Jeppe Hein "Kuru Kuru"
Born in Denmark in 1974, Jeppe Hein works out of Berlin and Copenhagen.
Jeppe Hein’s works are fun. One of his installations is a labyrinth made from mirrors that confuse the viewer’s visual and spatial perception, transforming the surrounding scenery through mirrored reflections while at the same time melting into it as the reflections provide camouflage. Another work is made from variously shaped benches that resemble playground equipment, some slanted, others twisted. Yet another presents the mysterious spectacle of a flame crowning a jet of water. In another water sculpture, water columns form labyrinths. When people enter, the walls of water sense their movements and react by rising and falling, luring them from one room to another and trapping them within the fountain.
Using a humorous perspective as his first point of contact, Hein’s works naturally draw the viewer in, creating opportunities for communication. Although the materials he uses and the forms he creates are simple and minimal, they stimulate the visual and bodily senses that we use to interpret the world around us. This stimulation of our basis for cognizance provides both a playfulness that that leads to spontaneous interaction with the viewer and a depth that leads to profound experiences. The works of Jeppe Hein may exist as physical objects in themselves, but they are also abstractions of the perceptions and physical and psychological experiences generated when viewers encounter them, as well as venues and opportunities for meaningful dialogues with the work and the space it is placed in.
This social nature, allowing and encouraging the viewer to interact, is a characteristic of Hein’s art. In addition to exhibits presented at art museums and international exhibitions, he has created many large public installations. A huge project combining a solo exhibition at Denmark’s ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum with public art throughout the city planned for 2009 is already garnering much attention. Jeppe Hein has also opened an art bar in Copenhagen called Karriere, incorporating commissioned work from numerous artists to create a new space for expression and for thinking about communication.
As an artist, Hein is fascinated by how communication between his work and the viewer plays out in different ways under the influence of cultural differences. Naming his second solo exhibition at SCAI “Kuru Kuru” (Japanese for “round and round”), he has chosen to exhibit circular and spherical works as a basis for approaching Japanese culture, in which the circle can symbolize enlightenment or truth.
By interacting with these works made of neon lights, mirrors, stainless steel, and other materials, viewers of the exhibition will find their perceptual and cognitive logic shaken from various perspectives and enjoy a wide variety of experiences, from refreshing surprise to a sense of frustration or confusion. While exposing the object-observer relationship between his works and the viewer, this exhibition also presents the viewer with an opportunity to consider the uncertainty of that relationship. We hope that the exhibition will allow many people to experience and interact with Jeppe Hein’s art, and to enjoy it on many levels.
Michael Waugh
“The more I see of men, the more I admire dogs.” -Marie-Jeanne Roland 1754-1793
Schroeder Romero Gallery is pleased to present The More I See of Men, the gallery’s third solo show by Michael Waugh – with work that bridges the gap between two great American events, the inauguration of a new president in January and the Westminster Dog Show in February.
The drawings that comprise this show continue Waugh’s exploration of the drawing technique called micrography, through which tiny hand-written words are used to build up visual images. As Waugh’s work continues to evolve, the drawings have become denser and more expressive; yet they remain deeply engaged in politics and the rhetoric of official history.
The work presented in The More I See of Men, uses the text of reports commissioned by U.S presidents as its starting point. These reports, which often serve the purposes of political propaganda, present research on issues as diverse as the attacks of 9/11, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the privatization of social security. Waugh uses these texts to create a dizzying filigree of bureaucratic documents that coalesce into the form of dogs – waiting to serve their masters. Rich with allegory and dark humor, these drawings subvert the obvious, optically shifting between image and text, figure and ground. These are drawings that transcend their source by reminding us that viewing is not passive.
Dogs are a common subject in popular art; and, after portraits of people, portraits of pets are the second most commissioned subject. Part of the critique inherent in this series of drawings is a comparison between the banality of such artistic commissions and the banality of commissioned propaganda. The knowledge that dogs have been bred to serve us, to listen and do our bidding unquestioningly makes the critique more biting. The centerpiece of the show, entitled The Commission for a National Agenda for the Eighties, is over eight feet tall and almost ten feet wide; it contains over 300 pages of handwritten text; it took six months to complete. Such vast amounts of labor given over in service to such specious propaganda cannot be felt easily. Like the history of the country into which this work delves, this show overflows with generosity, with a contradictory, heartbreaking beauty.
Michael Waugh received his MFA from Texas State University. His work has been shown at Ronald Feldman Gallery, NY; OKOK Gallery, Seattle; The Morris Museum, NJ; and at The University of Connecticut, among others. New work will be included in Solution, a group show curated by Janet Phelps at DiverseWorks, Houston, TX in March. He received a residency from the Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions at Rutgers University in 2008 and is a Joan Mitchell fellowship recipient at the Vermont Studio Center for 2009. The Artist would like to thank Argosy Books for its support of this project.
>>GROUP SHOW: 4 YOUNG FEMALE ARTISTES
Port de Suisse Winter Season Opening: Friday, January 16, 2009, 5–8 pm
LOUKIA ALAVANOU – BERTA FISCHER
LAURINA PAPERINA – REBECCA THOMAS
To kick off Zurich’s Galleries Winter Season’s Opening, HAAS & FISCHER presents works by four young European artists. The artist-quartet connects a playful lightness and experimentation in dealing with content, material and form.
Rebecca Thomas will live-perform at the opening.
Adriana Farmiga
I wanted to let you know about a show of Ukrainian American artist Adriana Farmiga. The show just opened last week and is getting a lot of attention.
Farmiga is known for her conceptual sculpture that has been shown at the Socrates Sculpture park and La Mama Art Center.
I am sending few images of her available pieces.
Shirin Neshat: Women without Men | Prolonged
Ken Kagami::::
PETER DOIG
Dear friends of the gallery,
We are very pleased to announce the exhibition PETER DOIG ‘not for sale’, which will be on view from January 13 – February 28, 2009.
Contemporary Fine Arts will show a selection of works from the last 20 years from international museums and private collections. Peter Doig’s first solo exhibition in 10 years in Berlin rounds off the big international museum-retrospective, which toured to Tate Britain, London, the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris and Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt.
As we have been representing Peter Doig since 1995, we are especially proud to exhibit all of his 140 Studiofilmclub posters. Parts of the poster series, that originated from the weekly film viewings in Port of Spain, Trinidad, were previously shown at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Kunsthalle Zürich, Ballroom Marfa, as well as at Schirn Kunsthalle.
