Venske & Spänle
Coming Together
Thatcher Projects is pleased to announce the opening of Coming Together an exhibition of sculptures by the Munich and New York-based duo Venske & Spänle. Defying the confines of their marble medium, the artists’ amorphous works evoke the forms of primordial creatures.
Like a newly discovered species, Venske & Spänle’s carved marble organisms give rise to a distinct nomenclature and genealogy. Smörfs, gumpfoten, helotrophen, sauger, orophyten and a variety of other characters populate the marble family of Venske & Spänle’s sculptural world. Bulbous and swelling, or stretching and slinking, the forms seem poised at the point of motion, almost capable of expanding beyond their marble skin. Disarmingly organic, the sculptures exude individual identities and personalities. With human-like characteristics, Venske & Spänle’s marble life forms radiate an undeniable appeal that probes the concept of the human as a companion to these marble sculptures and consciously explores the interaction between human beings and the sculptural environment created by the artists. The installation will incorporate a 3-D animation, linking the actual sculptures to their cyber-space counterparts, blurring the real and the digital worlds they inhabit.
The sculptures have been exhibited and placed in collections throughout the globe; including the U.S. and Europe, India, Australia, and Japan. Coming Together marks Venske & Spänle’s third exhibition at Thatcher Projects. A recently published hardcover catalogue, Guide Through the Sculptural World of Venske & Spänle, is available at the gallery.