Annemarie Terlage

Annemarie Terlage

Annemarie Terlage, geboren in 1967 in Nederland, presenteert zichzelf het liefst als een schilder van ‘het klassieke type’, die traditionele thema’s combineert met innovatieve technieken. Terlage studeerde in 1991 af aan de  Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Den Haag , de stad waar zij nog steeds woont en werkt.  

Terlage’s oeuvre omvat landschappen en architecturale scènes, gecreëerd door een unieke experimentele benadering die epoxy en acrylverf op canvas combineert. Geïnspireerd door persoonlijke herinneringen uit haar kindertijd in de Verenigde Staten, oude ansichtkaarten en jeugdalbums, roept haar werk een gevoel van nostalgie en intimiteit op. Terlage’s composities kenmerken zich door  dromerige, delicate kleuren in combinatie met vastberaden lijnen, wat resulteert in een indrukwekkende dieptewerking. Deze harmonieuze wisselwerking is het resultaat van haar ontwikkeld schildersoog en een zorgvuldige studie van de materiaaleigenschappen. Af en toe doordrenkt Terlage haar werk met een bijna hallucinerend glow-in-the-dark-palet. Deze onconventionele toevoeging geeft haar anders klassieke composities een betoverende kwaliteit.  

Dromen, herinneringen en visioenen van een ideale wereld inspireren haar monumentale schilderijen; beelden van moderne villa’s omringd door weelderige tuinen en prachtig verlichte zwembaden lijken de toeschouwer uit te nodigen om mee te dwalen in haar verlangen naar avontuur.

Annemarie Terlage, geboren in 1967 in Nederland, presenteert zichzelf het liefst als een schilder van ‘het klassieke type’, die traditionele thema’s combineert met innovatieve technieken. Terlage studeerde in 1991 af aan de  Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Den Haag , de stad waar zij nog steeds woont en werkt.  

Terlage’s oeuvre omvat landschappen en architecturale scènes, gecreëerd door een unieke experimentele benadering die epoxy en acrylverf op canvas combineert. Geïnspireerd door persoonlijke herinneringen uit haar kindertijd in de Verenigde Staten, oude ansichtkaarten en jeugdalbums, roept haar werk een gevoel van nostalgie en intimiteit op. Terlage’s composities kenmerken zich door  dromerige, delicate kleuren in combinatie met vastberaden lijnen, wat resulteert in een indrukwekkende dieptewerking. Deze harmonieuze wisselwerking is het resultaat van haar ontwikkeld schildersoog en een zorgvuldige studie van de materiaaleigenschappen. Af en toe doordrenkt Terlage haar werk met een bijna hallucinerend glow-in-the-dark-palet. Deze onconventionele toevoeging geeft haar anders klassieke composities een betoverende kwaliteit.  

Dromen, herinneringen en visioenen van een ideale wereld inspireren haar monumentale schilderijen; beelden van moderne villa’s omringd door weelderige tuinen en prachtig verlichte zwembaden lijken de toeschouwer uit te nodigen om mee te dwalen in haar verlangen naar avontuur.

2025

Solo – Impulse Gallery, Luzern (CH)

2024

Group – Impulse Gallery, Luzern (CH)
Solo – Absolute Art Gallery, Knokke (BE)

2023

Group – Absolute Art Gallery, Brugge (BE)
Group – Impulse Gallery, Luzern (CH)
Solo – Absolute Art Gallery, Knokke (BE)
Duo – Impulse Gallery, Luzern (CH)

2022

Group – Absolute Art Gallery, Knokke (BE)
Group – Impulse Gallery, Luzern (CH)
Group – Absolute Art Gallery, Knokke (BE)
Solo – Impulse Gallery, Luzern (CH)
Group – MPV Gallery, Oisterwijk
Solo – Absolute Art Gallery, Knokke (BE)
Group – Absolute Art Gallery, Brussel (BE)
Group – Absolute Art Gallery, Brugge (BE)

2021

Group – Absolute Art Gallery, Knokke (BE)
Online – MPV Gallery, Oisterwijk
Solo – De Galerie Den Haag, Den Haag

2020

Group – De Galerie Den Haag, Den Haag
Solo – Galerie Solo, Antwerpen (BE)

2019

Group – Art The Hague/ Galerie Adoráble, Den Haag
Group – Galerie Adoráble, Den Haag
Group – KunstRAI/ Galerie Adoráble, Amsterdam
Solo – Galerie Adoráble, Den Haag
Group – Kunstcentrum Haarlem, Haarlem
Solo – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht

2018

Group – Art The Hague/ Galerie Adoráble, Den Haag
Solo – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht
Group – Galerie Adoráble, Den Haag
Group – Patty Morgan, Amsterdam
Group – Hilton Hotel NDSM, Amsterdam
Duo – SBK, Breda
Duo – Kunstcentrum Haarlem, Haarlem
Solo – Catharinakapel, Harderwijk

2017

Solo – Stichting Connekt, Delft
Solo – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht
Solo – Kunstuitleen Voorburg, Voorburg
Solo – Galerie van Slagmaat, Woerden
Solo – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht

2016

Solo – Regentenkamer, Den Haag

2015

Solo – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht

2014

Solo – Galerie Ann’s Art, Groningen
Solo – Galerie van Slagmaat, Woerden
Solo – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht

2013

Solo – Galerie Ann’s Art, Groningen
Solo – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht
Group – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht
Group – Galerie Ann’s Art, Groningen

2012

Solo – Galerie Ann’s Art, Groningen
Solo – Concrete, Den Haag

2011

Group – Galerie Ann’s Art, Groningen

2010

Group – Galerie Eewal, Amsterdam

2009

Solo – Galerie Eewal, Amsterdam
Group – Galerie Eewal, Amsterdam

2006

Group – Galerie Eewal, Amsterdam

2005

Group – Stadsmuseum Woerden, Woerden

2004

Duo – KunstRai/ Galerie Eewal, Amsterdam
Solo – Galerie Eewal, Leeuwarden

2003

Group – Galerie Eewal, Leeuwarden
Group – Haagse kunstkring, Den Haag

2002

Solo – Galerie Eewal, Leeuwarden

1999

Solo – Galerie Spui 28, Den Haag
Group – Soho Galerie, Den Haag

1998

Group – De Haagse Salon, Den Haag

1995

Group – De Haagse Salon, Den Haag

1992

Group – Heerenhuis Galerie, Enkhuizen

1991

Group – Start ’91, Apeldoorn
Group – N.A.S. Congresgebouw, Den Haag

2025

Solo – Impulse Gallery, Luzern (CH)

2024

Group – Impulse Gallery, Luzern (CH)
Solo – Absolute Art Gallery, Knokke (BE)

2023

Group – Absolute Art Gallery, Brugge (BE)
Group – Impulse Gallery, Luzern (CH)
Solo – Absolute Art Gallery, Knokke (BE)
Duo – Impulse Gallery, Luzern (CH)

2022

Group – Absolute Art Gallery, Knokke (BE)
Group – Impulse Gallery, Luzern (CH)
Group – Absolute Art Gallery, Knokke (BE)
Solo – Impulse Gallery, Luzern (CH)
Group – MPV Gallery, Oisterwijk
Solo – Absolute Art Gallery, Knokke (BE)
Group – Absolute Art Gallery, Brussel (BE)
Group – Absolute Art Gallery, Brugge (BE)

2021

Group – Absolute Art Gallery, Knokke (BE)
Online – MPV Gallery, Oisterwijk
Solo – De Galerie Den Haag, Den Haag

2020

Group – De Galerie Den Haag, Den Haag
Solo – Galerie Solo, Antwerpen (BE)

2019

Group – Art The Hague/ Galerie Adoráble, Den Haag
Group – Galerie Adoráble, Den Haag
Group – KunstRAI/ Galerie Adoráble, Amsterdam
Solo – Galerie Adoráble, Den Haag
Group – Kunstcentrum Haarlem, Haarlem
Solo – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht

2018

Group – Art The Hague/ Galerie Adoráble, Den Haag
Solo – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht
Group – Galerie Adoráble, Den Haag
Group – Patty Morgan, Amsterdam
Group – Hilton Hotel NDSM, Amsterdam
Duo – SBK, Breda
Duo – Kunstcentrum Haarlem, Haarlem
Solo – Catharinakapel, Harderwijk

2017

Solo – Stichting Connekt, Delft
Solo – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht
Solo – Kunstuitleen Voorburg, Voorburg
Solo – Galerie van Slagmaat, Woerden
Solo – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht

2016

Solo – Regentenkamer, Den Haag

2015

Solo – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht

2014

Solo – Galerie Ann’s Art, Groningen
Solo – Galerie van Slagmaat, Woerden
Solo – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht

2013

Solo – Galerie Ann’s Art, Groningen
Solo – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht
Group – Galerie Witt, Dordrecht
Group – Galerie Ann’s Art, Groningen

2012

Solo – Galerie Ann’s Art, Groningen
Solo – Concrete, Den Haag

2011

Group – Galerie Ann’s Art, Groningen

2010

Group – Galerie Eewal, Amsterdam

2009

Solo – Galerie Eewal, Amsterdam
Group – Galerie Eewal, Amsterdam

2006

Group – Galerie Eewal, Amsterdam

2005

Group – Stadsmuseum Woerden, Woerden

2004

Duo – KunstRai/ Galerie Eewal, Amsterdam
Solo – Galerie Eewal, Leeuwarden

2003

Group – Galerie Eewal, Leeuwarden
Group – Haagse kunstkring, Den Haag

2002

Solo – Galerie Eewal, Leeuwarden

1999

Solo – Galerie Spui 28, Den Haag
Group – Soho Galerie, Den Haag

1998

Group – De Haagse Salon, Den Haag

1995

Group – De Haagse Salon, Den Haag

1992

Group – Heerenhuis Galerie, Enkhuizen

1991

Group – Start ’91, Apeldoorn
Group – N.A.S. Congresgebouw, Den Haag

Gabriela Noelle Gonzales

Gabriela Noelle Gonzales

Cuban-American artist Gabriela Noelle, b. 1990, creates playable art and interactive objects inspired by childhood. From functional pieces like indoor swings to three-dimensional sculptures in public spaces, all pieces inspire the viewer to see the world through the eyes of a child. This childlike perspective prompts the viewer to use their imagination, exercise curiosity, and create a bond with their environment.

Gabriela views her work in lucite, mixed media, and textiles as a practice in preservation, serving to document our time on Earth for future generations.

Her recent exhibitions and collaborations include Just Phriends for Joopiter at Perrotin Gallery, the Toadstool Project at the Louis Vuitton Fondation Library, Book Friends for the ICA Museum in the Miami Design District, Just a Space curated by Sarah Andelman, a radiating mobile in Nashville International Airport, a collection with London based designer Mira Mikati, as well as athletic and performance brand, Champion.

Cuban-American artist Gabriela Noelle, b. 1990, creates playable art and interactive objects inspired by childhood. From functional pieces like indoor swings to three-dimensional sculptures in public spaces, all pieces inspire the viewer to see the world through the eyes of a child. This childlike perspective prompts the viewer to use their imagination, exercise curiosity, and create a bond with their environment.

