TIM RODA - make BELIEVE

September 18 - October 31, 2009
 

Tim Roda has something that many emerging artists don't - three boys under the age of 11 and a burgeoning marriage.  And, because he has made them the content of his theatrically staged photographs for more than half a decade, Roda's work is also something of an anomaly.  It deals with content we don't see much of in contemporary art - the familial.  Rejecting the banality popular in contemporary photography, Roda features his wife and young boys throughout his black-and-white prints so that the relationships between father and son, wife and husband, mother and child are central to each composition.

But the Pennsylvania native uses more than his immediate family for inspiration.  The reticently slanted domesticity we see in every one of the 35mm images combines make-believe memories from the artist's own childhood, as well as autobiographical moments from the present and shared histories from his extended family's past. The photographs are balancing acts between documentary and falsity; family portraits of multiple generations becoming complicit within Roda's own; documents of a family memorializing what was while also playing with what is. And, as such, Roda's art directly meddles in his life, while his life intervenes in his art.

A sense of yearning as paired with a dreamlike playfulness - evident in homemade costuming and exaggerated narratives - is consistent throughout Roda's oeuvre and makes each vignette a timeless, virtual reality that is part memory, part history, part real-time record of lives as they are unfolding.

No more is this better evidenced than in his latest body of work, which comes on the heels of a Fulbright Scholarship in Italy - and will debut this fall at Roda's galleries in New York City, Seattle and Berlin - where Roda investigated a foreign domesticity as well as his personal past. After some time in Rome, the family headed South to Pentidatillo, the village where Roda's grandfather grew up.  Eager to explore his ancestor's existence as faithfully as possible, Roda blurred the lines between his art and his life more so than in any other series. The five Rodas settled into a one-bedroom house that served as both their home and Roda's studio.  The resulting images look, therefore, like extracted splices of real-life moments because they were.  The boys would be doing their homework or eating breakfast and they'd stop to work on one of Roda's sets.. 

Since Plato confined art to his cave, art and, for that matter, artists have struggled with art being second best to the "real" thing.  Modernism achieved a self-referential autonomy where art could exist in an obscure, albeit ideal "Platonic" place, governed not by real life but by stylistic laws.  Painting and sculpture were separate from the materialistic, mundane affairs of ordinary people. This was art for art's sake, and the complete opposite of Roda's paused performative reenactments of a life gone by and developing documents of a life going on. While the photographs have roots in the tradition of the family snapshot, Roda's work transcends.  Though his works are an ever-evolving documentary of Roda's relationship to his past and his present they are most of all compelling investigations of both the passage of time and the dynamism of human relationships.

Carrie E. A. Scott

Tim Roda (*1977 in Lancaster PA, USA) lives and works in New York surrounded by his family that represents, at the same time, his main artistic "material" and source of inspiration. He graduated whith excellence from the University of Washington. He took part to different residencies all around the world and received several awards, such as the Fullbright Award in 2008. 

 

 

 

 

September 19 - October 31, 2009

For his first solo exhibition in Berlin, Peter Zimmermann utilizes two rooms of the Michael Janssen Gallery. In the first room, visitors come across two of his new sculptures. The current exhibition shows this special body of work to a wider audience for the first time. Zimmermann has been using epoxy resin for his pictures for two decades already, but it is only in recent years that he has also used the material to create three-dimensional works. With their intense colors, they unmistakably set themselves apart from the grey floor and white walls. At the same time, they take on an organic form, resembling oversized drops of a fluid that has been spilled accidentally. Yet a closer look reveals the complex structure of the sculptures. Their shiny, running surfaces give the impression of soft, upholstered objects. Sometimes it's even difficult to resist the temptation to prod them with a foot or poke at them with a finger. This is due to the material that they are made of. In its unprocessed state, epoxy resin is colorless and liquid. Zimmermann blends the liquid with pigments, using it to form layers. When the resin dries, it creates hard, stable, heavy formations. A similar effect can be observed with the pictures in the second room.. The same method of production is used to create large format canvases. As his starting point, Zimmermann uses digitized motifs taken from sections of earlier works or found on the internet, television or other sources. He manipulates them using Photoshop, combining details from different motifs in order to make a one-to-one template, which allows him to transfer the contours of the various patterns onto the canvas. With the additional use of stencils, the colored epoxy resin is then poured onto the surface. This happens layer by layer, with lighter colors being applied first. One special characteristic of the material is that, despite the use of a clear template, the final results vary. There is always an inevitable element of fortuity contributing to the process. The various layers of epoxy interact with each other in order to create the nuances that are ultimately appreciated in the finished work. The resulting smooth and transparent surfaces take on a captivating luminescence, which magically attracts the beholder. On one hand, the pieces embody a lightness that suggests dried soap bubbles. On the other hand, the substance is applied across the entire surface of the painting, yet each layer of color contributes relief-like elevations, giving the pictures a sculptural presence and a spacial impact. It almost seems as if the color wants to venture beyond the borders of the canvas, as if it had been difficult to restrain. The gleaming, irregular surfaces reflect the surrounding area, distorting it. When standing in the exhibition room, with the walls almost seamlessly absorbing the large format works, the viewer is confronted with an opulence that is almost overwhelming. Peter Zimmermann's painting defies all attempts at categorization, although the influence of action painting and its main exponent Jackson Pollock is clearly apparent.

