Month: February 2008

Jeppe Hein @ 303 Gallery New York City !


303 Gallery is proud to present our first solo exhibition of sculpture by Jeppe Hein that is minimal in execution and engages the viewer in potentially social interactions.

For his New York gallery debut, Danish-born artist Jeppe Hein tests visitors’ eyes. Instead of placing his works prominently in the gallery space, Hein works with more minimalist spatial interventions. All the works in this exhibition are installed in almost invisible places – in a corner, behind a column, at the end of a wall – so that the visitor does not notice them at first glance. The viewer is invited to take a close look around the gallery to search for the works and discover them. Hidden in a corner you find ‘Sugar Cube’, 2008, a white cube consisting of 36 small sugar cubes installed on a shelf. Towards the end of the exhibition the visitor walks into the ‘Spinning Ball’, 2008, a high polished steel ball that spins around its diagonal axis reorienting our experience of gravity.

Jeppe Hein activates the visitor’s relationship to space – turning the spectator into a participant. The viewer sees her/himself reflected in the surface of a neon piece which invites them to ‘PLEASE ENJOY RELAX STEAL DANCE TOUCH FLIRT SMOKE WONDER FEEL MUSE EAT SING LISTEN TALK ASK TOUCH NEON LOOK COMMUNICATE TOUCH EACH OTHER USE CAMERA FLASH.’ The dialectical opposition catalyzed by language is echoed in the dissociative sensation of seeing one’s own reflection behind instructive “rules” created for our own heeding.

In 2007 Jeppe Hein was included “The World as a Stage” at Tate Modern, London which will travel to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Last year Jeppe Hein also had solo exhibitions at the Sculpture Center, New York, Barbican Art Center, London and at the Carré d’Art – Musée d’art contemporain de Nîmes, which was accompanied by a catalogue. In 2008 will participate in an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Finland, as well as the Folkestone Triennial. In 2009 Hein will have a one-person exhibition at the AROS Kunstmuseum, Århus, Denmark accompanied by a public project and a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada. The same year he will have a solo exhibition at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana. Jeppe Hein has previously exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Lenbachhaus Muenchen, Germany, and P.S.1, New York.

303 Gallery

Tomoo Gokita



Their success stems in part from his surprisingly large vocabulary of terse little doodles
and in part from the range of contrasts he coaxes from the black and white gouache.
It gives the piles a harsh, almost glittery light that catches the eye, communicating something
driven and serious.
Roberta Smith, New York Times

Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to announce our first solo exhibition with artist Tomoo Gokita.
Born in Tokyo, Gokita has published and exhibited extensively within Japan as well as participated
in group and solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles and Berlin.

Tomoo Gokita’s work has had a strong presence within the world of contemporary culture internationally
for a number of years; however, it is only recently that his practice has been recognized within the
contemporary art world. A cult figure, Gokita’s earlier practice consisted primarily of works
executed in an off-hand manner, presented on paper within the context of an exhibition or, more
frequently, within the pages of a magazine for a creative or commercial project.

Gokita’s recent works mark a change; while retaining the tone and palette of pencil-on-paper as well as
his delight in found, marginal subject matter, Gokita’s recent paintings on canvas, executed in the
medium of gouache and gouache-based paints reveal a new interest in materiality. Gokita’s painted
figures exist as illustrated abstractions – this fact often made explicit by their deterioration
into non-representational painted swathes and blobs. As much “about“ the range of possibilities
inherent in varying shades of black and white, and the material flatness and contrastingly sharp
tones resulting from gouache applied to canvas, Gokita’s paintings are graphic re-presentations of
paintings.

Gokita continues to create works on paper; however, rather than stand-alone works (with the exception
of painted studies), new drawings are presented in a continually growing group which, by the time of their
presentation at Taka Ishii Gallery will number into the hundreds. Contradicting their status as parts amongst
a whole, Gokita’s drawings are each presented within their own frame.

Taka Ishii Gallery

Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen A Void


During the opening from 6-9 PM, Lilibeth Cuenca will make a live performance of her piece “The Artist’s Song”, followed by re-enact performances by Piero Manzoni, Yves Klein, Marina Abramovic, Yoko Ono, Ana Mendieta, and others. “The Artist’s Song” deals with the different positions and genres in art. The film will be presented after the performance.

“A Void” investigates the identity of an artist and questions the authenticity of the art work and the history of art. Performance art has been very radical in its transgressions and has expanded the categories of art. The authenticity of performance art is related to the here-and-now experience. When the performance is over, it can only be experienced through documentation far from the original experience. Even if it is performed again, it will be very different from the original experience, dependent on the artist, the audience, time and context.

Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen re-enacts other artists’ performances in her own way. The point of departure is identical, but the experience will be completely different. The historical re-enactments will follow each other without precedent announcement as one long performance. They will be documented and shown on video after the opening. Traces of the performances will also be present as drawings and photographs.

