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English summaries Feb 23 - Mach 9
Albertina
Sturtevant
14.02.2015 – 10.05.2015
by Nina Schedlmayer
In exhibitions, one would often like to beam oneself back to the time in which the art was created. In Elaine Sturtevant's exhibition in the Albertina – only works on paper by the artist (deceased aged 90 in 2014) are shown – one would have sometimes liked to have been an observer in the year 1964 at the time the US artist began to copy pop art subjects. Claes Oldenburg's hamburger, Jasper John's array of figures and flags and Warhol's flowers were not given such short measure then as they are today. It's quite possible that Sturtevant's copies of these – some one-to-one, some combined with one another – were merely intellectual mind games for insiders.
Sturtevant's criticism of the mechanisms of the art market and of the fetish for original works are condensed in the fastidious doubling of their templates. With her 100 works, the Albertina presents an encompassing show not only of the pop art icons which Sturtevant later took up again as of the 1980's, but also her copies of Beuys’ or Duchamps’ drawings – artists who had a special relationship to that which was original.
Sturtevant's complete works, for which she received the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2011, can be labelled as consequent on the one hand – and on the other, as one that has never really developed further. In the gratifyingly unspectacular exhibition catalogue, Robert Fleck is quoted: "Already her first work 'Johns Flag' in 1964 was already completed from the point of view of the complete works. Nothng else had to be developed. She thinks the things right through rigorously, frankly and intellectually like a philosopher." This is also reflected here: Because although it is not unexciting to follow Sturtevant's choice of the show inevitably goes into redundancy, remains a contradiction unto itself. But that's inherent in Sturtevant's art.
Albertina
1010 Vienna, Albertinaplatz 1
Tel: +43 1 534 83 -0
Fax: +43 1 533 76 97
E-mail: info@albertina.at
www.albertina.at
Opening hours: Daily. 10-18 hours, Wed 10-21 hours
Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf Frankfurt
Silke Wagner – facts & figures
07.02.2015 – 21.03. 2015
by Raimar Stange
Silke Wagner belongs to the artists who had already drawn art and activism together into a dialogue in the 1990's. In her exhibition "facts & figurers" in the Frankfurter Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf, she now shows how her society-critical approach also holds its own in the "gallery exhibition" format.
For this, Silke Wagner has chosen an artistic strategy which can best be described by the adage "A wolf in sheep's clothing". That is to say: under the cover of the abstract form of aesthetically created surfaces, the artist has woven critical information about the status quo of the neo-liberal globalization. A good example of this is her work group of "figures" in which Silke Wagner devotes herself to the production of gold, with the precious metal that, on the one hand stands almost symbolically for the cause of neo-liberalism since the loss of the "gold price bond", whose destruction, on the other hand, with its scandalous working conditions counts as one of the most environmentally damaging in the world.
The picture "Figure II", 2015 shows a vertical black stroke and a small black dot in a gilded surface. The lasered surface of the exceedingly thin stroke stands for the infinitesimally small amount of gold won from recycled industrial waste, the even smaller surface of the dot for the amount of sustainable furthered gold. The "Figure IV", 2015, whose abstract form is reminiscent of pictures of Russian constructivism, symbolizes with its black lasered surface the giant amount, worldwide, of mercury contamination caused by gold mining. Also impressive is the "Figure IX", 2015, a wall picture of a light blue circle and numerous light blue triangles on a light background. On the one hand, the picture is of apparently harmless beauty, on the other hand, it documents the earning capacities in the bank metropolis of Frankfurt am Main: the almost unnoticeable dot represents the percentage of the dollar millionaires in the city population, the triangles, on the other hand, those citizens of Frankfurt endangered by poverty. An important exhibition.
Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf Frankfurt
60314 Frankfurt, Hanauer Landstrasse 136
Tel: 0049/(0)69/430 59 427
Fax: 0049/(0)69/430 59 428
E-mail: office@wilmatolksdorf.de
www.wilmatolksdorf.de
Opening hours: Tue - Fri 11:00 - 18:00, Sat 11:00 - 14:00
Galerie Krobath
Anna Meyer – To be or online
08.02.2015 – 22.04.2015
by Raimar Stange
Anna Meyer's painting has, in the last years, gathered in charisma, it shines, as it were, from the inside out and literally burns under the eyes looking at it. But the reason for this "burnability" - is not the expressive, intensified, occasionally also jazzy-garish strength of colour of most of the large format pictures alone, but above all the explosive power of their content. In her solo exhibition "To be or online", freely titled from William Shakespeare, in the Berliner Galerie Krobath, Anna Meyer deals with the possible loss of reality which is associated with an increasing virtualization of our lives: e.g. social media, Google and mobile phone, which the artist, however rarely uses 1:1 – thank heavens, Anna Meyer, uses a kind of hyper-realism instead of plump realism, which, additionally, are loaded with intelligent text. Only at a second glance, does one see the spider-like drone on its more or less clandestine flight through the night over the Danube in “Drohnenland” (2014). On the other hand, one immediately recognises the “Badeschiff” in the centre of the picture, the brightly lit traditional Urania building including the observatory on the right hand side as well as a psychedelically colourful floodlit insurance building, well known in Vienna, on the left hand side of the picture. Historic as well as post-moderne reality seem created here for a photogenic surveillance which is not obviously seen any more as a problem but as an inexpensive chance for cheap self-marketing in real time.
Also shown in the exhibition are smaller, three-dimensional architecture models which can also be partly seen in the pictures. As a “trinket version of the world" (Nippesversion der Welt” - Günther Anders), these works also convincingly picture the dissolution of what was once thought of as a material world.
Galerie Krobath
10117 Berlin, Marienstrasse 10
E-mail: office@galeriekrobath.at
www.galeriekrobath.at
Opening hours: Wed-Fri 11-18, Sat 11-18 hours
Galerie Nächst St. Stephan
Christoph Weber
29.01.2015 – 14.03.2015
by Susanne Rohringer
In its current exhibition, the Galerie nächst St. Stephan is showing the most recent works of the Viennese artist, Christoph Weber, born 1974.
In the first room of the gallery, a five-part sculptural work in concrete leans against one wall. The cuboids are set up in a line and buckle over one after the other. The last cuboid looks as if it had already been poured between the wall and the parquet flooring.
Looking at this first example, one can already begin to question the production method and the artist's intention. Weber completes the plastics in certain forms and, shortly before they have hardened, he sets them in different positions. Mass and material are thereby altered. Thus, Weber steps in where altering the absolutely unmalleable – namely concrete – is still possible.
Precisely in this first work in the Galerie nächst St. Stephan which – like all further works – also carries the ironic title "not yet titled", the collapsing of the cuboids appears to progress like a law in the series. Consequently, the time factor plays a certain role in this artistic object. Weber also plays with the observer's expectations, the latter reckoning that this sculpture will "collapse", which, however, never happens. The concrete is firmly constructed. However, it gives the impression of the greatest fragility.
Galerie nächst St. Stephan
1010 Vienna, Grünangerg. 1/2
Tel: +43 1 5121266
Fax: +43 1 5134307
E-mail: galerie@schwarzwaelder.at
www.schwarzwaelder.at
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 11-18, Sat 11-16 hours
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
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