Peter Zimmermann (born 1956 in Freiburg) lives and works in Cologne. He studied at the Academy of Art and Design in Stuttgart. From 2002 to 2007, he was a professor at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. His solo exhibitions have featured at important European and American institutions: "Wheels" at the Nuremberg Kunsthalle in 2007, "Current: Peter Zimmermann" at the Museum of Art in Columbus OH in 2008, and recently, the significant retrospective "All You Need" at the Museum of Modern Art Kärtnen in Klagenfurt, for which an extensive catalogue has been published.

 

Galerie Michael Janssen
Rudi-Dutschke-Straße 26
( formerly Kochstrasse 60 )
D-10969 Berlin
+49 30 2592725-0

 

 

 

 

September 5th - October 10th 2009

"All aspects of the relationship between human mankind and nature solidify behind the bars of an animal cage: repulsion and fascination, the will for appropriation, control and knowledge, the gradual acknowledgement of the complexity and idiosyncrasy of different life forms and much more. The microcosm of the zoo herewith stands in close relation to the history of other modern phenomena such as colonization, ethnocentrism and the discovery of the Other, the civilization of men, the development of cultural and commemoration sites like museums, or the development of leisure time. The gaze at the animal cage hence allows us to comprehend an entire society."
E. Baratay und E. Hardouin-Fugier: Zoo - Von der Menagerie zum Tierpark, Wagenbach, Berlin 2000

(translated by KLEMM'S, 2009)

Ulrich Gebert (*1976) examines in his metaphoric image-cycles and series the relation of human beings to their environment, in particular to nature - whether civilized or untouched. However, he does not pursue the 'romantic' idea of a reunification between culture and nature but rather creates in form and content a background that critically questions our living conditions. The question is, "How does the individual or society inscribe into the habitat?" Order, hierarchy, power structures, categorization, functionalization and instrumentalization are the terms that play a vital role here. Ulrich Gebert finds images which provide this information and which convey something that is hard to be translated into language. He selects from the variety of photographic possibilities and chooses forms of depiction according to the context, be it documentary, scenic, still life or based on found material. His approach conflates an almost scientific inquisitiveness with subjective auxesis and a precise intensification of the respective subject. In regard to the viewer Gebert relies on the psychological power of his images and the aesthetics of their presentation.

His current work 'Life among Beasts' takes reference to former cycles such as 'Typus' (2005) or 'Soft Land' (2007). At first sight the viewer encounters an unusual composition of partial forms and abstract information that are arranged in loose tableaus. In trying to order it according to existing categories the visual familiarization process gradually reveals the formal and conceptual coherences. The result, however, is disturbing and hardly accords to what one has expected or maybe wished for. Impressions of drastic brutality alternate with awkward tenderness and absurd humor.

His installations consequently convey this atmosphere into the space. A variety of antiquarian animal cages are set in dialogue with the images on the wall. Gebert has built new spaces in these 'living spaces': they are fictitious, abstracted landscapes, being familiar to the collective memory from zoological gardens or museums of natural history. The idea of the model discloses in the abstraction of these 'architectural landscapes': it is about 'the world in a nutshell', understanding the wild, collecting and exhibiting, and at last it is about taking control.

Inherent to these 'microcosms' - and in the same manner in the tableaus on the wall - is a gesture of violent appropriation in the sense of cultivation and categorization. Yet, it is immediately presented as aesthetically intelligible by means of clear composition and an aesthetic open to meaning.

