Andreas Hofer

032eb68b

Metro Pictures will open the Fall season with Andreas Hofer’s exhibition ON TIME by Andy Hope 1930 on Thursday, September 16th. The framing of spaces, images and time links the rooms of the new show to the fictional, time-traveling persona of Andy Hope, Hofer’s alter ego and signer of his paintings, in the critical year 1930. One gallery room extends Hofer’s 2008 Phantom Gallery in Los Angeles and Zürich. Both exhibitions were site-specific installations, empty but for the ghostly exposure of bright patches where once-framed pictures hung on walls that now appear discolored and grimy, and worn and dirty carpet with the original color exposed by the shapes of chairs and bureaus. The Phantom paintings, in tones of cream and beige and in discarded frames, bring value to the devalued or discarded decor of the Phantom rooms. In another room, adding further distance and remove, Hofer’s paintings are shades of gray that are representations of the black and white photographs of his Phantom paintings.

Andreas Hofer was born in Munich in 1963 and lives and works in Berlin. Recent solo exhibitions include the Charles Riva Collection, Brussels; The Freud Museum, London; and Sammlung Goetz, Munich. His work has recently been included in exhibitions at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg; Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany; and the ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe.

Metro Pictures Gallery

Weight Perception

WeightPerception

Imagined weight can be heavier than real weight, sometimes to the point where our perceptions apply more pressure and gravity than what can actually be accounted for. How does this happen? In today’s world, where environmental disasters of tragic magnitude have practically become the norm, where ongoing wars are being fought simultaneously on multiple fronts, and where we’re in the midst of the worst economic catastrophe since the great depression, it’s apparent that we are living in “heavy times”.  In some way or another, each of us carries the weight of our times, if not in a physically tangible way, at the very least in the mind.  How are we dealing with all of this? What is the current state of contemplation surrounding it? Where does the resulting energy find a resting place? Can bad things actually be transformed into good?

It is not the intent of this exhibition to address any of these issues directly, as much as it is to address the individual’s unconscious and conscious responses to the current state of affairs that dominates our political and social landscape. Oftentimes, we attempt to escape the heaviness, through expressions of laughter, serenity, or even music. Sometimes, we attack the weight head-on, using pent up energy that inevitably needs to find its release somewhere. In this exhibition, eleven artists address this placement, both definitively and abstractly, and in the two-dimensional and the sculptural.  Featuring new work by Ben Venom, Casey Jex Smith, Glen Baldridge, Harley Lafarrah Eaves, Kevin Taylor, Kyle Ranson, Laurie Steelink, N.Dash, Shelter Serra, Thomas Øvlisen, & Vanessa Blaikie.

Guerrero Gallery