Olaf Breuning
dal 16/3/2006 al 21/4/2006
Segnalato da
16/3/2006
Olaf Breuning
Nils Staerk, Copenhagen
This and that and snowmen with carrot noses, new photographs and sculptures from 2005-2006. His works are elaborately staged to create visually fascinating and compelling narrative scenes. They feed off cliches from the media and popular culture, as well as various forms of the leisure industry, creating a universe of artificial realities and cited artificialities.
This and that and snowmen with carrot noses
It is with great pleasure that we present a new solo exhibition of Swiss born, New York based artist Olaf Breuning. In 2004 the gallery introduced Breuning for the first time to Scandinavia. The exhibition
presented photography, film, and sculpture spanning the years 2001-2003. This exhibition continues in the same vein, showing new, as yet unexhibited photographs and sculptures from 2005-2006.
Olaf Breuning works in photography, video, sculpture and installation that refer familiar myths,
stereotypes, and cultural fantasies common to mass media. His works are elaborately staged to create
visually fascinating and compelling narrative scenes. They feed off cliches from the media and popular
culture, as well as various forms of the leisure industry, creating a universe of artificial realities and cited
artificialities. Rather than denaturing a “real" image by making it seamless, Breuning takes on real places
with the most primitive means possible. Critical of what he regards as the overcodification of much recent
art, Breuning immerses himself in pop culture to ensure that his own work remains accessible. The artist
emphasizes a continuity between daily life and the artificial worlds of fashion, film, TV, and leisure and
thus opens up a variety of individual readings that refuse one single, coherent truth.
Breuning often travels to sites around the world to find his scenes and stage his motifs. This exhibition
includes five major, large size photographic works, shot in various locations around the world from Spain
and Switzerland in Europe to Peru in South America, as well as staged tableaux with Asian motifs from
Breuning's studio in New York. The artist continues his sculptural endeavours as well, and will present a
large group of animated sculptures, arranged to crowd the exhibition space.
Olaf Breuning (born 1970 in Switzerland) lives in New York and has exhibited widely in Europe, Japan
and the USA - with recent solo exhibitions including Le Magasin, Grenoble, France; Museo de Arte Carrillo
Gil, Mexico City, Mexico; Muse'e de Strasbourg, France (all 2003); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands (2004); Chapter Visual Arts, Cardiff, UK; Chisenhale, London, UK (both 2005). Breuning has
also been featured in group exhibitions at Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, US (2004); Prague
Biennale of Contemporary Art, Czech Republic; and Jeu de Paume, Paris, France (both 2005).
Next exhibition
May 5th - June 17th: Thaddeus Strode “We can penetrate anything we want".
MACO - Mexico Art Fair
It's with great pleasure that we announce our participation in MACO - Me'xico Arte Contempora'neo in
Mexico City, April 26th - 30th. Works by Birgir Andre'sson, Martin Bigum, Olaf Breuning, Miriam
Backstrom, Jeremy Dickinson, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Mads Gamdrup, Nils Erik Gjerdevik, Jone Kvie,
Torbjorn Rodland, Superflex, and Ed Templeton. For more information on the art fair and our
participation, please see http://www.macomexico.com
For further information on the artist and the exhibition, please contact Jesper N. Jorgensen:
phone: +45 3254 4562. email: jesper@nilsstaerk.dk
PREVIEW: FRIDAY MARCH 17th, 17-19
Nils Staerk Contemporary Art
Njalsgade 19 C . DK - 2300 Copenhagen S
Open: tue-fri 12-17, sat 12-15 and by appointment