KLEMM'S
Brunnenstraße 7
10119 Berlin
Germany
+49 (0) 30 40 50 49 53

 

 

 

12 September to 24 October 2009

We are pleased to present the work "Grand Paris Texas" by the artist duo Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler in their forth solo exhibition at the gallery.

In their elaborately produced video works - both filmically and architecturally - Hubbard and Birchler bring into play the shifts between the conscious and the subconscious, presence and absence, inwardness and outwardness. They fathom conflicts involving desire and repression, gender positions, remembering and forgetting. The house, or the dwelling, as an unstable space between home and haunting, frequently comes to the fore in their work as well.

Through their open narratives, which interweave agency and its spaces in a complex manner, Hubbard and Birchler unhinge the spatiotemporal order. Involved scenes include both real locations and mise-en-scènes appropriated by the artists based on personal experiences, historical research, and literary or filmic sources.
The protagonist of "Grand Paris Texas" is "The Grand", a long-abandoned cinema in Paris, Texas - the same small town made famous by Wim Wenders through his 1984 film of the same name, without the actual town even having made an appearance. "Grand Paris Texas" interweaves various narratives and metanarratives: about an obsolete site of filmic illusions, about a small town and its entanglements with Wim Wenders's film as well as with the French capital, and about the techniques and production methods of filmmaking itself. In "Grand Paris Texas", Hubbard and Birchler for the first time take up formats of the documentary so as to equally approach both real and imaginary spaces and situations.
At the dilapidated cinema, cluttered with debris and dated technology, we observe a film team armed with dust masks and gloves, their activities reminiscent of those pursued by speleologists. At one point, Hubbard and Birchler are even caught in the picture.
In a series of interviews, local residents comment on the former cinema, on films in general, and on Wim Wenders's "Paris, Texas" in particular. A funeral home director, for one, compares his work with that of a film director.
In "Grand Paris Texas", narratives and metanarratives are intricately interwoven - for instance, in the involvement of a VHS tape of Wenders's film that was found by the artists in a video store in Paris, Texas. Years ago, another video renter had accidentally overwritten the last section of the film, making it impossible to discover how the story of Paris, Texas ends. This anecdote can indeed be interpreted as a reference to the open narrative techniques employed by Hubbard and Birchler.

Teresa Hubbard, born 1965 in Dublin, Ireland, and Alexander Birchler, born 1962 in Baden, Switzerland, have been working together since 1990. Their works have been shown in numerous biennials, including the Venice Biennale (1999), the Busan Biennale (2008), or the Liverpool Biennial (2008) and in exhibition venues like the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., the Museum of Contemporary Art at the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Hamburger Bahnhof-Museum for Contemporary Art in Berlin, the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, the Whitney Museum in New York, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, and the Reina Sofía in Madrid.
In 2008, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth dedicated a comprehensive solo exhibition to the artist duo with No Room to Answer. Now with No Room to Answer - Projections, the Württembergischer Kunstverein is focusing on a wide selection of video installations by the artists. A further variation on the exhibition will be offered this fall by the Aargauer Kunstmuseum in Aarau, Switzerland, at the same time as our show at the gallery.

Source: Württembergischer Kunstverein

 

Galerie Barbara Thumm
Markgrafenstrasse 68
D-10969 Berlin
Germany
+ 49/30/283 90 347

 

 

25 September to 11 November 2009

Johnen Galerie is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Roman Ondák in conjunction with the unveiling their new gallery space in Mitte at Mariennstrasse. Roman Ondák is currently showing at the 2009 Venice Biennale (Slovakian Pavilion), MoMA in New York and the Hamburger Bahnhof exhibition, "Die Kunst ist super!"

The selection of early works from 1996-2001 all pertain to the idea of space and its perception. Shared Floor, 1996, Untitled (Wall), 1997, Freed Doorway, 1998 and Untitled, 1998 are each made from real found elements from different apartments and galleries. Each element refers directly to architectural structures of these former sites, although when originally in situ, they were in a certain sense invisible: the objects were such an inherent part of any room that the viewer did not pay any particular attention to them.

In Shared Floor, for example, the parquet flooring of a room was removed and then reassembled in the outline of its original shape on the gallery floor. The electric sockets from the same room were dismantled and affixed to metal rods, which were then attached to the parquet floor, thus simulating their original positions in the walls while retaining the same spatial relationship to the floor.

