21/9/2011
Mathias Poledna / Florian Pumhosl
Raven Row, London
An exhibition of new work by Austrian artists Mathias Poledna and Florian Pumhosl. Poledna shows a new 35mm film shot in Los Angeles and Pumhosl presents a new series of 54 glass paintings, designed especially for Raven Row's panelled galleries. The two artists have a history of shared interests and exchange going back to collaborations while at art school and afterwards. This exhibition is the first to present their distinct but related practices in the form of a two- person show.
For this exhibition Mathias Poledna (b. Austria, 1965) and Florian Pumhösl (b. Austria, 1971) have each created a single expansive new work. Poledna has produced a 35 mm film for Raven Row's ground floor, and Pumhösl has made a series of 54 glass paintings for its panelled upper galleries. The interaction between these works and their spatial implementation plays a key role in the exhibition, addressing Raven Row's distinct architecture, and the potential for dialogue across different conceptual frameworks.
Mathias Poledna (for whom this is the first large exhibition in London) works primarily in film. While his minimal and evocative films focus on very different subjects—a post-punk band, a rainforest in Papua New Guinea, a set of crystal glasses from the 1920s—they share a rigorous involvement with the language of film, and the process of image-making in the context of contemporary and historic popular culture.
Florian Pumhösl makes paintings and films, which mediate the avant-garde graphics, painting and architecture of early modernism. Neither straightforward historical reference, nor appropriation, these works operate within a canon of abstract visual language, and reflect on the diverse manifestations of modernity.
Poledna and Pumhösl have a history of shared interests and exchange going back to collaborations while at art school and afterwards. This exhibition is the first to present their distinct but related practices in the form of a two- person show.
Mathias Poledna's recent exhibitions include: Mathias Poledna, Portikus, Frankfurt, 2010; Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna, 2010; Mathias Poledna, New Museum, New York, 2009; Mathias Poledna / Christopher Williams, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, 2009; Yokohama Triennale 2008; Mathias Poledna, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne, 2007; Mathias Poledna, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2007; Mathias Poledna, Witte de With, Rotterdam, 2006; Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York, 2006. Poledna lives and works in Los Angeles.
Florian Pumhösl's recent exhibitions include; 678, Mumok, Vienna, 2011; Florian Pumhösl, Galerie Krobath, Vienna, 2011; Diminution, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Berlin, 2010; Bewegliche Bühne, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 2010; Florian Pumhösl, Lisson Gallery, London, 2008; documenta 12, Kassel, 2007; 27th São Paulo Biennial, 2006; Florian Pumhösl. Animated Map, Neue Kunsthalle St. Gallen, 2005–6. Pumhösl lives and works in Vienna.
Image: Florian Pumhösl, Fliegende Händler [Travelling Hawkers], 2011
One of a series of 54 glass panels
66.5 x 45cm, acrylic lacquer on 2mm glass
Opening 22 september 2011
Raven Row
56 Artillery Lane, London E1 7LS
Wednesday to Sunday 11am–6pm
free admission