Month: September 2008

Ready Made


The first of the theme-oriented group exhibitions to be held yearly at Steinle Contemporary is devoted to the current production of the readymade. The composing, reassembling, reworking or simply the selecting of common objects and presenting them in the exhibition context is an art practice that dates back to Marcel Duchamp. Since nearly 100 years, this artistic process has repeatedly produced surprising objects, which are as humorous as they are intellectually stimulating, and which consistently question classical art production.   

Steinle Contemporary

The Destruction of Atlantis


The Destruction of Atlantis
A group exhibition curated by Jesper Elg featuring new works by: Ulrik Crone (DK), Michelle Blade (US), Wes Lang (US), Julian Röder (DE), Steve Powers (US), Todd James (US), Troels Carlsen (DK), Andrew Schoultz (US), Jakob Boeskov (IS/DK), Kasper Sonne (DK), HuskMitNavn (DK), Matthew Stone (UK), Hesselholdt & Mejlvang (DK), Alex Lukas (US), Peter Funch (DK), Jes Brinch (DK) and Richard Colman (US).

The exhibition revolves around the Atlantis myth, interpreted from the perspective, that we are gradually fulfilling, what many thought of as a ludicrous myth.
There are many themes attached to the myth, and writers, philosophers and artists have looked at the myth from very different angles throughout the last 2500 years. The destruction of an advanced civilization, natural catastrophes, man made disasters, utopia, hubris, nationalism (the Nazis believed it might be the home of an ideal race, other believed Atlantis was home of the Hyperboreans a race of Nordic supermen).

As waters rise and storms increase, we might not have to be as imaginative as Plato, Francis Bacon or Heinrich Himmler, to recognize the problem. Or as curator Jesper Elg says:
“The title refers to humankind gradually making the Atlantis myth come true. Our civilization is slowly sinking and we are making what we thought was a bizarre myth come true. Basically we are destroying our own civilization while we claim to become more civilized.” Jesper Elg
The exhibition will feature paintings, photography, sound, drawings, sculpture and installation elements that in many different ways reflect and comment on our behavior on this.

Union Gallery

NOH Suntag


NOH Suntag / State of emergency

We are excited to welcome you to NOH Suntag’s first solo show at Art Agents Gallery.

NOH Suntag’s photo series observes conflict situations in contemporary Korean society. These conflicts go back to 1948 and the division of Korea into two separate states. The two ideological extremes that define the North and South sides of the country are perceived by NOH as a permanent state of emergency. He shows this dichotomy by photographing evidence of the dictatorship in North Korea and the turbo-capitalism since the 1990s in South Korea, a military presence on both sides, and the situations both subtle and openly violent that pervade everyday life on the peninsula. NOH analyzes the social and political ambivalences and breaks within and between the two societies. His photographs are taken in both parts of Korea. They are documents of specific events and embody stylized, seemingly fictional constructions. The series Red House II, Give and Take, for example, deals with the way the North and the South see each other. The images were taken during an official press trip through North Korea, with the route and places predetermined by the regime. NOH’s images manage to reveal how North Koreans see South Koreans and vice versa. The Camera is a mediator, a medium for social interactions, which substitutes for communication. NOH’s individual photographic aesthetic combines the documentary with the fictional; the snapshot with stringent composition. “I know of North Korea. I don’t know what I know about it,” NOH states in a foreword to Red House II.

In the last nine years, NOH Suntag created eight photo series with over 200 images. Of these, we will show a selection of 30 works. Our exhibition follows the same theme that NOH Suntag, along with Iris Dressler and Hans D. Christ, explored for his solo show at the Württembergischen Kunstverein in Stuttgart. In order to pursue transparency between the different series of NOH’s work, the photo series are presented as asynchronous narratives, including rhythmic sequences, image pairs, as well as individual images.

NOH Suntag was born in 1971 in Seoul, South Korea. He ranks among the most advanced artists in his country and his works receive great attention. Among other exhibitions, he took part in the Gwangju Biennale in 2006. His first European solo show, during the spring of 2008 in the Württembergischen Kunstverein Stuttgart, secured him an international acceptance. Following the Stuttgart exhibition, a comprehensive catalogue was published in the Hatje Cants Verlag. The catalogue includes a photo essay by Hans D. Christ and an extensive interview between Natahlie Boseul Shin and NOH Suntag. This catalogue will be on display in the gallery during our show.

Art Agents

Tracey Rose


Tracey Rose
The Cockpit

MC is pleased to present the last exhibition at its Los Angeles location: Tracey Rose’s The Cockpit. In what could seem a fitting gesture for the occasion, Tracey Rose has come round to killing God in this latest video work. A theatrical piece commissioned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation, The Cockpit is a world of murder and revenge populated by stylized characters like the jester, the soldier boy, Space Man, Lil Bo Beep, the wise Redd Indian and the adorably clueless Jesus Potter Heart. A series of personage photographic portraits accompany the video. Together they form a patchwork of cultural references plaguing national, religious and cultural consciousness, pounding out the absurdities and general mismanagement of institutionalized cultural discourse. Although Rose is not her customary every performer this time, she is nonetheless omnipresent in the direction, script and in an improvised moment when the characters on their way to killing God leisurely and explicitly gossip about the artist’s sexual exploits.

MC will also be showing a renewed version of The Cunt Show, in which the artist, dressed as Mami, a head teacher character, speaks a vitriolic response to institutional feminism through the voices of two sock puppets. This video performance recreates a talk given by the artist during Global Feminism, an exhibition at the Brooklyn Art Museum (of which the institutional logo is recognizable in the background throughout the performance). In this version, Rose gives Mami a video audience in the form of a silent, black and white projection of 17 audience members. Silent and slow, seemingly in a dark cave, the audience hangs among the viewers, and looks for the shadows of knowledge that Mami projects. In a series of photographs complementing the video, some of these characters from the crowd are portrayed in a style that recalls the old movie bills of time past.

Tracey Rose has widely exhibited in Africa, Europe and the US. Her work was recently seen in “El mirall sud-africà” at the Centre De Cultura Contemporània De Barcelona, Spain, “Mouth Open, Teeth Showing: Major Works from the True Collection” at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, “Memories of Modernity” in Malmo, Sweden, “Check List: Luanda Pop” at the African Pavilion in the 52nd Venice Biennale, Italy, “Heterotopias” at the Thessaloniki Biennale in Greece, and “Global Feminisms” at The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art in Brooklyn, New York (all 2007). Caryatid & BinneKant Die Wit Does and Imperfect Performance: A tale in Two States are among her most recent live performances, seen at the Dusseldorf Art Fair in Germany, and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden, respectively.

MC Kunst