Gabriela views her work in lucite, mixed media, and textiles as a practice in preservation, serving to document our time on Earth for future generations.

Her recent exhibitions and collaborations include Just Phriends for Joopiter at Perrotin Gallery, the Toadstool Project at the Louis Vuitton Fondation Library, Book Friends for the ICA Museum in the Miami Design District, Just a Space curated by Sarah Andelman, a radiating mobile in Nashville International Airport, a collection with London based designer Mira Mikati, as well as athletic and performance brand, Champion.

PUBLIC WORKS
Facebook Data Center – Gallatin, TN
Kaleidoscope – November 2022 – present

Arts at the Airport – Nashville, TN
Radiating Positivity – March 5 – January 19, 2020

Ten Over Six – Miami, FL
Pop Up Park – August 2019 – September 2019

SOLO EXHIBIT
LnS Gallery – Miami, FL
Imaginary Friends – July 21 – September 1, 2018

GROUP EXHIBITS
Galerie Zberro – Paris, FR
Step into Summer like… Group Show – June 29 – Present

Perrotin – Paris, FR
Just Phriends Group Show with Joopiter – June 19-27, 2023

Wyn317 – Miami, FL
Natura Group Show – May 12 – Present

Just a Space – Paris, FR
Toadstool Project – January 20 – January 22, 2022

Lowe Museum – Coral Gables, FL
Palette Project – April 26 – May 19, 2019

LnS Gallery – Miami, FL
Highlights – February 10 – June 2018
Oolite – December 2, 2017 – January 20, 2018
The Collective Debut – October 14 – November 17, 2018

DTR Modern Galleries – Palm Beach, FL
May 2017 – May 2020

FEATURED ARTIST
ICA Shop X Just an Idea with Sarah Andleman –
Miami Design District, FL
Bookfriends Launch – November 20th, 2022

Louis Vuitton Fondation Library – Paris, FR
Toadstool Project for Fugues in Color exhibition
May 4-2022 – August 29, 2022

Casacor – Miami, FL
Twin Pops Seesaw – Dec 2-Dec 27, 2019

Hello Miami – Miami Design District, FL
Flora Installation & workshop – Dec 1-Dec 8, 2019

St. Philip’’s Episcopal School – Coral Gables, FL
Artist in Residence and Collaborative Project May 2018

International Contemporary Furniture Fair
New York, NY
Presenting Furniture and Sculpture
Collection – May 2017

NY Now – New York, NY
Featured Artist with Zoe Bios Creative
February 2017

Kit and Ace – Wynwood, Miami, FL
The Wall – September – December 2016

High Point Furniture Market – High Point, NC
Zoe Bios Creative, Jaipur Living – Fall 2016

Design on a Dime – Housing Works – Miami, FL
Featured artist & collaborations with B+G Design, Miguel Lewis Design, Mendez Vela Design, Oskar Torres Design – February 2016

Kit and Ace – Wynwood, Miami, FL
Pop-Up Installation – February 2016

Maison et Objet – Miami, FL
Collaborative collection with Javier Gomez
May 2016

Wynwood Lab – Miami, FL
Featured artist – November 2015 – May 2016

Parsons the New School for Design,
New York, NY
BBA – Strategic Design + Management
December 2012
Dean’s List Fall 2009 – Fall 2012
Parsons Chase Scholarship +
BBA Dean’s Scholarship
Department Honors, Institutional Honors

Interior Design Magazine
Fall Market Tabloid 2022, p. 82
Fall Market Tabloid 2016, p. 148
Fall Market Tabloid 2015, p. 134
Spring Market Tabloid 2015, p. 35, p. 181

Frame Magazine
Over the Rainbow – May-June 2022 p. 72, 77

Financial Times
Child’s Play: 20 buys for cool kids (and kids at heart ) July 2022

The Art Gorgeous
Top 100 Creators – Summer 2022, p. 38

Architectural Digest – Mexico
Step inside the Casacor Miami Showhouse
December 2019 – Front cover

Luxe Magazine – Miami, FL and Palm Beach, FL
Artist’s Spotlight: Wit and Whimsy – April/May 2018 p. 294-297

Luxe Magazine – National
Inspiration Found – Quarterly Issue 2018

Life-Styled by Stacy Garcia
The Science of Design – Fall 2017

NY Post – Alexa Publication
Swing into Chic – August 2017

CASAS Magazine – Peru
Asociaciones Insolitas – June 2017
ApartmentTherapy.com
15 Designs You Need to See from the Biggest Furniture Show of the Year – May 2017

Home Fashion Forecast Magazine
Bright Spots – Fall 2016, p. 19, p. 22

InteriorDesign.net
19 Top New Outdoor Products
September 2016

Domino.com
Craveable Colors to Consider – August 2016

Home Accents Today Magazine
Editors Choice: Retro Pop – September 2015

Market Trend – April 2015

Market Trend: Child’s Play – April 2016

Product of the Day – September 2016

Wynwood Art Magazine
Thru Youthful Eyes – June 2016, p. 32

Florida Design Magazine
A Moveable Feast for the Eyes – March 2016, p. 64

Home Fashion Forecast Magazine
Spring 2016, p. 81, p. 86

North Side Innovation by Dell and
Microsoft
How Miami is Leading the Art World
to Join the Tech Space – December 2015

Elle Decor Magazine
Trend Alert: Shaggy Chic – Novemeber 2015, p.58
Side Notes – June 2016, p. 28

Miami Herald
Startups use Art Week for Launch Events
November 2015

High Point Market Preview Magazine
Good Vibes at B. Pila Design – October 2015

Furniture Today Magazine
New at Market – October 2015, p. 138

High Point Market – Trend Watch
Fearless and Flirty – Fall 2015

HFN High Point Magazine
A Tribute to Tribal – Fall 2015

Interior Design BOY Awards Finalist
Creative direction and collaboration with
B.Pila Design Studio – 2016
Category: Products / Recreational Tables

ASFD Pinnacle Award Finalist
Creative direction and collaboration with
B.Pila Design Studio – 2014

PUBLIC WORKS
Facebook Data Center – Gallatin, TN
Kaleidoscope – November 2022 – present

Arts at the Airport – Nashville, TN
Radiating Positivity – March 5 – January 19, 2020

Ten Over Six – Miami, FL
Pop Up Park – August 2019 – September 2019

SOLO EXHIBIT
LnS Gallery – Miami, FL
Imaginary Friends – July 21 – September 1, 2018

GROUP EXHIBITS
Galerie Zberro – Paris, FR
Step into Summer like… Group Show – June 29 – Present

Perrotin – Paris, FR
Just Phriends Group Show with Joopiter – June 19-27, 2023

Wyn317 – Miami, FL
Natura Group Show – May 12 – Present

Just a Space – Paris, FR
Toadstool Project – January 20 – January 22, 2022

Lowe Museum – Coral Gables, FL
Palette Project – April 26 – May 19, 2019

LnS Gallery – Miami, FL
Highlights – February 10 – June 2018
Oolite – December 2, 2017 – January 20, 2018
The Collective Debut – October 14 – November 17, 2018

DTR Modern Galleries – Palm Beach, FL
May 2017 – May 2020

FEATURED ARTIST
ICA Shop X Just an Idea with Sarah Andleman –
Miami Design District, FL
Bookfriends Launch – November 20th, 2022

Louis Vuitton Fondation Library – Paris, FR
Toadstool Project for Fugues in Color exhibition
May 4-2022 – August 29, 2022

Casacor – Miami, FL
Twin Pops Seesaw – Dec 2-Dec 27, 2019

Hello Miami – Miami Design District, FL
Flora Installation & workshop – Dec 1-Dec 8, 2019

St. Philip’’s Episcopal School – Coral Gables, FL
Artist in Residence and Collaborative Project May 2018

International Contemporary Furniture Fair
New York, NY
Presenting Furniture and Sculpture
Collection – May 2017

NY Now – New York, NY
Featured Artist with Zoe Bios Creative
February 2017

Kit and Ace – Wynwood, Miami, FL
The Wall – September – December 2016

High Point Furniture Market – High Point, NC
Zoe Bios Creative, Jaipur Living – Fall 2016

Design on a Dime – Housing Works – Miami, FL
Featured artist & collaborations with B+G Design, Miguel Lewis Design, Mendez Vela Design, Oskar Torres Design – February 2016

Kit and Ace – Wynwood, Miami, FL
Pop-Up Installation – February 2016

Maison et Objet – Miami, FL
Collaborative collection with Javier Gomez
May 2016

Wynwood Lab – Miami, FL
Featured artist – November 2015 – May 2016

Parsons the New School for Design,
New York, NY
BBA – Strategic Design + Management
December 2012
Dean’s List Fall 2009 – Fall 2012
Parsons Chase Scholarship +
BBA Dean’s Scholarship
Department Honors, Institutional Honors

Interior Design Magazine
Fall Market Tabloid 2022, p. 82
Fall Market Tabloid 2016, p. 148
Fall Market Tabloid 2015, p. 134
Spring Market Tabloid 2015, p. 35, p. 181

Frame Magazine
Over the Rainbow – May-June 2022 p. 72, 77

Financial Times
Child’s Play: 20 buys for cool kids (and kids at heart ) July 2022

The Art Gorgeous
Top 100 Creators – Summer 2022, p. 38

Architectural Digest – Mexico
Step inside the Casacor Miami Showhouse
December 2019 – Front cover

Luxe Magazine – Miami, FL and Palm Beach, FL
Artist’s Spotlight: Wit and Whimsy – April/May 2018 p. 294-297

Luxe Magazine – National
Inspiration Found – Quarterly Issue 2018

Life-Styled by Stacy Garcia
The Science of Design – Fall 2017

NY Post – Alexa Publication
Swing into Chic – August 2017

CASAS Magazine – Peru
Asociaciones Insolitas – June 2017
ApartmentTherapy.com
15 Designs You Need to See from the Biggest Furniture Show of the Year – May 2017

Home Fashion Forecast Magazine
Bright Spots – Fall 2016, p. 19, p. 22

InteriorDesign.net
19 Top New Outdoor Products
September 2016

Domino.com
Craveable Colors to Consider – August 2016

Home Accents Today Magazine
Editors Choice: Retro Pop – September 2015

Market Trend – April 2015

Market Trend: Child’s Play – April 2016

Product of the Day – September 2016

Wynwood Art Magazine
Thru Youthful Eyes – June 2016, p. 32

Florida Design Magazine
A Moveable Feast for the Eyes – March 2016, p. 64

Home Fashion Forecast Magazine
Spring 2016, p. 81, p. 86

North Side Innovation by Dell and
Microsoft
How Miami is Leading the Art World
to Join the Tech Space – December 2015

Elle Decor Magazine
Trend Alert: Shaggy Chic – Novemeber 2015, p.58
Side Notes – June 2016, p. 28

Miami Herald
Startups use Art Week for Launch Events
November 2015

High Point Market Preview Magazine
Good Vibes at B. Pila Design – October 2015

Furniture Today Magazine
New at Market – October 2015, p. 138

High Point Market – Trend Watch
Fearless and Flirty – Fall 2015

HFN High Point Magazine
A Tribute to Tribal – Fall 2015

Interior Design BOY Awards Finalist
Creative direction and collaboration with
B.Pila Design Studio – 2016
Category: Products / Recreational Tables

ASFD Pinnacle Award Finalist
Creative direction and collaboration with
B.Pila Design Studio – 2014

Lola Luk

Lola Luk

Lola’s art is sweet, provocative, and controversial. Creating what she loves and is passionate about, each piece tells a unique story. Her work often reflects everyday life that we all share, referencing emotional expressions, double meanings, puns, twisted slang and humor, the music we love, and movies and books. Some pieces are a combination of visual and verbal contexts, hovering between comedy and tragedy.

