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19/1/2007

Make Your Own Life

Henry Art Gallery, Seattle

Artists In and Out of Cologne

Make Your Own Life takes a look at the mythic proportions and art historical significance of the alternative scene based in Cologne in the late 80s and early 90s. Long an important city for art and commerce in Germany, during these years Cologne fostered a group of artists that bucked the establishment to raise important questions of artistic identity and institutional critique. For artists like Martin Kippenberger, Jutta Koether, Albert Oehlen, and Cosima von Bonin, art became a place to carve out their own terms of participation within the social, political, and economic constraints of the art world, where they could make their own lives the basis of their work, as Kippenberger exhorted.

This exhibition assembles the work of these figures alongside their American counterparts who exhibited in Cologne with them—Mike Kelley, Andrea Fraser, and Christopher Williams, among them. The art on view encapsulates a critical, independent ethos and encompasses a wide range of stylistic and conceptual bents through an array of media from painting to rock music. Today these artists have become the not-so-distant forebears for a current generation forging creative personae that continue to break away from art world expectations and set new standards. This ongoing trend is represented through the work of Lucy McKenzie, Bernadette Corporation, Reena Spaulings, and others who have achieved critical success while retaining their countercultural stances.

Make Your Own Life: Artists In & Out of Cologne was curated by Bennett Simpson for the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. Organized for the Henry Art Gallery by Associate Curator Sara Krajewski. Support for this exhibition is provided by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, ArtsFund, and the Washington State Arts Commission. In-kind support provided by Pyramid Breweries.

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NORTH GALLERIES
January 6 - April 8, 2007

Photographer Unknown

In this era of skyrocketing auction records for giant photographic works by such artists as Richard Prince and Andreas Gursky, it is hard to remember the origins of the medium in a practical need to record appearances and convey information. Photographic sales allowed travelers to collect images of famous sites and scenic vistas they visited or dreamed of seeing. Although postcards replace this usage, others, such as portraiture or figure studies, are still familiar functions at the beginning of the 21st century. Rather than focus on a specific category of image or school of production, Photographer Unknown provides a glimpse at a variety of unattributed images in the hopes that a visitor might help us name a maker or a subject. It also provides an opportunity to show some obscure treasures from the Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, such as a rare and beautiful wax-paper negatives and charmingly intimate views of people.


Image: Hans-Jorg Mayer. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. 1991. Photo.
Collection Karola Graesslin; courtesy of Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne/Berlin.

Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington
15th Ave NE & NE 41st Street
Seattle, WA 98195-1410
Hours
11 - 5 Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday
11 - 8 Thursday
Admission
$10.00 General Admission
$6.00 Seniors (62 and older)
Thursdays 11- 8 Free

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