Month: November 2007

Spheres. Acrylics on antique anatomy chart. 125 x 95 cm.

WHAT CAN A DESERT ISLAND DO?
CURATED BY PAUL PIERONI

Seventeen Gallery
Troels Carlsen



Tue Greenfort
December 1st, 2007 to January 12th, 2008
Opening November 30th, 6 – 9 p.m.

A poisonous alga imprints a minimalist structure into the paper of a chemical filter; a dissected bluebottle sticks on the wall inside the White Cube – Tue Greenfort’s work questions the value systems of nature and art in our society. The Danish artist is developing a system, both aesthetic and educational, that illuminates the interlocking effects of human activity and changes in our environment, so it is not surprising that his work is primarily determined by ecological and economic subjects. Within a global context, he asks questions about our approach to natural resources, environmental protection and species conservation, and establishes connections between these issues and conceptual art. His projects are characterised by an interdisciplinary openness and quasi-scientific working methods which reveal his extensive research.

Diffuse Einträge (Diffuse Entries) (2007), a work created for this year’s Skulptur Projekte in Münster, is a particularly good illustration of Greenfort’s extended concept of art. On the bank of Münster’s Lake Aa, he installed a liquid-manure container that squirted a mix of lake water and chemicals into the lake. Greenfort was copying a purely cosmetic method of water purification: the city of Münster pumps ferric chloride into an inlet of Lake Aa in order to chemically bind inflowing manure from factory farms and prevent unwanted algae. In the context of the exhibition the farm vehicle became an attractive sculpture, a fountain, a land-art object; it also illuminated the problem of taking a short-sighted approach to tacking the problems of the day. By displacing an agricultural object into the system of art Greenfort creates a certain level of transparency. Reaction to his sculpture has put the pollution of Lake Aa back onto the local political agenda.

Johann König, Berlin is now presenting its third solo exhibition of Tue Greenfort’s work. Most of the exhibits come from the Vienna Secession, where Greenfort’s solo exhibition “Medusa” was shown this autumn.

The work From Petroleum to Protein (2007) displays – in a classically didactic showcase – a round glass container where dark yeast is growing on paraffin. A 1965 edition of Scientific American explains the process: under optimal conditions the fungus transforms the paraffin into a protein-containing substance. During the 1960s British energy corporation BP had the vision of mass-producing meat substitutes for regions with starving populations from paraffin, a waste product of diesel production. The idea of opening up this new market segment was abandoned when the first oil crisis hit in 1973.

Today, by contrast, many post-colonial states, like Brazil, are extremely interested in obtaining fuel from foodstuffs (e.g. sugarcane). The process is going into reverse: foodstuffs are substituting mineral oil, which is becoming ever rarer. Greenfort takes up this issue in Plant Oil Circulation – After Hans Haacke 1969 (2007), which adds a political dimension to Haacke’s early work on natural phenomena. From a red fuel tank a tangle of pipelines extends across the gallery floor; air bubbles propel the oil through the network of pipes. The tank originates from a bus which Greenfort used to chauffeur visitors free of charge to the various venues of the 2005 exhibition “A Whiter Shade of Pale”. He had previously converted it to run on vegetable oil. Other works take up the theme: Kohlweißling (Cabbage White) (2007) shows a butterfly that is perfectly adapted to life in monocultures (e.g. rape fields) and thus to its contemporary natural environment. This tendency to monoculturalisation can be seen in our urban environment, too. Increasingly, urban space is being taken over by global advertisers; whole blocks are now covered in commercial “wallpaper”. The project TENT (2007) is an attempt to reclaim valuable advertising space as an ideological “free space”, in a kind of parasitical gesture.

Tue Greenfort (*1973) lives and works in Berlin. His work Mobile Trinkglaswerkstatt (Mobile Drinking Glass Workshop) (2007) is currently on show in “Art Machines Machine Art” at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. Upcoming exhibitions in 2008 include solo shows at the Kunstverein Braunschweig, Galeria Zero, Milan and the Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples. Tue Greenfort will also participate in the Liverpool Biennial.
Johann Koenig

Liquidated Logos—
Later but better than never…

Lazinc

Arndt & Partner Berlin is delighted to announce the opening of the group show Blur on Friday, 30 November 2007 from 6 to 8pm.

Following their latest show at Studio Museum Harlem in New York, the artists Titus Kaphar, Wardell Milan II and Demetrius Oliver will present a selection of new works in Berlin.

We are looking forward to welcoming you and your friends to the opening.

The show runs through 12 January 2008 but please consider that the gallery remains closed from 22 December 2007 through 2 January 2008.

Arndt Partner

MORAG KEIL
NIGHT OFF EXTENDED

***Opening Night: Saturday 1st December, 2007, 7pm onwards*** 

1st December, 2007 – 12th January, 2008
Opening hours: Thursday – Saturday, 12 – 6pm

Neuealtebruecke

V1 udstiller Powers power
V1 Gallery udstiller den legendariske, barske og rammende streetartist Stephen Powers’ værker som den sidste, inden galleriet flytter til Kødbyen.