Focusing on blending a feminine point of view with elements of food, Lola invites art lovers to open their minds through the universal appeal of familiar by embedding strong messages within these pleasant visuals, she’s encouraged viewers to think deeply and critically, fostering self-reflection and alternative interpretations.  Through this sensory approach, she strives to make profound subjects more accessible and thought-provoking.

Lola is London based British Ukrainian born artist, with background of Set Designer and prop making/ sculptor, greatly influences her artworks and installations, forming narratives withing her art to change and encourage, to think deeply and critically about the world we live in, and ultimately inspiring a more empathetic, kind and self-aware society.

Lola’s art is sweet, provocative, and controversial. Creating what she loves and is passionate about, each piece tells a unique story. Her work often reflects everyday life that we all share, referencing emotional expressions, double meanings, puns, twisted slang and humor, the music we love, and movies and books. Some pieces are a combination of visual and verbal contexts, hovering between comedy and tragedy.

Focusing on blending a feminine point of view with elements of food, Lola invites art lovers to open their minds through the universal appeal of familiar by embedding strong messages within these pleasant visuals, she’s encouraged viewers to think deeply and critically, fostering self-reflection and alternative interpretations.  Through this sensory approach, she strives to make profound subjects more accessible and thought-provoking.

Lola is London based British Ukrainian born artist, with background of Set Designer and prop making/ sculptor, greatly influences her artworks and installations, forming narratives withing her art to change and encourage, to think deeply and critically about the world we live in, and ultimately inspiring a more empathetic, kind and self-aware society.

RCA (Royal college of Art MA Sculpture student)
London University of Arts (Set Design for stage and Screen) 
Art College, Ukraine (Sculpture)

2024 Group exhibition Hegemann Gallery, München, Germany
2024 Art KARLSRUHE, represented by Hegemann Gallery, München, Germany
2024 KunstRai, represented by Wanrooij Gallery, Netherlands 
2024 Affordable Art Fair Battersea, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Stockholm
2023 Art Miami represented by Wanrooij Gallery, Miami, USA
2023 AAF Hamburg, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Battersea
2023 Fashion week Amsterdam, collaboration / group exhibition, Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, Nethderlands
2023 art KARLSRUHE, Germany
2023 KunstRai, Netherlands
2022 Art Miami, Miami, USA
2022 Affordable art fair Stockholm 
2022 Affordable Art Fair NY, US 
2022 Affordable Art Fair Battersea, London 
2021 The Other Art Fair Virtual Edition Brooklyn Expo Centre 
2021 Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam, Netherlands Platform Project 
2021 The Other Art Fair London, Truman Brewery 
2021 Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, London (bestseller artist) 
2020 Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, London (bestseller artist) 
2019 Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, London
2018 Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, London
2017 The Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, Group Exhibition 
2013 Group Show, Orange Revolution, Arsenal Centre, Kiev Ukraine 

publications Slanted magazine over 1500 submissions have been chosen 
Magazine

Benjamin Cabral

Benjamin Cabral

Benjamin Cabral is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Chicago. His work has been shown internationally and throughout the United States. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at Steve Turner, LA and a solo exhibition at Allouche Benias in Athens Greece. Benjamin’s work was selected for a public sculpture commission by the City of San Diego’s Arts District.

A painter by training, Benjamin’s work is largely autobiographical in nature, creating an honest, yet inherently unreliable, portrait of the artist. These works examine the intersections between trauma and nostalgia, joy and sorrow, and the digital and the analog. Benjamin also creates sculptural work, intended to be static performers engaging with viewer.

Benjamin completed his MFA at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and is the winner of the 2019 Carrie Ellen Tuttle Fellowship.

Benjamin Cabral is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Chicago. His work has been shown internationally and throughout the United States. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at Steve Turner, LA and a solo exhibition at Allouche Benias in Athens Greece. Benjamin’s work was selected for a public sculpture commission by the City of San Diego’s Arts District.

A painter by training, Benjamin’s work is largely autobiographical in nature, creating an honest, yet inherently unreliable, portrait of the artist. These works examine the intersections between trauma and nostalgia, joy and sorrow, and the digital and the analog. Benjamin also creates sculptural work, intended to be static performers engaging with viewer.

Benjamin completed his MFA at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and is the winner of the 2019 Carrie Ellen Tuttle Fellowship.

2022 (Forthcoming) Happy Landscapes, Août Gallery, Beirut, LB

2021, The Boy And The Whale: An Overture For Where We Are Now, Allouche Benias Gallery, Athens, Greece

2021 Well Maybe Next Year, Shelter Gallery, New York, NY

2021 Soliloquy For Past Futures, Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2020 Somewhere That’s Green, Curated by Lauren Powell, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York, NY

2020 Real Amazing!, Curated by Lauren Powell, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Los Angeles, CA

2016 Some Faces From Around Here (The Paintings), Martha Pace Swift Gallery, San Diego, CA 


2016 Open Up Your Eyes And You’ll See, Keller Gallery, San Diego, CA

2015 I Have So Much Love To Give You, Not an Exit Gallery, Bread and Salt Art Complex, San Diego, CA

2015 Look At My Face Don’t You Dare Look Away, Keller Gallery, San Diego CA

2015 Joshua, Crystal, and Heather Lynn, Cabrillo Gallery, San Diego, CA

(Forthcoming) Cute Gloom, Lauren Powell Projects, Los Angeles, CA

(Forthcoming) Two Person Show With Griffin Goodman, Moosey Art, Norich, UK

(Forthcoming) Cohle Gallery, Paris, FR

2022, Illuminated Body, Spring/Break Art Show, Los Angeles, CA

2021, Opening Group Exhibition, Moosey Art, Norich, UK

2021 Booth A03, Art Taipei, Artnutri Gallery, Taipei, TW

2021 Art Formosa, Curated by Joanne Chiaoan, Artnutri Gallery, Taipei, TW

2021 If You Are Thinking, Why, Art Why Gallery, Shanghai, CH

2021 Cave Canem, Eve Liebe Gallery, London, UK

2021 Nice Guys Live Forever, Moosey Art, London, United Kingdom

2020 E-motionø Support Group, Curated by Lauren Powell, Online Animation Project

2020 Remake/Remodel, Curated by Amelia Biewald, The Royal @RSOAA, Brooklyn, NY

2019 Homesick Remedy, JAW Gallery, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan

2019 Pulling At Threads, Two person show with Jon Young, Austin,TX

2019 Facial Recognition, curated by Mindy Solomon, Seattle Art Fair, Seattle, WA

2019 With a Capital P, curated by José Lerma, Elmhurst Museum of Art, Elmhurst, IL

2019 The Turf, curated by Tony Lewis and Andrew Falkowski, The Research House for Asian Art, Chicago, IL

2019 SAIC MFA Show, Sullivan Gallery, Chicago, IL

2019 Comp-Art-Mentalize, three person show with Erin Hayden and Ian Thomas Miller, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, IL

2018 I Know when Adults Are About to Cry, Two person show with Riley Fields, Sugar Space Gallery, Indianapolis, IN

2018 What Was Painting, survey of work made by students in What Was Painting, taught by Laura Owens and Scott and Tyson Reeder (SAIC), Club Nutz, Chicago, IL

2015 HiLite, Keller Gallery, San Diego, CA

2015 Thesis Highlights, Love Gallery, San Diego, CA

2014-2015 Cannon Juried Biennial, William D. Cannon Art Gallery, Carlsbad, CA

2014 Survey In Printmaking, Love Gallery, San Diego, CA

2014 Estate Sale 390, Love Gallery, San Diego, CA

2014 Highlights, Keller Gallery, San Diego, CA

2014 ArtScream Social, Y.A.H. Gallery, San Diego, CA

2013 Survey In Drawing, Keller Gallery, San Diego, CA

2012 The Greedy Organ (25 and under), Museum Of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA

2011 Experiment, MCA Gallery, San Diego CA

2016: Some People From Around Here. Commissioned By NTC Arts District Liberty Station, San Diego, CA

2020 ArtNet news, Sarah Cascone

2020 Hyperallergic Photo Essay by Matt Stromberg

2020 ChioxArt, Interview published in Mandarin

2020 New American Paintings, Midwest Issue

2019 Maake Magazine, Issue 9, curated by Hein Koh

2019 Maake Magazine, interview with Andeana Donahue, http://www.maakemagazine.com/benjamin-cabral

2019 New American Paintings, MFA issue

2017 Featured on Hyperallergic’s Instagram account  

2016 San Diego Union Tribune

2016 sdnews.com

2016 Loma Beat newspaper

2016 Arete

2011 Experiment, MCA Gallery Catalog

2019 Carrie Ellen Tuttle Fellowship, SAIC (Highest award given to a graduating student perusing an MFA in painting)

2016 Honors Research Achievement, PLNU

2015 PLNU Chair Award. Highest honors for a visual arts thesis show

2014 Visual Arts Scholarship, PLNU

2012 3rd Place MCASD 25 and under art competition

2022 (Forthcoming) Happy Landscapes, Août Gallery, Beirut, LB

2021, The Boy And The Whale: An Overture For Where We Are Now, Allouche Benias Gallery, Athens, Greece

2021 Well Maybe Next Year, Shelter Gallery, New York, NY

2021 Soliloquy For Past Futures, Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2020 Somewhere That’s Green, Curated by Lauren Powell, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York, NY

2020 Real Amazing!, Curated by Lauren Powell, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Los Angeles, CA

2016 Some Faces From Around Here (The Paintings), Martha Pace Swift Gallery, San Diego, CA 


2016 Open Up Your Eyes And You’ll See, Keller Gallery, San Diego, CA

2015 I Have So Much Love To Give You, Not an Exit Gallery, Bread and Salt Art Complex, San Diego, CA

2015 Look At My Face Don’t You Dare Look Away, Keller Gallery, San Diego CA

2015 Joshua, Crystal, and Heather Lynn, Cabrillo Gallery, San Diego, CA

(Forthcoming) Cute Gloom, Lauren Powell Projects, Los Angeles, CA

(Forthcoming) Two Person Show With Griffin Goodman, Moosey Art, Norich, UK

(Forthcoming) Cohle Gallery, Paris, FR

2022, Illuminated Body, Spring/Break Art Show, Los Angeles, CA

2021, Opening Group Exhibition, Moosey Art, Norich, UK

2021 Booth A03, Art Taipei, Artnutri Gallery, Taipei, TW

2021 Art Formosa, Curated by Joanne Chiaoan, Artnutri Gallery, Taipei, TW

2021 If You Are Thinking, Why, Art Why Gallery, Shanghai, CH

2021 Cave Canem, Eve Liebe Gallery, London, UK

2021 Nice Guys Live Forever, Moosey Art, London, United Kingdom

2020 E-motionø Support Group, Curated by Lauren Powell, Online Animation Project

2020 Remake/Remodel, Curated by Amelia Biewald, The Royal @RSOAA, Brooklyn, NY

2019 Homesick Remedy, JAW Gallery, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan

2019 Pulling At Threads, Two person show with Jon Young, Austin,TX

2019 Facial Recognition, curated by Mindy Solomon, Seattle Art Fair, Seattle, WA

2019 With a Capital P, curated by José Lerma, Elmhurst Museum of Art, Elmhurst, IL

2019 The Turf, curated by Tony Lewis and Andrew Falkowski, The Research House for Asian Art, Chicago, IL

2019 SAIC MFA Show, Sullivan Gallery, Chicago, IL

2019 Comp-Art-Mentalize, three person show with Erin Hayden and Ian Thomas Miller, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, IL

