Two exhibitions
dal 19/11/2014 al 14/2/2015
Segnalato da
19/11/2014
Two exhibitions
Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover
The exhibition of Heimo Zobernig focuses on key works from his sculptural oeuvre since the early 1980s as well as his recent abstract paintings. Jochen Plogsties bases his paintings on reproductions of well-known artworks by old and new masters as well as personal commemorative photos.
Heimo Zobernig
The varied, genre-spanning work of Heimo Zobernig (*1958 in Mauthen, Austria) attests to his sober, critical as well as experimental and humorous approach. The artist, who lives in Vienna, works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, design, video and performance. The exhibition at the kestnergesellschaft focuses on key works from his sculptural oeuvre since the early 1980s as well as his recent abstract paintings.
Tables, pedestals, shelves, a bench, a desk, variations on a bar—many of Zobernig’s sculptures originate in the applied arts. They are often made of cheap materials, including pressboard, MDF, dispersion paint, cardboard and styrofoam. Their simple, geometric shapes and standardized elements contribute to the usually sober, pragmatic impression of Zobernig’s works. His sculptures, which are presented in chronological order in the exhibition, often point to earlier contexts of presentation, internal connections within his work and the act of presentation itself. For example, untitled (1997) attests to its earlier use as an information desk at Documenta X in Kassel. Separated from their original context, the unimposing, sculptural forms of Zobernig’s works open up an endless variety of new possibilities of aesthetic experience and interpretation, whether as art-historical commentary, self-sufficient objects or in their relationship to the human body. By exploring the boundaries between utility objects and autonomous works, these pieces continually ask how they can be art and be experienced as art.
In addition to his sculptures, in his mostly square paintings Zobernig examines the possibilities of fundamental elements of abstract painting: the monochrome color palette, the grid and the gesture. While the grid as a rational schema has long been a central focus of Zobernig’s interest, only recently has a gestural vocabulary made an appearance in his paintings. He combines grids with complex arrangements of freely drawn lines, amorphous structures and apparently random smudges of paint.
What at first appears to be the result of spontaneous actions takes shape in a controlled process in which the composition is determined from the beginning. Contrasting layers of paint and various phases of production are combined, and the relationships between figure and background, top and bottom, as well as space and surface are destabilized. Like the sculptures, his paintings become elements of an open, encyclopedic “Zobernig system” that transcends the boundaries of genre and is left open to any number of interpretations.
The exhibition was conceived in cooperation with MUDAM Luxembourg as an overview of Zobernig’s work in two chapters. While the sculptures are featured in both exhibitions, this summer MUDAM presented a chronological retrospective of Zobernig’s monochrome paintings. A monochrome painting from 2013 connects the two groups of paintings: it was the most recent painting shown at MUDAM and is the oldest on display at the kestnergesellschaft in Hanover.
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Jochen Plogsties
kisses in the afternoon
With Kisses in the Afternoon, the kestnergesellschaft will be presenting a comprehensive solo exhibition by the Leipzig-based painter Jochen Plogsties (*1974 in Cochem, Germany). Plogsties bases his paintings on reproductions of well-known artworks by old and new masters as well as personal commemorative photos. He takes his pictorial templates from picture books, newspapers, magazines, postcards and the Internet. Plogsties reproduces these existing pictures and visibly integrates the process of copying into his own works.
While a reproduction already represents an alteration of the original in cropping and coloration, Plogsties precisely follows the existing composition. He plays with formats—a portrait the size of a postcard is enlarged to outsized proportions—and counters the precision of the reproduction with his coarse painting technique. In contrast to mechanically produced copies, his approach is a subjective process of appropriation, adaptation and abstraction that is in some cases subtly and in other cases prominently evidenced in his pictures. The white or colored borders around his motifs point to the reproduction as a template and are part of his paintings. The titles of the works make reference to the original and the reproduction.
The paintings shown for the first time in the exhibition demonstrate the breadth of his motifs, including historical portraits from the late Middle Ages to modernism, de Chirico’s Melancholia, Magritte’s The Treachery of Images, details from the Temptation of Saint Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch, pictures of animals from Wikipedia Commons and photographs by famous artists such as Cindy Sherman. Past and contemporary pictorial motifs are treated equally.
Jochen Plogsties | 26_14 (Ceci n'est pas une pipe) | 46 x 36 cm | Oil on linen | 2014 | Courtesy ASPN Leipzig | © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014 | [From: René Magritte, La trahison des images, 59 x 65 cm, oil on canvas, 1929, County Museum, Los Angeles. In: ttp://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_trahison_des_images]
In his works Plogsties addresses the dogma of originality in Western art history and the associated questions of authorship, style and authenticity. His approach also reflects contemporary conditions and possibilities for the production, reception and distribution of artworks.
Jochen Plogsties studied under Arno Rink and Neo Rauch at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig from 2003 to 2008. In 2009 he was awarded a residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York, and in 2011 he received the Leipziger Volkszeitung Art Prize.
Image: Heimo Zobernig, untitled, 2014, Acrylic on canvas 200 x 200 cm © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014
Press contact:
Charlotte Schüling, phone +49 511 7012016, presse@kestnergesellschaft.de
Press preview Wednesday, 19 November 2014 | 11 a.m.
Opening Thursay, 20 November 2014 | 7 p.m.
kestnergesellschaft
Goseriede 11 | 30159 Hannover
Hours daily 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. | Thur
sdays 11a.m. – 8 p.m. | Mondays closed
admission € 7, concession € 5
Free entry for members and childer under 15