Freed Doorway shows a door that has been cropped: its edges have been cut and the door itself is now dysfunctional. It has been negated from its relation to the doorframe to which it belonged. The door now leans against the wall of a gallery.

Untitled occupies the whole room with only several tiny pieces, such as electric sockets and traces of water pipes. They are pushed out a few centimeters from the wall by metal rods, thereby implying the surface of a fictional wall, which could stand in front of the real gallery wall.
A panel from a gallery has been relocated to the exhibition in Untitled (Wall). The panel leans against the wall, as if it were a remnant from the construction of the exhibition. Upon closer inspection, however, one notices that the panel still has an electric socket completely intact, while its back casing remains hidden behind the panel in the gallery wall.

In addition, there are two works that directly link the gallery's interior with its exterior. The work Colour and Size, 1999 draws from the view of the trees in the gallery windows of the rear room. One window is left open and next to it, a white shoe box has been installed. With a circle cut out in the front and its top slightly sloping on the sides, the shoebox is reminiscent of a birdhouse. Below the hole is the shoebox's original sticker that reads, "Colour/Black; Size/36," which absurdly conflates the description of shoes with the taxonomy of birds: it seems to say that only those birds that are black and can fit in the 36mm hole are allowed to enter.

Untitled (Traffic), 2001 consists of a red emergency-exit hammer that has been removed from a bus and installed next to the window of the gallery. The windows of the gallery make a strange reference to a bus, especially when such a hammer is installed next to the windows: its very presence summons visions of undesirable but possible bus accidents. Moreover, in the gallery, it suggests that the viewer might yet find one more way to leave the exhibition other than the way he came in.

The new Gallery Building on Marienstrasse 10, formly the location of the architect O. M. Ungers' Berlin office, houses Johnen Galerie, Krobath, and ph-projects. It is a block away from the Boros Collection and minutes from the Hamburger Bahnhof. Johnen Galerie artist Robert Kusmirowski will transform the staircase into a large installation. He will have a solo exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery from September 30 - January 2010 and is also exhibiting at the current Hamburger Bahnhof exhibition "Die Kunst ist super". Johnen Galerie will participate in Art Forum Berlin in Hall 20 Booth 136 from September 24 - 27.

 

 

JOHNEN GALERIE BERLIN
Marienstrasse 10
10117 Berlin
+49 30 27 58 30 30

 

 

 

26 September - 7 November

This is the first exhibition by Klein in Berlin and an encounter with unfamiliar works of art. Context is required (therefore this text) in order to establish relationships and to create meaning and content. In Emil Michael Klein's case, this context could be craft. His work displays a seductive virtuosity in the handling of materials. Craft is one of the issues of the month, it is praised by Richard Sennett in his book "The Craftsman", and it is essential to Berlin, a city which thrives on its ubiquitous and creative craftsmen. Another context is disclosed in the complex and dynamic relationship between artwork and furniture, autonomy and function, Bauhaus and Ikea, which, in the 1990s, underwent a formative fleshing out through artists such as Franz West, Heimo Zobernig, Jorge Pardo and Tobias Rehberger. Finally, there is the question of a certain against-the-grain elegance.

Emil Michael Klein's works have the appearance of words gathered from art's vocabulary, then misspelled from a conviction that their meaning is not fully exhausted. Say - to keep it on the metaphorical level - Klein takes the word "word". It would be one thing to write it in Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, Neutral or Courier font. Its basic meaning would not change in the process. But what Klein dares is not the testing out of the various character styles, but rather the altering of the word itself, so vvrod or woid. In this fashion he can seize on any object that is of interest to him. What is most striking about this process is that it seems to have no limits, in the same way as I am able to write any word that comes to mind. Yet this is different; in contrast to software, which processes data smoothly (although subject to standards), material is defiant. Matter, from which the world still is made, lies at the center of this work; but also the question of how easily it can be defined, how much you can play with it, and if, in the end, between the work of shaping, between seemingly absolute disposability and screwed-up material, new woids emerge - to produce phrases, which, through their formal accomplishment, lead us astray.

Daniel Baumann

 

Campaña Berlin
Axel Springer Str. 43
10969 Berlin
Germany
+49 (0) 163 470 85 29

 

Gallery Luis Campaña

 

 

abc contemporary

 

 

 

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