2018 I Know when Adults Are About to Cry, Two person show with Riley Fields, Sugar Space Gallery, Indianapolis, IN

2018 What Was Painting, survey of work made by students in What Was Painting, taught by Laura Owens and Scott and Tyson Reeder (SAIC), Club Nutz, Chicago, IL

2015 HiLite, Keller Gallery, San Diego, CA

2015 Thesis Highlights, Love Gallery, San Diego, CA

2014-2015 Cannon Juried Biennial, William D. Cannon Art Gallery, Carlsbad, CA

2014 Survey In Printmaking, Love Gallery, San Diego, CA

2014 Estate Sale 390, Love Gallery, San Diego, CA

2014 Highlights, Keller Gallery, San Diego, CA

2014 ArtScream Social, Y.A.H. Gallery, San Diego, CA

2013 Survey In Drawing, Keller Gallery, San Diego, CA

2012 The Greedy Organ (25 and under), Museum Of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA

2011 Experiment, MCA Gallery, San Diego CA

2016: Some People From Around Here. Commissioned By NTC Arts District Liberty Station, San Diego, CA

2020 ArtNet news, Sarah Cascone

2020 Hyperallergic Photo Essay by Matt Stromberg

2020 ChioxArt, Interview published in Mandarin

2020 New American Paintings, Midwest Issue

2019 Maake Magazine, Issue 9, curated by Hein Koh

2019 Maake Magazine, interview with Andeana Donahue, http://www.maakemagazine.com/benjamin-cabral

2019 New American Paintings, MFA issue

2017 Featured on Hyperallergic’s Instagram account  

2016 San Diego Union Tribune

2016 sdnews.com

2016 Loma Beat newspaper

2016 Arete

2011 Experiment, MCA Gallery Catalog

2019 Carrie Ellen Tuttle Fellowship, SAIC (Highest award given to a graduating student perusing an MFA in painting)

2016 Honors Research Achievement, PLNU

2015 PLNU Chair Award. Highest honors for a visual arts thesis show

2014 Visual Arts Scholarship, PLNU

2012 3rd Place MCASD 25 and under art competition

Frankey

Frankey

‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.’  Picasso once claimed.

For Frank de Ruwe, also known as Frankey, this problem simply doesn’t exist. Drawing inspiration from both childhood memories and a youthful fascination with present-day life and culture, his work takes many forms yet is always recognisable through its playful creativity and light touch of mischief.

Although he acknowledges the differences and thin lines between styles, trades and professions, he is equally happy to ignore boundaries while smiling politely. Such is the life of a designer/inventor/artist/advertising creative/technician/food critic who brings his creative mind and broad skillset to bear on creating truly distinctive work.

Frankey currently lives and works in Amsterdam, with his work having been displayed across the Netherlands, including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and in various exhibitions in the United States, Italy and Germany.

His street art bravado and cultural sensitivity informs his public and private commissions and is most appreciated by an audience fond of truly distinctive art with a healthy dose of lightheartedness.

‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.’  Picasso once claimed.

For Frank de Ruwe, also known as Frankey, this problem simply doesn’t exist. Drawing inspiration from both childhood memories and a youthful fascination with present-day life and culture, his work takes many forms yet is always recognisable through its playful creativity and light touch of mischief.

Although he acknowledges the differences and thin lines between styles, trades and professions, he is equally happy to ignore boundaries while smiling politely. Such is the life of a designer/inventor/artist/advertising creative/technician/food critic who brings his creative mind and broad skillset to bear on creating truly distinctive work.

Frankey currently lives and works in Amsterdam, with his work having been displayed across the Netherlands, including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and in various exhibitions in the United States, Italy and Germany.

His street art bravado and cultural sensitivity informs his public and private commissions and is most appreciated by an audience fond of truly distinctive art with a healthy dose of lightheartedness.

SKYLIGHT

PRINTS

Viktor Freso

Viktor Freso

Frešo lives and works in Czechoslovakia and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava and in Prague at the Academy of Fine Arts. His work and overall approach to art is rather untypical but at the same time they reflect the situation in the society and culture. The artist creates sophisticated concepts and projects presenting them as seemingly simple closed “Pieces of art”. He is often critical in his works and expresses his contempt of the art scene itself and its processes but with a light, humorous and playful undertone.

He prefers short interval between action and reaction and conditions of quick recognition of relations between the expressing “me“ and the indication “he”. Another very typical aspect is that he publicly presents his radical and often despising opinions of the society and art scene which might irritate and provoke a discussion about what is and what is not acceptable as contemporary art or just a self-centered affect of the artist.

Frešo lives and works in Czechoslovakia and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava and in Prague at the Academy of Fine Arts. His work and overall approach to art is rather untypical but at the same time they reflect the situation in the society and culture. The artist creates sophisticated concepts and projects presenting them as seemingly simple closed “Pieces of art”. He is often critical in his works and expresses his contempt of the art scene itself and its processes but with a light, humorous and playful undertone.

He prefers short interval between action and reaction and conditions of quick recognition of relations between the expressing “me“ and the indication “he”. Another very typical aspect is that he publicly presents his radical and often despising opinions of the society and art scene which might irritate and provoke a discussion about what is and what is not acceptable as contemporary art or just a self-centered affect of the artist.

„I was here.“ is a follow-up of the previous works from the area of self-portraits and works done in art groups, especially Fifty-Fifty group. The point is the inscription „Bol som tu“ at the gallery wall created immediately before the beginning of an exhibition. I have been dealing with so-called Eastern European thinking for some time (of course, the specification of the Eastern European thinking requires a longer discussion). I think that it is necessary not to separate this phenomenon from artworks. As the European art scene becomes united, this aspect has been fading away slowly and artists more often present themselves as cosmopolitan authors. The project cannot be presented otherwise than by a direct and truthful presence of its author and by his/her authentic gesture of writing. The fact that a gallery participates in the project (by inviting an artist, paying for his travel and accommodation) and then an artist writes „Bol som tu“ on the wall can look like unbelievable cheekiness of the artist but at the same time this act opens several very important levels of the intellectual perception of the artwork. Travelling is the key of this project concept. The effort to gain the biggest possible advantage at the lowest possible investment – thus minimum effort and maximum effect – is typical not only for so-called Eastern European thinking. Open acknowledgement of this type of thinking – the fact that the whole strategy is specified beforehand – brings the project on a very transparent and fair plane and it uses certain honesty and „politically correct“ openness typical for advanced democracies.

FIFTY CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS IN SLOVAKIA

It was recently said of Viktor Frešo that his art is like a virus – meaning that it has no body of its own, but takes different strategies, to which he adds his own branding; for instance, along the lines of a spectacle. This can be perceived as a postmodern strategy par excellence – elements of development reflecting the specific conditions of the Slovak art scene can be seen in this. Most of all, Frešo was always the litmus test for these conditions. His multifarious work, composed of objects, projects, actions, paintings, and prints has two main directions apart from this homogeneity – solo works and cooperation. In both, the monitoring of the (self-) position of the artist in the institutional (and therefore high) art scene and the art market is strongly reflected. Frešo says that only his objects and various types of installations can be considered as high art. On the other hand, painting – which he openly assigns the status of “mainstream” – and due to its controversial reception in specialist circles, is precisely what makes him thrive and make more attempts. In a Dantesque sense, Frešo is trying to conform to the consensus of society, legitimizing not only artists and creative programs, but also specific works into the “group” of those which are deemed valuable (verified, lasting). Penetration into this group does not have any strict rules; it is only given by interaction, which can happen anywhere and everywhere. If we compare this model to the social actions of the now internationally-recognized conceptual artist Július Koller (1939-2007) – who, during the period of communism subversively lowered the level of high art through postcard landscapes, or with work and exhibitions with amateur and semi-professional artists – then we realize that Frešo’s strategy is not lacking history. We will never admire the bravado of painterly expression, drawing upon the nihilism of the many strategies of Milan Dobeš (1929) or Juraj Bartusz (1933); rather, we will attempt to understand his critical view (within his means) of real artistic operation here and abroad. More than mere detail, the whole of his work will retrospectively become evident. Frešo’s “declarations” could be considered as the most striking until now: What Helped Me When (2005) – simple but candid personal written testimonies; several references about the artist’s presence or preferences in a given space (“I was here”; “I don’t like you…” and so on) are provocative non-works of art; Thanks For Everything You Did For Slovak Visual Art (2007) – a sign projected onto the front wall of the Slovak National Gallery – is a clear critique of real or potential institutional hegemony. His current work entitled God is Love (2013) is equally effective. Besides all of this, it could be claimed that the whole spectrum of Frešo’s work plays another important role – to provide a background for the effectiveness and directness of these simple, informal, and even anti-fine art, textual appeals

Richard Gregor: Viktor Frešo. Fifty Contemporary artist in Slovakia, Bratislava: Art Academy, Slovart, 2014.

