Miriam Cahn
Me as Happening
08 Oct 2020 - 04 Apr 2021
Miriam Cahn ME AS HAPPENING (installation view). Courtesy the artist, Meyer Riegger, BerlinKalsruhe, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris.Photo David Stjernholm
Miriam Cahn, schreck, 12.8.2013, pastel on paper, 36 x 33 cm. Courtesy: the artist, Meyer Riegger, Berlin/Kalsruhe, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris
Miriam Cahn, o.t., 25.08.2002, oil on canvas, chalk on paper, photo, inst ca. 26 x 105 cm. Courtesy: the artist, Meyer Riegger, Berlin/Kalsruhe, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris
On October 8, 2020, Swiss artist Miriam Cahn's first solo exhibition in Denmark will open at Kunsthal Charlottenborg. The exhibition ‘ME AS HAPPENING’ presents over 100 art works encompassing monumental oil paintings, small watercolours, fragile charcoal drawings and more. Cahn is a pioneering artist of her generation, and throughout her career she has challenged the conventions of art history, contemporary connoisseurship and how an artist engages with the world. She has exhibited extensively around the world – recently, for instance, she participated in Documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel.
In the exhibition, she presents works from the last 25 years including several new works that together and through her rhythmic, dynamic hanging are ME AS HAPPENING. With anger and dissatisfaction as the creative force, she challenges centuries of male-dominated art history by assigning the portrayed women a new, active role. In Miriam Cahn’s paintings women do not look down shyly, but look back at the viewer, they have a prominent sexuality, they give birth to children, and they age.
She uses the naked human body as a central figure in her paintings and makes a nod back to the 1960s 'happenings', where the artist's own body was at the centre and used to challenge notions of sexuality and identity.
Miriam Cahn: ME AS HAPPENING at Kunsthal Charlottenborg is curated by Henriette Bretton-Meyer and supported by Pro Helvetia, Møbeltransport Danmark Fine Art, The Obel Family Foundation, The Danish Arts Foundation and The Embassy of Switzerland in Denmark. The exhibition is organized and circulated by The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto where it will take place in 2021.
About the artist
Miriam Cahn (born in Basel, 1949) lives and works in Stampa, Switzerland. Recent solo exhibitions include Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing (2020); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2019); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2019); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2019); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2019); and Kunstmuseum Bern (2019). She has participated in numerous group exhibitions at various venues internationally, including 21st Biennale of Sydney (2018); Documenta 14, Kassel and Athens (2017); São Paulo Museum of Art (2017); and Centre Pompidou, Paris (2016).
In the exhibition, she presents works from the last 25 years including several new works that together and through her rhythmic, dynamic hanging are ME AS HAPPENING. With anger and dissatisfaction as the creative force, she challenges centuries of male-dominated art history by assigning the portrayed women a new, active role. In Miriam Cahn’s paintings women do not look down shyly, but look back at the viewer, they have a prominent sexuality, they give birth to children, and they age.
She uses the naked human body as a central figure in her paintings and makes a nod back to the 1960s 'happenings', where the artist's own body was at the centre and used to challenge notions of sexuality and identity.
Miriam Cahn: ME AS HAPPENING at Kunsthal Charlottenborg is curated by Henriette Bretton-Meyer and supported by Pro Helvetia, Møbeltransport Danmark Fine Art, The Obel Family Foundation, The Danish Arts Foundation and The Embassy of Switzerland in Denmark. The exhibition is organized and circulated by The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto where it will take place in 2021.
About the artist
Miriam Cahn (born in Basel, 1949) lives and works in Stampa, Switzerland. Recent solo exhibitions include Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing (2020); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2019); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2019); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2019); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2019); and Kunstmuseum Bern (2019). She has participated in numerous group exhibitions at various venues internationally, including 21st Biennale of Sydney (2018); Documenta 14, Kassel and Athens (2017); São Paulo Museum of Art (2017); and Centre Pompidou, Paris (2016).