Curated by André Butzer
15 Jul - 16 Aug 2014
CURATED BY ANDRÉ BUTZER
André Butzer, Marcel Hüppauff, Daniel Mendel-Black, Philipp Schwalb
15 July - 16 August 2014
The gallery is delighted to present a group exhibition curated by the artist André Butzer.
All of the three artists Butzer places in the exhibition alongside his own contributions have been important companions to him over the past 30 years.
Marcel Hüppauff (born in Stuttgart in 1972, living in Hamburg) already had an important impact on Butzer as a school mate and one of his first early artistic co-operators. Later, the two friends were also among the founding fathers of “Akademie Isotrop”, an influential group or school of artists established in Hamburg in the mid-nineties. Hüppauff’s paintings demonstrate this historic reference in a particularly emphatic manner, constantly renewing this fruitful, recurring approach that once emerged from the concurrence of collective practices through his adamant defence and continuous quest. In this quest, the artist encounters moments of creation, the formation of being and image, anew every day.
Phillip Schwalb (born in Filderstadt in 1984, living in Basel) is an outstanding representative of the younger generation and radicalises the seemingly impossible – that liberating beginning which, in the low “contemporary” spectrum only remains concealed by styles, fashions and trends or strategies. His paintings are subject to the pictorial, prompting the artist to first invest in space and substance to clear what is obscured by the image. Schwalb, as a kind of Klee of the 21st century, fascinates with his high level of sensibility.
Daniel Mendel-Black (born in Los Angeles in 1966, living in Inglewood) has long been Butzer’s most important contact in the USA. With him, and in cooperation with the concept artist Thomas Winkler, Butzer also undertook a number of formative journeys, lectures and events in Greater Los Angeles after the turn of the millennium. Mendel-Black counts among the protagonists of Californian avant-garde art of the first decade of the new millennium. In his oeuvre, the artist has boldly and resistantly challenged those artistic categories the academic-authoritarian America has been bitterly imposing on entire generations to this day. Beyond the mere recognised acquisition of artistic skills and complicit allegiance, he has managed to develop a moving, extensive eye for the image that now allows him to see for himself, but that in turn also allows for the image to look back at him.
Any object relation is willingly surrendered to endless annihilation.
Steffen Krüger, director, FRIEDENS-SIEMENSE CO.
3rd June, 2014
André Butzer, Marcel Hüppauff, Daniel Mendel-Black, Philipp Schwalb
15 July - 16 August 2014
The gallery is delighted to present a group exhibition curated by the artist André Butzer.
All of the three artists Butzer places in the exhibition alongside his own contributions have been important companions to him over the past 30 years.
Marcel Hüppauff (born in Stuttgart in 1972, living in Hamburg) already had an important impact on Butzer as a school mate and one of his first early artistic co-operators. Later, the two friends were also among the founding fathers of “Akademie Isotrop”, an influential group or school of artists established in Hamburg in the mid-nineties. Hüppauff’s paintings demonstrate this historic reference in a particularly emphatic manner, constantly renewing this fruitful, recurring approach that once emerged from the concurrence of collective practices through his adamant defence and continuous quest. In this quest, the artist encounters moments of creation, the formation of being and image, anew every day.
Phillip Schwalb (born in Filderstadt in 1984, living in Basel) is an outstanding representative of the younger generation and radicalises the seemingly impossible – that liberating beginning which, in the low “contemporary” spectrum only remains concealed by styles, fashions and trends or strategies. His paintings are subject to the pictorial, prompting the artist to first invest in space and substance to clear what is obscured by the image. Schwalb, as a kind of Klee of the 21st century, fascinates with his high level of sensibility.
Daniel Mendel-Black (born in Los Angeles in 1966, living in Inglewood) has long been Butzer’s most important contact in the USA. With him, and in cooperation with the concept artist Thomas Winkler, Butzer also undertook a number of formative journeys, lectures and events in Greater Los Angeles after the turn of the millennium. Mendel-Black counts among the protagonists of Californian avant-garde art of the first decade of the new millennium. In his oeuvre, the artist has boldly and resistantly challenged those artistic categories the academic-authoritarian America has been bitterly imposing on entire generations to this day. Beyond the mere recognised acquisition of artistic skills and complicit allegiance, he has managed to develop a moving, extensive eye for the image that now allows him to see for himself, but that in turn also allows for the image to look back at him.
Any object relation is willingly surrendered to endless annihilation.
Steffen Krüger, director, FRIEDENS-SIEMENSE CO.
3rd June, 2014