Renwick Gallery

DAVE CARBONE IN THE ONION CELLAR


DAVE CARBONE
IN THE ONION CELLAR

“The onion has many skins. A multitude of skins. Peeled, it renews itself; chopped, it brings tears; only during peeling does it speak the truth.” Günter Grass

Neue Alte Brücke is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in Germany by the English-born artist Dave Carbone. Titled In the Onion Cellar, this exhibition comprises new sculpture and wall-based works.

Carbone makes sculpture, painting and performance that transform found materials into precarious physical, emotional and conceptual conundrums. His fragile and labour-intensive constructions appear to reveal a tragic humour that, at times, exposes the artist’s own weaknesses and deficiencies.

This was seen in Carbone’s prosaically titled 2006 performance, Open Lecture. Here, Carbone delivered a simple artist’s talk on and around his general practice, which was closely followed by a question and answer session. Each audience member was given a question that had been previously prepared by a close friend of the artist. After the agreement that he would answer each question as honestly as possible, Carbone gave uncomfortably truthful responses to questions such as: “Would you sleep with a 12 year old?” and: “Do pain and humiliation excite you?”

Another recurring theme in Carbone’s practice is the drum, which he often uses as an underlying metaphor for life; as heartbeat, provider of rhythm or marker of time. Carbone’s interest in the drum is its ability to simultaneously hold the acts of creativity, destruction and resurrection. Skin protects the body to keep it alive and, when it is removed, the body dies. We create a drum by stretching the skin. Then by beating the drum, we resurrect an imitation of the heartbeat to celebrate life and death.

This exhibition borrows its title from a chapter in Günter Grass’s acclaimed 1959 novel The Tin Drum. It tells the life of Oskar Matzerath, who writes his autobiography from memory shortly after the end of the Second World War. At the age of three, he receives a tin drum for his birthday and, having observed the adult world, decides to will himself not to grow up. He retains the stature of a child for the rest of his life and the tin drum is his most treasured possession.

Set in postwar Germany, the Onion Cellar of Grass’s novel is an exclusive club frequented by businessmen, doctors, lawyers, artists and government officials. Its pared-down interior has neither bar nor menu. Instead, its owner, Ferdinand Schmuh, appears with onions, chopping board and a knife for each guest. On his ceremonial cue, guests would begin to peel and cut into the onions and shed involuntary tears. These floods of bottled-up emotions are later accompanied by confessions, revelations and self-accusations. The Onion Cellar appeared to function as a satirical device for Grass – a way of criticising the clammed-up world of postwar Germany, lacking the words, or conscience, to come to terms with its past.

In the Onion Cellar comprises four new sculptures, each constructed from secondhand drumkits, bastardised to form totemic structures. Standing above each group of drums is a water vessel complete with skeletal pipe work. When the vessels are filled and the valves opened, each drum begins to softly beat, finding an irregular rhythm dictated by chance, disorder, weight and flow.

Titled Tier, Drip Drum, Rooted by Time and Cymbals of Communication the sculptures will be simultaneously played/performed by Carbone on the opening night. Through the act of filling each vessel and releasing each valve, Carbone’s presence in the exhibition can be seen in parallel to that of Ferdinand Schmuh – and in turn the gallery is equated to an exclusive club – a pseudo-ceremonial environment that is, at least symbolically, afforded the potential to produce emotion, even honesty.

Dave Carbone lives and works in Frankfurt am Main. His work has been included in many UK and international exhibitions. At 7pm on Wednesday 12th March Dave Carbone will give a lecture on his work at the Frankfurter Kunstverein. Entry to this event is free.

Neuealtebruecke

SISTER CORITA ‘PASSION FOR THE POSSIBLE’


SISTER CORITA ‘PASSION FOR THE POSSIBLE’  
CURATED BY AARON ROSE 

CORITA KENT WAS AN ARTIST, TEACHER, PHILOSOPHER, POLITICAL ACTIVIST, AND POSSIBLY ONE OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE AND UNUSUAL POP ARTISTS OF THE 1960’S. SHE COULD BE SEEN AS THE POSITIVE WEST-COAST ALTERNATIVE TO WARHOL, POSSIBLY PRE-DATING HIM. WITH FAME, CAME THE OPPORTUNITY TO BRING HER CONTEMPORARIES TO LECTURE AT HER TEACHINGS. ILLUSTRIOUS SPEAKERS INCLUDING LUMINARIES SUCH AS DESIGNERS CHARLES AND RAY EAMES, MUSICIAN JOHN CAGE, GRAPHIC DESIGNER SAUL BASS AND FILM DIRECTOR ALFRED HITCHCOCK. HOWEVER, WHAT IS PERHAPS EVEN MORE INCREDIBLE IS THAT SHE WAS A CATHOLIC NUN.

AARON ROSE IS AN INDEPENDENT CURATOR, ARTIST, WRITER AND  CURRENTLY LIVING IN LOS ANGELES. HE IS CO-CURATOR OF THE LARGE-SCALE MUSEUM EXHIBITION TITLED “BEAUTIFUL LOSERS: CONTEMPORARY ART & STREET CULTURE” WHICH OPENED IN MARCH 2004 AT CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER IN CINCINNATI AND HAS BEEN TOURING AMERICA AND EUROPE SINCE.

Circleculture Gallery
Circleculture