Trine Ross Af Trine Ross

Nu varer det ikke så længe før V1 Gallery flytter til betydeligt større lokaler i Kødbyen, lige ved siden af den nyåbnede café Karriere. Men (formentlig) sidste udstilling i Absalonsgade er en rigtig V1-klassiker, for den præsenterer Stephen Powers (født 1969), der i USA er lidt af en legende, ikke mindst fordi han i begyndelsen af 1990’erne var blandt de første street artister, der gik i dialog med gallerierne.

På gaderne var han kendt som ESPO (Exterior Surface Painting Outreach), men i dag arbejder han med den slags emaljeskilte, der kan få det til at gibbe i enhver nostalgiker. Og det er nok meget godt, hvis der gibbes, for Powers sparker, ved nærmere eftersyn, nostalgien så hårdt, at den taber pusten.

Der, hvor der skulle have været en ganske enkel information, en retningsangivelse eller en letaflæselig reklame, skriver og tegner Powers om livet – set fra den sorte side.

Den dødbringende gentagelse konfronteres i værket ’Wake, Work, Wait, Work, Wank, Work, Want, Wane’ (vågn op, arbejd, vent, arbejd, masturber, arbejd, ønsk, forsvind), mens Powers ligesom træder et skridt til siden, og lader en lille undskyldning krybe ind i et andet værk, hvor han skriver: »Everything is Shit – except you, Love«.

Det er blankpoleret og barskt, meget morsomt og sine steder rammende. Og det er både typisk og tiltrængt, at V1 (igen) kan præsentere danskerne for cremen af street kunsten.

Mario Garcia Torres “Pocket Scratching”
January 19 – March 8, 2008

gallery.sora. is pleased to announce the debut exhibition in Japan of Mexican artist,
Mario Garcia Torres. Garcia Torres presents his works mainly on film, video, photography
and projected photographs as well as in printed interventions. Born in 1975 in Monclova,
he graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in 2005 and currently lives
in San Diego. Recent solo shows include venues such as the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam,
Kadist Art Foundation,
Paris (where he was a resident) and Jan Mot, Brussels, amongst others.
He has also, participated in the 52 Biennale di Venezia, Venice, “Escultura Social”,
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, “Learn to Read” and “Saturday Live Actions & Interruptions”,
Tate Modern, London and “Elephant Cemetery”, Artist’s Space, New York.
He recently received The Cartier Award 2007.

“So-called Conceptual Art has always interested me. It is difficult for me to explain why,
but I could say that the first thing that intrigued me about it was probably its self-questioning…
there is always a time or location displacement.
Some sort of empty space that allows questioning issues that are different from the ones directly
implied by the piece itself. In that regard, Conceptual Art became for me not just a reference
but also a legacy that I could use and misuse for my work. I think that even if I am very interested
in those kinds of practices my projects are not about them. They only use them to give form to a
larger narrative that has to do with personal and social interests”.

Mario Garcia Torres
Published in the 2006 January issue of Neue Review

For his first solo exhibition with gallery.sora., Garcia Torres will present a new body of work related to
time and unpredictability. He will also be exhibiting a new work entitled, “I Promise Every Time” in

Art Atagnes

WINTERSHOW 07
Sigga Bjørg Sigurdardóttir (IS),
Annette Streyl (D), Atla,Lærke Lauta,
Ellen Hyllemose, Eva Steen Christensen,
Signe Jaïs, Anders Moseholm,
Frances Goodman (ZA)

Specta

Plainartartists

LINA BERTUCCI
WOMEN IN THE TATTOO SUBCULTURE
NOVEMBER 28, 2007 – JANUARY 5, 2008

OPENING RECEPTION: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 6-8 PM

New York – (November 19, 2007), Perry Rubenstein Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new photographs by Lina Bertucci. Bertucci’s most recent photographic series explores the fluctuating periphery between exhibitionism and marginalization through the ritualized practice of tattooing.

Bertucci’s portraits reveal psychological tensions between the pursuit of inner conviction and a desire to seek out trend. The collecting of tattoos, although personal in acquisition, in turn becomes a claim for connection and alignment; or perhaps the opposite, a desire for segregation and opposition to the mainstream.

Compelled to examine this contemporary subculture, Bertucci traveled to various tattoo conventions in the United States and abroad, photographing women ages 19 to 59 both in her studio and on location. Here, Bertucci chooses to frame her subjects in simple, timeless poses that both formally accentuate the female figure and poetically delineate their illustrious tattoos. Bertucci’s imagery and execution can be referenced back to classical portrait paintings, yet contradicts the historical view of the ‘anonymous muse’ by including image titles that reveal a name, age and occupation. This incongruity renders a complex window through which the viewer’s perspective of time and era is blurred.

Bertucci lives and works in New York City. Bertucci completed her M.F.A in photography at Pratt Institute in New York and received her B.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin. Bertucci in known extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe, with exhibitions at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Per l’Arte, Turin, Italy; P.S.1, New York; Hara Museum, Tokyo; and, the Chicago Cultural Center.

Perry Rubenstein