SOMETHING ABOUT ART

I’m really happy to be able to introduce Viktor Frešo – another one of truly important artists of the young generation who evaluates conceptual experience in a new way, hence reflecting new topics anchored in their new era. Frešo’s concepts are always exactly defined, but diverse, and encompass a wide range of problems. He achieves this by frequently changing all useable media, including those that are less traditional at our environment, such as writings in galleries or in carefully chosen exteriors. Sometimes, they even deeply touch – with admirable precision – some social conditions in our country, by country I mean Czechoslovakia, and they succeed in presenting an artist’s role in this harsh period as the subject matter… I realised this fact the most clearly with his series Who is the King? (1) Viktor Frešo, looking as a successful young man, searches for ways how to get close to „celebrities“ and have his photo taken by them. Names of authors, given at each photograph, play with the ambivalence of „who is who“. By the way, only Milan Knížák reflected the author in his physical likeness, as these two are our „greatest artists“, he made Frešo smaller, he cut away most of his head… Július Koller photographed him with his own concept, but so-called „cultural elite“ admired by crowd was easily recognisable… And V.F. descends lower and lower, Helenka Vondráčková and Karel Gott photograph him happily. Here I like to quote recent words of Rudolf Filo: „he linked together the worst musical and artistic kitsch with a stroke of genius…“ The result is a fascinating reflection of absolute loss of the feeling for true values in our society! This is how media world works; media can make us completely dumb and insensitive… And what is the situation in the world of art? Again, besides Czech conceptual art, Slovak post-conceptual art, and the geometrical department selected by Getulio Alviani, Frešo was the artist who captivated us the most at Politi’s “anti- Knížák” PRAGUE BIENNALE 3 in 2007. So, actually, it was „our home artist“! He wrote on the big wall at the end of the exhibition hall: THANK YOU GOD THAT I CAN EXHIBIT AT PRAGUE BIENNALE 3 and added big VIKTOR FREŠO under it!(1)This really is an integral amalgam of seriousness, irony, self-irony, and, when the form of this exhibition piece is taken into account, also provocation in choosing this medium, as otherwise traditional, not very good paintings of all religious denominations prevailed there… But our viewers, especially the „experts“, ignored the start of the whole category of text art, even when it had taken place at the beginning of the sixties. Let me give you at least one pioneer example: Ben, founder of Ecole de Nice, still active member of the Fluxus movement… So, the text art itself has already had a 50-year history, its origins being of a slightly aestheticized form, hence if V.F. wants to be original, it’s logical that he has to emulate today’s non-artificial way of writing as much as possible! Then he can use his „writing language“ for other realizations, like those in his I WAS HERE :(1) series in which he treated his presence somewhere as a theme. When he did so within the exhibition context he made this elementary and, at the same time, key information into a work of art in situ… T hen he could develop the whole scale of various writings of the identical meaning in different languages at various places where he got to (up till now?). In my opinion, his pure text works are dominated in a different, semantic way by the series of Self-portraits, text pictures, where he very sincerely described what helped him in various critical situations, like WHEN I DON’T BELIEVE IN MYSELF AND HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT MY ART, THIS IS WHAT HELPS ME : (1), WHEN MY GIRLFRIEND LEFT ME, THIS IS WHAT HELPED ME : (1) etc. Only background of the period we live in has changed but Viktor Frešo made personal problems of every artist his topic, and these problems have always had its place in conceptual art, only today’s perception allows us to be more open about them… Or maybe not, as Frešo is still considered to be “problematic” by many? And maybe he was being even more personal in the text under which many of our friends could sign – his reaction written in the text spanning the entire room: I’M ¼ MAGYAR AND I’M ¾ PROUD OF THAT(1) – This is an ironical articulation of a sad fact concentrated into some type of conceptual paradox that is the problem of the whole Slovak state and majority of its citizens…
And I really couldn‘t tell, as it depends on the period, how big outrage I had evoked in 1969 (knowing that my visual poetry would become photographic as well) when I had written LOVE on the naked body of my partner and presented her everywhere and how big was the outrage following Frešo’s half-nude (mine was the complete nude) of a well endowed blonde on whose body he wrote VIKTOR FREŠO FUCKED ME(1) … This shows how much the language and communication level has changed! Words that were considered vulgar and used with some hesitation have become common (even in my own marginally created „more traditional“ poetry). A fish stinks from the head and our nature does not change, hence today self-proclaimed political and economic elite commonly uses similar words – am I not right? At the same time, V.F. began to create intellectually very subtle variations to different phenomena of last decades of „serious“ art: he brilliantly walks a tightrope between total seriousness and irony. Let me mention only briefly his playful variation to the subjectivity of Informel in painting done by a mop where a new distance is evident… Already in 2004, he created the set the last minimalist sculpture where he paraphrased the most basic geometrical shape: prism from various originally utilitarian materials. For certain, this was a reflection of his previous study of sculpture, a need to push forward his thinking in this medium as well… From a distance, he reflected something, which was perceived as being too radical… In 2006, Frešo reflected another form of minimalistic act by spilling a Coca Cola light bottle, which, then, together with the bottle and its cap, formed his big installation in Vienna Museum quartier. In 2007, this installation was logically followed by a colour paint sprayed onto the wall and let run to the floor: RED FREŠO GOBBLED UP EVERYTHING(1) , and by BLACK FREŠO GOBBLED UP EVERYTHING (1) in 2008 (here the paint ran in a single line). In 2008, the artist created a completely new radical reflection of a picture as a medium (or as an object, this difference is a somewhat nominal problem). Of course, this can also be perceived as a conceptual task: under the title WORK WITH CANVAS. Frešo coiled gauze around a picture in a shape of cross, or he connected three small canvases by white or brown tape, he literally worked with the picture itself as with an object. Of course, he worked in his own way of new visual communication which had been unseen up till then; reminding us a bit of sculpting work. His way mirrors his own character as well as codified stereotypes… In extreme case, he cut off the biggest possible piece of canvas and rolled it to the edge „as an object or a sculpture“, or he joined it with a conventional landscape picture at its top edge or he hanged it to the wall by two nails…
These severe interventions are complemented by much subtler monochromatic needlework: maybe this work stemmed from a sentence heard somewhere sounding like „those painters must work carefully like when doing embroidery (in case of painting with some traditional technique)“. Maybe he took it „at face value“ and with irony and self-irony he’s known for he made various needlework techniques into separate themes: either minimalist needlework in the middle of a canvas where he made a small green square, or in every corner when four interventions became a new topic of the whole canvas… A really fascinating playful paradox consisted in his trimming of all edges of a canvas from one corner to the next… All these operations were a true analysis of the picture itself, the template of which was analytical and fundamental painting based on the concept that dominated the international art in the seventies. V.F. is really irreplaceable in this art form… In his studio, he created series of objects which reflected minimal art only in a loose way and oscillated between seriousness and more and more subtle humorous distance: Trainer of a loudspeaker system carrier,: (1) a wooden box, cube, with four rubber wheels at each side – in theory this object can be moved but it does not have any function, it is a beautiful paraphrase of a functional object transferred by the author into the autonomous world of art. A similar case is Tyre: (1) a large tyre that cannot move independently because it is fitted with two pairs of small wheels and only on these wheels it can move – this is a beautiful paradox and playful evidence that art is always non-utilitarian! The highest extent of minimalist form and its semantic re-evaluation can be found in the installation DON’T YOU THINK YOU’RE OLD?, 2007. It was a metal pipe inbuilt in the passage into the following room at such a height that every adult visitor had to bend his or her head, creating also a reference to minimalist form or to a body act as a new game with visitors. Similar can be said for the artwork SO, THIS I CALL SCULPTURE, 2007, four-metre long wooden beam embedded into the gallery wall which visitors had to bypass (and to think about minimalists or author’s ironic play with language in both titles…) After these solitaires, new three-dimensional pieces were gradually created: Window, 2008 – a real open window that could only move on four small wheels, being so excluded from its usual use, was transferred into the world of art by this beautiful Duchamp-like gesture. A classic minimalist form was created from four connected windows – the cube, full of connotations, rejected by minimalists due to objects used for its creation, so it has become the integral part of current discourse with their art. The same in a more subtle form? For example, a sticky tape of 80 cm diameter made for the author that can link a wall and space in a new relation… Or Komatex sheet (which is already exhibited by the National Gallery of Prague in its Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art together with Window): a pliable sheet from the material discovered by the author… Komatex 2 dominated Brno Exhibition, two sheets propped up against each other in space and only their fixation between two strong carpenter’s couplers (which are otherwise used for gluing several layers of wood together) at each side created this subtle articulation of space… We can also see their other possible, more complex use – again it is a subtle dialogue with minimal art, probably the only one in our territory as artistic colleagues and friends of Frešo from Prague and Bratislava who have also reached this state of freedom to research properties of medium itself work very often with properties of a picture or photograph or text. Frešo’s contribution is unique in his ability to adequately re-evaluate minimalistic big forms, but also texts, in the way unknown before. And, as for his performances? First, his solo actions, direct ones, with the intention to provoke especially by the reflection in the mind of a viewer. To throw a stone with his name attached to it through a gallery window can be perceived today as a new aesthetical value of all „used elements“ – stone, signature and particularly a hole in glass… But a true reflection in a viewer’s mind could also sound like this: is it only a new aesthetical message, widening of artistic borders, or is it an urgent impulsion to think of the actual functioning of some specific institution? Let’s keep in mind that Viktor Frešo himself „put together“ one of private galleries in Bratislava… So, apparently, he is a man who has been given „something extra and other things to a lesser extent“ than his fellow men, and as he is mainly an extraordinary artist he articulates his need for reflection by a radical artistic gesture which is (still?) unexpected by the majority of our institutions.
Viktor Frešo is an artist who has thoroughly learnt the lesson of postmodernism and hence his artwork is based on realisation of various themes of problems, which he himself, under his own responsibility, considers to be important. His work is valuable and contributive, but also really multifaceted, and, in the artist’s opinion, his artworks that redefine the whole sphere of artistic practice are the most actual form of his endeavour.

Jiří Valoch

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Academy of fine arts in Prague

2003-2005 – AVU – New media studio, Michael Bielicky: Prague.
2001-2003 – AVU – painting studio, Vladimir Skrepl: Prague.
1999-2001 – VŠVU – sculpture studio, J.Jankovič, J.Hoffstädter: Bratislava.

01.02.2017 – Viktor Freso Now, DSC Gallery: Prague
10.01.2017 – Overheads, Nedbalka Gallery: Bratislava

10.03.2016 – Platform Project 1, Army of the Niemnads, Affordable Art fair: London

30.08.2015 – Niemand in Amsterdam, Unveiling of the public sculpture, Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam
29.08.2015 – Birth of the Niemand, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Bratislava
09.07.2015 – Fragments of the 90’s, Boskovice, CZ
11.06.2015 – DOKOUPIL – FRESO, Kunsthalle Košice, SK
04.03.2015 – Part 1, SODA Gallery, Bratislava, SK

22.10.2114 – I.N.D.I.A, all India Fine Arts & Crafts Society, New Delhi, India
20.08.2014 – Art is Nice, Dvoraksec contemporary, Prague, CZ
19.05.2014 – trAnSparEnt boX, Gallery Nova, Bratislava, SK
12.01.2014 – Park Me, Cotilla Gallery, Fort Lauderdale Miami, USA

04.04.2013 – Conceptual Hobby, Gallery JAMA, Ostrava, CZ
20.03.2013 – Pure For You, Gallery Komart, Berlin, Germany

13.11.2012 – Cataratas de Freso, Ciudad del Este, Paraguay
13.11.2012 – Maison de la Plage, Domaine du Rayol, Rayol-Canadel-sur-Mer, France
09.10.2012 – Μεταμορφώσεις Βσλ Χβλ, Soga, Bratislava, SK
03.09.2012 – Buena Europa, Sindicatura Nacional de Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina
23.02.2012 – Eastern Connector, Prinz Prager Gallery, Prague, CZ
17.01.2012 – CONNECTION, Eastern Slovakian Gallery, Košice, SK

13.10.2011 – VFINDC, The Koloman Sokol Gallery, Washington DC, USA
14.04.2011 – FRESOVSODE, SODA Gallery, Bratislava, SK

08.09.2010 – Something About ART, Galerie U Dobrého pastýře, Brno, CZ
04.05.2010 – POP-FIX, The Municipal Gallery Rimavská Sobota, SK
31.03.2010 – POP-MOP, Soga auction house, Bratislava, SK

22.10.2009 – VIKTOR FREŠO IN CHICAGO, Open concept gallery, Grand Rapids, USA

11.11.2008 – Nemám rád jazz, ale mám rád Traditional club, Trnava, SK
18.04.2008 – ‘Don’t write anything about me, you cunt!’. Gallery Art Factory, Prague, CZ
03.03.2008 – VIKTOR FREŠO retrospektíva, The House of Arts, Bratislava, SK

