Atelier van Lieshout
dal 17/4/2008 al 4/6/2008
Segnalato da
17/4/2008
Atelier van Lieshout
Galeria Distrito Cu4tro (Old space), Madrid
AVL, located in Rotterdam and led by artist Joep van Lieshout, who founded the atelier in 1985, operates internationally in the fields of contemporary art, design and architecture, producing work that examines and criticizes the commercial nature of contemporary society. The show, a mix of newly made sculptures and drawings, takes its title after the largest sculpture to be seen here: The Mall of Babel (2008).
Distrito Cuatro presents Atelier van Lieshout’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. AVL, located in Rotterdam and led by artist Joep van Lieshout, who founded the atelier in 1985, operates internationally in the fields of contemporary art, design and architecture, producing work that examines and criticizes the commercial nature of contemporary society.
The show, a mix of newly made sculptures and drawings, takes its title after the largest sculpture to be seen here: The Mall of Babel (2008), a huge sculpture made of wood and polyester placed in the public area in Slave City (a ‘05/’06 work by Atelier Van Lieshout which they themselves describe as …as a sinister utopian project which is also very rational, efficient and profitable). The Mall of Babel is a giant biomorphic baroque shopping center, with 26 floors and a humongous supply. The building is open 24 hours 7 days a week and forms the world largest boundless consumers’ paradise. In one of the design drawings The Mall is falling apart, due to the enormous consumers lust, like a contemporary tower of Babel.
The smaller sculptures on show, Black Bags and Black Chest, Green Chest with Schlurf, Verbitree and Legs are semi abstract images of the insides and outsides of people in their surrounding world. The exhibition is completed with the series Grotto, made up of seven paintings (acrylic on canvas) and a number of drawings (ink on paper), all of them dealing with different aspects of human nature.
That 2006 first Atelier van Lieshout show at distrito Cu4tro was also their first big solo show in a Spanish gallery. In the these two years work by AVL has been present in a large number of events and shows all over the world: Museo Arte Contemporanea (MACRO), Roma 2006, Museo Dhondt-Dhaenens Deurle, Belgium 2006, Tanya Monakdar Gallery, New York 2006, Carpenters Workshop Gallery, London 2007, Female Slave University, Gallery Gio Marconi, Milan 2007, Male Slave University, Gallery Bob van Orsouw, Zürich. Right now they are showing or about to do so: Stad des Sklaven, Museum Folkwang, Essen (Germany), De Nature, Dexia Bank, Lusembourgh, Beyond Eden, Zentrum Paul Klee, Berne, The Parallel World, Albion Gallery, London, Gallery Krizinger, Vienna. Soon AVL will be participating in La Carreta de Agua, Expoagua Zaragoza ’08.
Work by Atelier van Lieshout forms part of international collections such as MOMA, New York, Stedeliil Museum, Amsterdam, Fundacion Prada, Milano, Castello de Rivoli, Turino or Walter Art Center, Minneapolis.
Image: Sitting hollow man, 2005. Polyester sculpture 90 x 64 x 140 cm.
Distrito Cuatro
Bárbara de Braganza 2 E-28004 Madrid - Spain
Opening hours: Monday from 4.30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday to Friday from 11.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. and from 4.30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Saturday from 11.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. and from 5.00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. August closed