will open up new viewpoints on the holdings, with an emphasis on pulling women’s positions to the front.
Ronald Berg at Kunstforum concludes about Martin Boyce recent gallery exhibitions: "Perhaps Martin Boyce's 'fall from grace' into the applied metier is a symptom of the fact that the patterns of autonomy and freedom of purpose are no longer strictly valid today. However, this would then at the same time formulate a condemnation of modernity as such - including its Enlightenment premises of individual freedom and responsibility. Modernity: 'Failed or unfinished?' could thus be the central question of Martin Boyce's work."
Sherry Paik reviewed the Taxa show for Ocula Magazine: "the Seoul exhibition places a strong emphasis on the myriad ways in which contemporary artists engage with the more traditional mediums of painting and sculpture."
A brand-new project called “The Wing” occupies the first floor of the Consortium Museum. This space is usually reserved for temporary exhibitions of the collection. The Consortium Museum's directors have given this "wing" of the structure to two artists, Tobias Pils (b. 1971, Austria) and Joe Bradley (b. 1975, USA), who have strong ties to the art center and have previously exhibited there. The "Paysage" exhibition was the result of these two painters becoming curators. It pulls together pieces from their own collections by artists whose discreet careers have been characterized as "folkart," "outsider," and other vague terms. Hans Kruckenhauser, an Austrian painter who lived from 1940 until 2017, is the subject of Tobias Pils's current project. Joe Bradley has given prominence to the prosperous landscapes painted by Alyne Harris (1943, USA) from her rural home in Florida.
Over the past ten years, Kahn has examined the spatial relationship between painting and sculpture to construct a visual vocabulary of representational and abstract forms that integrate formal concerns with materials from everyday life. His new works are playful narrative compositions with oversized figurative icons taken from domestic life. The deep, rusted red tone of the sculptures is a result of the natural weathering process of Cor-Ten steel, contrasting with the lush green foliage the LongHouse garden. The series was previously on view at City Hall Park, New York. In June 2023, two sculptures are shown at Art Basel Parcours 2023.
For his group of works Sunrise. East, Rondinone assigned a head with characteristic, highly reduced facial features to represent each calendar month. Larger than life and cast in shiny silver aluminium, the massive sculptural heads are reduced to their facial expressions: With mouths agape, they gaze from small eyes, from friendly and naïve to sceptical, from surprised to eerie. They trigger the most diverse associations, evoking ritual masks and ghosts, as well as the visual language of comics, emoticons, and memes. Visitors to the Städel Garden are invited to come face-to-face with all twelve creatures – and thus every month of the year – and experience the various joys, adversities, and emotions of an entire year in fast forward.
Storm King Art Center presents the sun and the moon, twin sculptures, which are both over sixteen feet tall, and are formed with delicate circles fashioned from cast-bronze tree branches, one silver-leafed and the other gilded. Installed parallel to one another, the sun and the moon are aligned along an east-west axis, like portals or apertures with views of Schunnemunk and Storm King Mountains.
Titled after a line from Hesiod’s eighth-century BC epic poem Theogony (“Harmful Night, veiled in dusky fog, carries in her arms Sleep, Death’s own brother”), this new exhibition by Steven Shearer revolves around this uneasy proximity (“brotherhood”) between death and sleep, a recurring trope in Shearer’s art. Built around the George Economou Collection’s substantial holdings of Steven Shearer’s work in painting and printed matter, Sleep, Death’s Own Brother proposes an in-depth look at the oeuvre of this Vancouver-based artist from the transgressive thematic perspective of the lifeless body, which is sometimes truly, sometimes only seemingly dead.