01.11.2007 – VIKTOR FREŠO v Košiciach ta ne?, MAKE UP Gallery, Košice, SK
2006 -2007 – WHO IS THE KING?, Trnava, Nitra, Bratislava, České Budejovice, Košice, SK / CZ

29.09.2005 – VIKTOR FREŠO IN THE SPACE, Bratislava, SK
28.09.2004 – VIKTOR FREŠO V ŽILINE, Žilina, Sk
15.06.2003 – SK-CZK.3-2.3. Gallery CO14, Prague, CZ
05.11.2002 – CLOSED, Gallery CO14, Prague, CZ

18.02.2017 – Pasce a evidencie, Nitrianska Galeria: Nitra

07.12.2016 – Edition, Soda Gallery: Bratislava
26.11.2016 – EXEDITION 8+, Fabrica de arte Cubano, Havana, Cuba
24.11.2016 – Time After Time, MeetFactory: Prague
25.06.2016 – Planinka, Slovakia
18.06.2016 – Art Safari 31, Bubec, Prague, Czech Republic
16.06.2016 – Gods Own Country, Yorkshire Festival, United Kingdom
11.06.2016 – Transitory People, Parco D’Arte Quarelli, Roccverano, Italy
04.06.2016 – The Kunstwerk Carshüte, Germany
23.03.2016 – VERTI-CALL / 100JATY, Papírna Plzeň
17.02.2016 – Zbierka umenia, Gallery Rimavská Sobota, SK

17.12.2015 – REVERSED, MSUV, Museum Of Contemporary Art Of Vojvodina: Novi Sad
11.12.2015 – Glassplus à la Borges, DSC Gallery: Prague
04.12.2015 – Pure Energy, Elektráreň Pieštany
10.10.2015 – Nuit BLanche, Bratislava.
08.09.2015 – Rekunstrukcie, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava.
08.09.2015 – Contemporary art 2015, gallery Nová síň, Prague
29.08.2015 – 3rd DANUBE BIENNALE, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Bratislava
29.05.2015 – Boží umnění, Kostel Nejsvětějšího Srdce Páně, DSC Gallery: Prague
23.03.2015 – THE SOFT CODES. Conceptual tendencies in Slovak Art, Wrocław Contemporary Museum, Wroclow, Poland

11.12.2014 – 999 I NINE NINE NINE, River Gallery, Bratislava
09.12.2014 – Christmas Bestseller vol.6, SODA Gallery, Bratislava, SK
05.10.2014 – God is Love, Nuit BLanche, Kosice, SK
06.09.2014 – Collection Meulensteen, Museum Danubiana, Bratislava
28.08.2014 – Danube Dialogues, Bel art Gallery, Novi Sad, Serbia
26.06.2014 – Socha a objekt XIX., Bratislava, SK
20.06,2014 – Sculpture Lab, 4D gallery, Bratislava, SK
18.06.2014 – Upstream, River Gallery, Bratislava, SK
13.06.2014 – Magical Thinking, Gallery Rene Mele, New York, USA
14.05.2014 – Paper Obsessed + 2, Dvorak Sec Contemporary, Prague, CZ
19.03.2014 – Slovak Now, Dvorak Sec Contemporary, Prague, CZ
06.03.2014 – Skydivers, Brides & Wheels, Chimera project, Budapest, HUN
28.02.2014 – Zo Zbierky GCM, The Cyprian Majernik Gallery, Bratislava, SK
08.02.2014 – Art Walk at Wynwood, Hangar Gallery, Miami, USA

18.12.2013 – Christmas Bestseller vol.5, SODA Gallery, Bratislava, SK
16.12.2013 – FRESHPOP, Roman Fecik Gallery, Bratislava, SK
11.12.2013 – Home sweet home, SODA Gallery, Bratislava, SK
07.12.2013 – ZERO YEARS, Freies Museum, Berlin, D
08.11.2013 – Contextual Art, The Cyprian Majernik Gallery, Bratislava, SK
20.09.2013 – Hommage a Peter Strassner III, Devin Castle Sculpture Exhibition, Bratislava, SK
14.09.2013 – ČESKO-SLOVENSKÉ HVĚZDY II, Gallery Miroslav Kubík, Litomyšl, CZ
12.09.2013 – TRKO, Trienále súčasného obrazu / Triennale of contemporary image, Kunsthalle Košice, SK
04.09.2013 – BODY VARU, Bludny kámen Gallery, Opava, CZ
17.07.2013 – Smalt art, Gallery Gong, Vítkovice, Ostrava, CZ
12.07.2013 – Creative Zone on Pohoda Festival: Trenčín
03.07.2013 – Opening of the new Kunsthalle, Unveiling of the public sculpture, Kunsthalle, Košice, SK
28.06.2013 – Open Studio, Bratislava, SK
27.06.2013 – Socha a objekt XVIII., The House of Arts, Bratislava, SK
25.06.2013 – CITY CODE, Slovak institute, Moscow, Sheremetevsky Palace, Sankt Peterburg, Russia
23.06.2013 – Perla dell Adriatico, Kursaal, Grottamarea, Italy
20.06.2013 – Ba City Beat Festival: Bratislava
17.01.2013 – Podozrivý voľný čas / Suspicious Free Time, Open Gallery, Bratislava, SK
08.01.2013 – BINDERFRESH, Wen Two Like You, The House of Arts, Bratislava, SK

12.12.2012 – Pod jedličkou, Gallery NOVA, Bratislava, SK
11.12.2012 – Christmas Bestseller 4, SODA Gallery, Bratislava, SK
28.11.2012 – Práce na papieri / Works on Paper, Gallery Z, Bratislava, SK
09.11.2012 – The Journey to St. Petersburg, Egbert Baqué Contemporary Art, Berlin, D
30.10.2012 – The Real Emotions at Muzeul Naţional de Artă Cluj, Cluj, Romania
28.09.2012 – Crazycurators Biennale 4, SPACE Gallery, Bratislava, SK
22.09.2012 – Hommage a Peter Strassner II, Devin Castle Sculpture Exhibition, Bratislava, SK
28.07.2012 – Intensivstation, Konzeptkunst aus Osteuropa, Endstation St. Josef, Königswinter, D
07.07.2012 – Sbírka Marek / The Marek Collection, The Moravian Gallery, Brno, CZ
06.07.2012 – Nové drevo: SNG on Pohoda Festival: Trenčín
30.06.2012 – We are still alive, Danubiana, Bratislava, SK
29.06.2012 – Socha a objekt XVII., Bratislava, SK
04.05.2012 – Binderfresh, Keď sa dvaja maju radi / When the two like each other, The Municipal Gallery Rimavská Sobota, SK
14.04.2012 – Balkón na Kudlákovej 5/ Balcony at Kudlakova St. 5, Cyprián Majerník Gallery, Bratislava, SK
10.04.2012 – Výstava zo zbierok MGRS / From the Collection of the Municipal Gallery Rimavská Sobota, SK
24.03.2012 – Zéró évek, Modern és Kortárs Művészeti Központ, Debrecen, HUN
24.03.2012 – Hommage a Markus Prachensky, Danubiana, Bratislava, SK
17.02.2012 – ObraSKovo nanovo / ObraSKovo Revisited, The Tatra Gallery, Poprad, SK

15.12.2011 – I Like, Binderfresh, Kressling gallery, Bratislava, SK
08.11.2011 – Zero Years, The House of Arts, Bratislava, SK
28.10.2011 – Bienale maľby III, The Municipal Gallery Rimavská Sobota, SK
20.10.2011 – Binderfrresh, animal live tour, The Oskar Čepán Award 2011, Bratislava, SK
02.10.2011 – Binderfresh, Fru Fru Gallery, Bratislava, SK
29.09.2011 – Binderfresh, Nuit BLanche, Kosice, SK
20.09.2011 – Sedmokrásky a klony / Daisies and Clones, The Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, SK
13.09.2011 – HOMMAGE À PICASSO”, Galerie de l’Institut Français, Bratislava, SK
14.09.2011 – Zero Years, The Art Gallery of Považie, Žilina, SK
16.08.2011 – L´Art Goulache, River gallery, Bratislava, SK
22.06.2011 – Socha a objekt XVI., Bratislava, SK
22.06.2011 – obraSkov, Contemporary Painting in Slovakia, Wannieck gallery, Brno, CZ
12.06.2011 – AMoYA, Museum of young art, Prague, CZ
19.05.2011 – PRAGUEBIENNALE 5, Whatever we do we cannot connect with you, Slovak section, Prague, CZ
03.05.2011 – VELOCYPEDIA, The NTK Gallery, Prague, CZ
03.05.2011 – Nový zlínsky salón 2011/ The New Zlin Salon 2011, Zlin, CZ
28.04.2011 – ELE-MENTA GESTURES, Houser-Frešo, Meetfactory, Prague, CZ
15.04.2011 – The opening of permanent display open depository, The Cyprián Majerník Gallery, Bratislava, SK
14.04.2011 – Contemporary Slovakian geometry2, The Municipal Gallery in Pilsen, Pilsen, CZ
02.02.2011 – La Part Manquante, Galerie Michel Journiac, Paris, F
24.02.2011 – Binderfresh, AM180, Prague, CZ

17.12.2010 – Kassapoint, Košice, SK
16.12.2010 – Artloop & Cultural Institute of the Republic of Hungary, Bratislava, SK
04.11.2010 – Yeasty medium, Slovak Photography 1990–2010, The House of Arts, Bratislava, SK
08.10.2010 – Mobilnale, Prague, CZ
02.10.2010 – Nuit Blanche, Košice, SK
25.06.2010 – Nenápadné médium/ Yeasty medium, The Cyprián Majerník Gallery, Bratislava, SK
25.06.2010 – art-now, Kasárne Kulturpark, Košice, SK
24.06.2010 – Socha a objekt XV., Bratislava, SK
03.06.2010 – KAS IR ČECHU MAKSLA. Kulturas centra Ilgumciems, Riga, Latvia
25.05.2010 – Transgression,Videotage// Asia’s New Media Art Collective Since, Hong Kong
25.03.2010 – scharfer blick, heises blut, Glaerie des Slowakischen Institut, Berlin, D
23.03.2010 – /+\=X, Cape Town, South Africa
25.02.2010 – Formate der Transformation 89-09, Museum auf Abruf, Vienna, AT
24.02.2010 – Nenápadné médium / Yeasty medium, The Eastern Slovakian Gallery, Košice, SK
04.02.2010 – 12X12 covers exhibition, 66 gallery, Prague, CZ

