Michael Joo - Damien Hirst

Haunch of Venison, Berlin

Have You Ever Really Looked at the Sun? is a unique collaboration between the two artists, who met in Cologne in 1991 and have remained close friends since that time. Engaged in a continuous, twenty-year discourse about their individual artistic practices, this marks the first time Joo and Hirst have worked together to realise a full-scale joint exhibition. Have You Ever Really Looked at the Sun? features new, sculptures from Joo and Hirst.

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Haunch of Venison Berlin is delighted to announce Have You Ever Really Looked at the Sun? a two person exhibition by American artist Michael Joo (b.1966) and British artist Damien Hirst (b.1965). The exhibition opens on 1 May and continues through 14 August 2010.

Have You Ever Really Looked at the Sun? is a unique collaboration between the two artists, who met in Cologne in 1991 and have remained close friends since that time. Engaged in a continuous, twenty-year discourse about their individual artistic practices, this marks the first time Joo and Hirst have worked together to realise a full-scale joint exhibition. Have You Ever Really Looked at the Sun? will feature new, sculptures from Joo and Hirst.

Since gaining international attention after showing in the exhibition Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1995, Joo has employed a highly personal language in the creation of his art to express ideas about identity, nature and the body. In key works like Improved Rack (Elk #18) (2010), a wall-mounted sculpture of elk antlers Joo plays on the traditional presentation of the hunter’s trophy by cutting the antlers into segments and extending them with metal rods. Other major works are a painted pink, bronze life-size sculpture of a zebra, Doppelganger (Pink Rocinante) (2009) and a new group of colorful paintings of quartz crystals on shaped aluminum panels. Joo will also premier a sculptural homage to Martin Kippenberger involving a framework of ice and prehistoric Irish Elk antlers.

In dialogue with Joo’s works, Hirst brings together signature sculptures and paintings for which he has become known. Included in the exhibition are The Incredible Journey (2008), a zebra suspended in formaldehyde in a white painted steel tank and The Black Sheep with Golden Horns (Divided) (2009), another major formaldehyde work shown here for the first time. Also on view are Har Megiddo (2008), a monumental circular fly painting as well as The Dark Continent (2009-2010), a stainless steel medicine cabinet stacked with black pills, behind glass.

Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst was born in 1965 in Bristol, UK. He studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He lives and works in London and Devon. Solo exhibitions include Cornucopia, Oceanographic Museum of Monaco (2010), No Love Lost, The Wallace Collection, London (2009), Requiem, Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev (2009), For the Love of God, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (2008), Astrup Fearnley Museet fur Moderne Kunst, Oslo (2005), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2005) and the Archaeological Museum, Naples (2004). In 1994 he received the fellowship of the DAAD – Berliner Künstlerprogramm and the Turner Prize in 1995. An exhibition of the artist’s private collection, Murderme, was held at Serpentine Gallery, London in 2006.

Michael Joo
Michael Joo was born to Korean parents in 1966 in Ithaca, New York. He studied at Washington University and went on to complete his masters at Yale School of Art. He lives and works in New York. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Chelsea Art Museum, New York (2009), The New Art Gallery Walsall, United Kingdom (2009), PKM Gallery, Seoul (2008), Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2006), Asia Society, New York (2005) and the Bohen Foundation, New York (2005). Recent group exhibitions include P.S.1 Contemporary Art Centre, Long Island (2008), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures), Berlin (2008), Serpentine Gallery, London (2006), 6th Gwangju Biennale (2006), Denver Art Museum, Denver (2006), Whitney Biennale (2000). Michael Joo represented Korea at the 49th Venice Biennale (2001, with Do-Ho Suh). His work can be found in the Murderme Collection, London; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Samsung Museum, Seoul and FNAC (Foundation National d’Art Contemporain), Paris.

Image: Portrait of Damien Hirst and Michael Joo, courtesy of Johnny Shand Kydd

For information and images please contact:

Ute Weingarten, artpress, Berlin
T + 49 (0) 30 21 96 18 43 E weingarten.artpress@uteweingarten.de

Bomi Odufunade, Haunch of Venison, London
T + 44 (0) 20 7495 5050 E bodufunade@hofv.com

Press preview Tuesday, April 27th, 2010, 11am - 1pm
The exhibition opens on 1 May

Haunch of Venison
Heidestrasse 46 - Berlin

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IN ARCHIVIO [8]

Yoko Ono
dal 9/9/2010 al 12/11/2010