14.12.2009 – BIENÁLE MAĽBY II.. / The Painting Biennial, The Municipal Gallery Rimavská Sobota, SK
04.12.2009 – 1st Danube Biennale, Danubiana, Bratislava, SK
27.11.2009 – V4 sympozium, Egon Schiele Art Centrum, Česky Krumlov, CZ
17.11.2009 – Formáty transformace / Formats of Transformation, The House of Arts, Brno, CZ
13.11.2009 – DIPMASTER III, Galerie Stephanie Bender, Munich, D
16.09.2009 – The Exhibition of Oskar Čepán Award finalists, The Eastern Slovakian Gallery, Košice, SK
25.06.2009 – INTERTEXT, The Ján Koniarek Gallery, Trnava, SK
25.06.2009 – Socha a objekt XIV., Bratislava, SK
25.06.2009 – The Oskar Čepán Award 2009, Gallery medium, Bratislava, SK
04.06.2009 – Open Office, aircraft gallery, Bratislava, SK
21.05.2009 – Nenápadné médium/Yeasty Medium, The Art Gallery of Považie, Žilina, SK
20.05.2009 – SKÚTER II – bienále mladého umenia / The Biennial of Young Art, Trnava, SK
09.04.2009 – Black & White, Bratislava, SK
08.04.2009 – The exhibition of the permanent collection of modern and contemporary art, The National Gallery in Prague, Prague, CZ
19.03.2009 – Olejomaľba / Oil painting, The Cyprián Majerník Gallery, Bratislava, SK
12.03.2009 – Fifty- Fifty group, Gallery NOD, Prague, CZ
19.02.2009 – New entry, Kressling Gallery, Bratislava, SK
05.02.2009 – Contact, Contemporay Norwieg and Slovak Art, Oslo, Norway
05.02.2009 – Contact: Contemporay Norwieg and Slovak Art: Oslo
15.01.2009 – ENTROPA: Teamwork on the projects with David Černy, Brussels

05.12.2008 – Olejomaľba / Oil Painting, The Municipal Gallery Rimavská Sobota, SK
24.11.2008 – The language of homour, SOGA, Bratislava, SK
17.10.2008 – 1960 –> present time / slovak art + czech hosts, The City Gallery, Prague, CZ
03.10.2008 – BIG GRUPPEN HYBRID PAINTING SESSION, Prague, CZ
10.10.2008 – Jeune creation 08- Exposition internationale grande halle de la villette, Paris, F
14 08.2008 – CONTACT – Contemporary Norwegian and Slovak Art, Bratislava, SK
07.08.2008 – VIDEOART IS DEAD, Cell Gallery, Prague, CZ
06.07.2008 – IM HERZEN EUROPAS, Badhomburg, Germany
26.06.2008 – SOCHA A OBJEKT XIII., Bratislava, SK
19.06,2008 – Egoart, Case History,The Central Slovakian Gallery, Banska Bystrica, SK
04.06.2008 – INTRO 518 TEI 69 TEŽ TEI 180 BONUS Q TRACK!, Karlín studios, Prague, CZ
03.06.2008 – INTERNATIONAL TRIENNALE OF CONTEMPORARY ART, The National Gallery in Prague, Prague, CZ
17.05.2008 – Egoart, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, Vienna, AT, Bratislava, SK, Budapest, HUN
23.02.2008 – cesky videoart, po kunde ti upadne pero, aero cinema, Prague, CZ
19.02.2008 – Movement under Blava, site specific projekt: Bratislava

12.12.2007 – XYXX: Karlin studios, Prague, CZ
25.10.2007 – CZECHPOINT 2, Museum of Arts, Zilina, SK
03.10.2007 – Bio-power 2, C2C, Prague, CZ
20.09.2007 – S.O.S, Gallery Medium, Bratislava, SK
19.09.2007 – A4 – Sonata egoisticka, Popshop performance: Bratislava
07.09.2007 – Jesť sa musí / You have to eat, The Nitra Gallery, Nitra, SK
14.08.2007 – Bio-power, Gallery Medium, Bratislava, SK
27.05.2007 – PRAGUEBIENNALE 3, Prague, CZ
21.06.2007 – POHODA festival 2007
03.05.2007 – HDP, The City Gallery, Prague, CZ
26.02.2007 – ¼ MAGYAR, Liget gallery, Budapest, HUN
24.01.2007 – PitoreSKa Wannieck gallery, Brno, CZ
28.06.2007 – SOCHA A OBJEKT XII., Bratislava, SK
17.05.2007 – SKÚTER – prvé bienále sučastného slovenského umenia / 1st Biennial of contemporary Slovak art, Trnava, SK
08.08.2007 – Just between us, Karlín studios, Prague, CZ
08.02.2007 – Moc – Dominancia / Power – Domination, The Central Slovakian Gallery, Banská Bystrica, SK
11.01.2007 – Autovize, City Gallery Prague, Prague, CZ

06.12.2006 – Bazár, SPACE Gallery, Bratislava, SK
28.11.2006 – Fifty-Fifty group – Chaplin resident fighter, FUTURA, Prague, CZ
22.11.2006 – Sell me buy me, Galerie u Dobrého pastýře, Brno, CZ
01.11.2006 – CZECHPOINT, NoD Gallery, Prague, CZ
29.10.2006 – Memory day, Slovak Art Forum, Bratislava, SK
20.10.2006 – Transfer – Muzej savremene umenosti Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia
21.09.2006 – autobiographies, Secession Haus, Vienna, AT
20.09.2006 – for some seeds the meal is the end of the journey, Tranzit, Bratislava, SK
16.09.2006 – AIR CRUISER, Dunaújvaros, HUN
17.08.2006 – Tent of contemporary art, Piestany, SK
28.06.2006 – AIR CRUISER, Ustí nad Labem, CZ
22.06.2006 – Cibulák – Divadelny festival: Pezinok
25.05.2006 – RUNAWAY, SPACE Gallery, Bratislava, SK
08.05.2006 – AIR CRUISER, Forumstatpark, Graz, AT
22.03.2006 – Fifty-Fifty group – Ostblock, Wienstations, Vienna, AT
28.02.2006 – Fifty-Fifty group – Open studio, MuseumsQuartier: Wien
10.02.2006 – Fifty-Fifty group – presentation, MuseumsQuartier: Wien
16.02.2006 – Office art, C2c Gallery, Prague, CZ
26.01.2006 – Chlap, hrdina, duch, stroj – Egoart, Gallery Medium, Bratislava, SK

09.12.2005 – Bazár – Gallery Space: Bratislava.
09.12.2005 – Beauty free shop, Jungmannova str: Prague.
30.10.2005 – Sell me buy me, AVU Gallery: Prague.
29.09.2005 – Slovensky mýtus, Slovak National Gallery: Bratislava.
21.09.2005 – EGOART – 100 rokov reality,GMB City Gallery: Bratislava.
11.09.2005 – Market: Bratislava.
18.06.2005 – Hodokvas festival: Pezinok.
28.06.2005 – Beru si to osobne, Narrow Focus, Tranzit: Bratislava.
23.06.2005 – Vystava diplomovych prací, Veletržní palác, National Gallery: Prague.
23.06.2005 – Viktor Frešo kurátor: Žilina, Nitra, Trnava, Bratislava.
26.05.2005 – PRAGUEBIENNALE 2: Prague.
14.05.2005 – Blaspheme me – Utopiebaustelle Theaterplatz: Wiemar, Germany.
04.04.2005 – Konceptuální a intermediální tvorba: Prague.
01.04.2005 – Artist Bienale: Hong Kong.
21.03.2005 – Markéta Vanková: Prague.

09.12.2004 – Bazár, SPACE Gallery, Bratislava, SK
15.11.2004 – FOUR ROSES – Azorro group, Little Warshav, Kamera skura, Kunst-Fu, Bialystok, Poland.
09.10.2004 – BINDERFRESH – Autogramiáda, DK Vajnorská: Bratislava.
06.10.2004 – HOME PAGE – Daubner Gallery, Prague, CZ
01.10.2004 – Istroart, Medium Gallery, Bratislava, SK
14.09.2004 – BINDERFRESH – Erik Binder, Viktor Frešo, Open Gallery, Bratislava, SK
19.08.2004 – Hodokvas festival: Pezinok.
23.08.2004 – Workshop Kultur AXE: Gižycko, Poland.
11.06.2004 – XXX party, Nevertogether – Skrepl, Frešo, Mucska, Moyzes: Prague.
03.06.2004 – Error 1- Out of space, HIT Gallery, Bratislava, SK
22.05.2004 – Otváranie cementárne: Banská Bystrica.
23.04.2004 – Ber si to osobne / Take it personally, AM180, Prague, CZ
27.03.2004 – European media festival, Osnabrueck, Germany
20.03.2004 – New Media Art Festival, Bangkok, Thailand.
19.02.2004 – INTERNET FOR FREE – Egoart, HIT Gallery, Bratislava, SK

03.06.2004 – Error 1- Out of space, HIT Gallery, Bratislava, SK
23.04.2004 – Ber si to osobne / Take it personally, AM180, Prague, CZ
27.03.2004 – European media festival, Osnabrueck, Germany
20.03.2004 – New Media Art Festival, Bangkok, Thailand.
19.02.2004 – INTERNET FOR FREE – Egoart, HIT Gallery, Bratislava, SK

21.07.2003 – SCULPTURE GRANDE – Egoart: Prague
29.05.2003 – PRIVEĽA VÝNIMIEK – City Gallery: Žilina.
18.03.2003 – Vystava ateliéru Vladimíra Skrepla: Košice.
25.05.2003 – UNINISE – Mário Chromy, Viktor Frešo: Bratislava.
19.01.2003 – WORKSHOP – The school of the art institute of Chicago: Prague.
16.01.2003 – 281m2 – Václava Špála Gallery: Prague.

29.11.2002 – EGOART – V-klub, nám. SNP: Bratislava.
17.05.2002 – HEAVY METAL FOR SALE – Gallery Buryzon: Bratislava.
25.04.2002 – JOJO EFEKT: České Budejovice.

Awards and recognitions

Identification Code of Slovakia, Bratislava, SK

The Oskar Čepán Award finalist 2009, SK

„I was here.“ is a follow-up of the previous works from the area of self-portraits and works done in art groups, especially Fifty-Fifty group. The point is the inscription „Bol som tu“ at the gallery wall created immediately before the beginning of an exhibition. I have been dealing with so-called Eastern European thinking for some time (of course, the specification of the Eastern European thinking requires a longer discussion). I think that it is necessary not to separate this phenomenon from artworks. As the European art scene becomes united, this aspect has been fading away slowly and artists more often present themselves as cosmopolitan authors. The project cannot be presented otherwise than by a direct and truthful presence of its author and by his/her authentic gesture of writing. The fact that a gallery participates in the project (by inviting an artist, paying for his travel and accommodation) and then an artist writes „Bol som tu“ on the wall can look like unbelievable cheekiness of the artist but at the same time this act opens several very important levels of the intellectual perception of the artwork. Travelling is the key of this project concept. The effort to gain the biggest possible advantage at the lowest possible investment – thus minimum effort and maximum effect – is typical not only for so-called Eastern European thinking. Open acknowledgement of this type of thinking – the fact that the whole strategy is specified beforehand – brings the project on a very transparent and fair plane and it uses certain honesty and „politically correct“ openness typical for advanced democracies.

FIFTY CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS IN SLOVAKIA

It was recently said of Viktor Frešo that his art is like a virus – meaning that it has no body of its own, but takes different strategies, to which he adds his own branding; for instance, along the lines of a spectacle. This can be perceived as a postmodern strategy par excellence – elements of development reflecting the specific conditions of the Slovak art scene can be seen in this. Most of all, Frešo was always the litmus test for these conditions. His multifarious work, composed of objects, projects, actions, paintings, and prints has two main directions apart from this homogeneity – solo works and cooperation. In both, the monitoring of the (self-) position of the artist in the institutional (and therefore high) art scene and the art market is strongly reflected. Frešo says that only his objects and various types of installations can be considered as high art. On the other hand, painting – which he openly assigns the status of “mainstream” – and due to its controversial reception in specialist circles, is precisely what makes him thrive and make more attempts. In a Dantesque sense, Frešo is trying to conform to the consensus of society, legitimizing not only artists and creative programs, but also specific works into the “group” of those which are deemed valuable (verified, lasting). Penetration into this group does not have any strict rules; it is only given by interaction, which can happen anywhere and everywhere. If we compare this model to the social actions of the now internationally-recognized conceptual artist Július Koller (1939-2007) – who, during the period of communism subversively lowered the level of high art through postcard landscapes, or with work and exhibitions with amateur and semi-professional artists – then we realize that Frešo’s strategy is not lacking history. We will never admire the bravado of painterly expression, drawing upon the nihilism of the many strategies of Milan Dobeš (1929) or Juraj Bartusz (1933); rather, we will attempt to understand his critical view (within his means) of real artistic operation here and abroad. More than mere detail, the whole of his work will retrospectively become evident. Frešo’s “declarations” could be considered as the most striking until now: What Helped Me When (2005) – simple but candid personal written testimonies; several references about the artist’s presence or preferences in a given space (“I was here”; “I don’t like you…” and so on) are provocative non-works of art; Thanks For Everything You Did For Slovak Visual Art (2007) – a sign projected onto the front wall of the Slovak National Gallery – is a clear critique of real or potential institutional hegemony. His current work entitled God is Love (2013) is equally effective. Besides all of this, it could be claimed that the whole spectrum of Frešo’s work plays another important role – to provide a background for the effectiveness and directness of these simple, informal, and even anti-fine art, textual appeals

Richard Gregor: Viktor Frešo. Fifty Contemporary artist in Slovakia, Bratislava: Art Academy, Slovart, 2014.

SOMETHING ABOUT ART

I’m really happy to be able to introduce Viktor Frešo – another one of truly important artists of the young generation who evaluates conceptual experience in a new way, hence reflecting new topics anchored in their new era. Frešo’s concepts are always exactly defined, but diverse, and encompass a wide range of problems. He achieves this by frequently changing all useable media, including those that are less traditional at our environment, such as writings in galleries or in carefully chosen exteriors. Sometimes, they even deeply touch – with admirable precision – some social conditions in our country, by country I mean Czechoslovakia, and they succeed in presenting an artist’s role in this harsh period as the subject matter… I realised this fact the most clearly with his series Who is the King? (1) Viktor Frešo, looking as a successful young man, searches for ways how to get close to „celebrities“ and have his photo taken by them. Names of authors, given at each photograph, play with the ambivalence of „who is who“. By the way, only Milan Knížák reflected the author in his physical likeness, as these two are our „greatest artists“, he made Frešo smaller, he cut away most of his head… Július Koller photographed him with his own concept, but so-called „cultural elite“ admired by crowd was easily recognisable… And V.F. descends lower and lower, Helenka Vondráčková and Karel Gott photograph him happily. Here I like to quote recent words of Rudolf Filo: „he linked together the worst musical and artistic kitsch with a stroke of genius…“ The result is a fascinating reflection of absolute loss of the feeling for true values in our society! This is how media world works; media can make us completely dumb and insensitive… And what is the situation in the world of art? Again, besides Czech conceptual art, Slovak post-conceptual art, and the geometrical department selected by Getulio Alviani, Frešo was the artist who captivated us the most at Politi’s “anti- Knížák” PRAGUE BIENNALE 3 in 2007. So, actually, it was „our home artist“! He wrote on the big wall at the end of the exhibition hall: THANK YOU GOD THAT I CAN EXHIBIT AT PRAGUE BIENNALE 3 and added big VIKTOR FREŠO under it!(1)This really is an integral amalgam of seriousness, irony, self-irony, and, when the form of this exhibition piece is taken into account, also provocation in choosing this medium, as otherwise traditional, not very good paintings of all religious denominations prevailed there… But our viewers, especially the „experts“, ignored the start of the whole category of text art, even when it had taken place at the beginning of the sixties. Let me give you at least one pioneer example: Ben, founder of Ecole de Nice, still active member of the Fluxus movement… So, the text art itself has already had a 50-year history, its origins being of a slightly aestheticized form, hence if V.F. wants to be original, it’s logical that he has to emulate today’s non-artificial way of writing as much as possible! Then he can use his „writing language“ for other realizations, like those in his I WAS HERE :(1) series in which he treated his presence somewhere as a theme. When he did so within the exhibition context he made this elementary and, at the same time, key information into a work of art in situ… T hen he could develop the whole scale of various writings of the identical meaning in different languages at various places where he got to (up till now?). In my opinion, his pure text works are dominated in a different, semantic way by the series of Self-portraits, text pictures, where he very sincerely described what helped him in various critical situations, like WHEN I DON’T BELIEVE IN MYSELF AND HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT MY ART, THIS IS WHAT HELPS ME : (1), WHEN MY GIRLFRIEND LEFT ME, THIS IS WHAT HELPED ME : (1) etc. Only background of the period we live in has changed but Viktor Frešo made personal problems of every artist his topic, and these problems have always had its place in conceptual art, only today’s perception allows us to be more open about them… Or maybe not, as Frešo is still considered to be “problematic” by many? And maybe he was being even more personal in the text under which many of our friends could sign – his reaction written in the text spanning the entire room: I’M ¼ MAGYAR AND I’M ¾ PROUD OF THAT(1) – This is an ironical articulation of a sad fact concentrated into some type of conceptual paradox that is the problem of the whole Slovak state and majority of its citizens…
And I really couldn‘t tell, as it depends on the period, how big outrage I had evoked in 1969 (knowing that my visual poetry would become photographic as well) when I had written LOVE on the naked body of my partner and presented her everywhere and how big was the outrage following Frešo’s half-nude (mine was the complete nude) of a well endowed blonde on whose body he wrote VIKTOR FREŠO FUCKED ME(1) … This shows how much the language and communication level has changed! Words that were considered vulgar and used with some hesitation have become common (even in my own marginally created „more traditional“ poetry). A fish stinks from the head and our nature does not change, hence today self-proclaimed political and economic elite commonly uses similar words – am I not right? At the same time, V.F. began to create intellectually very subtle variations to different phenomena of last decades of „serious“ art: he brilliantly walks a tightrope between total seriousness and irony. Let me mention only briefly his playful variation to the subjectivity of Informel in painting done by a mop where a new distance is evident… Already in 2004, he created the set the last minimalist sculpture where he paraphrased the most basic geometrical shape: prism from various originally utilitarian materials. For certain, this was a reflection of his previous study of sculpture, a need to push forward his thinking in this medium as well… From a distance, he reflected something, which was perceived as being too radical… In 2006, Frešo reflected another form of minimalistic act by spilling a Coca Cola light bottle, which, then, together with the bottle and its cap, formed his big installation in Vienna Museum quartier. In 2007, this installation was logically followed by a colour paint sprayed onto the wall and let run to the floor: RED FREŠO GOBBLED UP EVERYTHING(1) , and by BLACK FREŠO GOBBLED UP EVERYTHING (1) in 2008 (here the paint ran in a single line). In 2008, the artist created a completely new radical reflection of a picture as a medium (or as an object, this difference is a somewhat nominal problem). Of course, this can also be perceived as a conceptual task: under the title WORK WITH CANVAS. Frešo coiled gauze around a picture in a shape of cross, or he connected three small canvases by white or brown tape, he literally worked with the picture itself as with an object. Of course, he worked in his own way of new visual communication which had been unseen up till then; reminding us a bit of sculpting work. His way mirrors his own character as well as codified stereotypes… In extreme case, he cut off the biggest possible piece of canvas and rolled it to the edge „as an object or a sculpture“, or he joined it with a conventional landscape picture at its top edge or he hanged it to the wall by two nails…
These severe interventions are complemented by much subtler monochromatic needlework: maybe this work stemmed from a sentence heard somewhere sounding like „those painters must work carefully like when doing embroidery (in case of painting with some traditional technique)“. Maybe he took it „at face value“ and with irony and self-irony he’s known for he made various needlework techniques into separate themes: either minimalist needlework in the middle of a canvas where he made a small green square, or in every corner when four interventions became a new topic of the whole canvas… A really fascinating playful paradox consisted in his trimming of all edges of a canvas from one corner to the next… All these operations were a true analysis of the picture itself, the template of which was analytical and fundamental painting based on the concept that dominated the international art in the seventies. V.F. is really irreplaceable in this art form… In his studio, he created series of objects which reflected minimal art only in a loose way and oscillated between seriousness and more and more subtle humorous distance: Trainer of a loudspeaker system carrier,: (1) a wooden box, cube, with four rubber wheels at each side – in theory this object can be moved but it does not have any function, it is a beautiful paraphrase of a functional object transferred by the author into the autonomous world of art. A similar case is Tyre: (1) a large tyre that cannot move independently because it is fitted with two pairs of small wheels and only on these wheels it can move – this is a beautiful paradox and playful evidence that art is always non-utilitarian! The highest extent of minimalist form and its semantic re-evaluation can be found in the installation DON’T YOU THINK YOU’RE OLD?, 2007. It was a metal pipe inbuilt in the passage into the following room at such a height that every adult visitor had to bend his or her head, creating also a reference to minimalist form or to a body act as a new game with visitors. Similar can be said for the artwork SO, THIS I CALL SCULPTURE, 2007, four-metre long wooden beam embedded into the gallery wall which visitors had to bypass (and to think about minimalists or author’s ironic play with language in both titles…) After these solitaires, new three-dimensional pieces were gradually created: Window, 2008 – a real open window that could only move on four small wheels, being so excluded from its usual use, was transferred into the world of art by this beautiful Duchamp-like gesture. A classic minimalist form was created from four connected windows – the cube, full of connotations, rejected by minimalists due to objects used for its creation, so it has become the integral part of current discourse with their art. The same in a more subtle form? For example, a sticky tape of 80 cm diameter made for the author that can link a wall and space in a new relation… Or Komatex sheet (which is already exhibited by the National Gallery of Prague in its Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art together with Window): a pliable sheet from the material discovered by the author… Komatex 2 dominated Brno Exhibition, two sheets propped up against each other in space and only their fixation between two strong carpenter’s couplers (which are otherwise used for gluing several layers of wood together) at each side created this subtle articulation of space… We can also see their other possible, more complex use – again it is a subtle dialogue with minimal art, probably the only one in our territory as artistic colleagues and friends of Frešo from Prague and Bratislava who have also reached this state of freedom to research properties of medium itself work very often with properties of a picture or photograph or text. Frešo’s contribution is unique in his ability to adequately re-evaluate minimalistic big forms, but also texts, in the way unknown before. And, as for his performances? First, his solo actions, direct ones, with the intention to provoke especially by the reflection in the mind of a viewer. To throw a stone with his name attached to it through a gallery window can be perceived today as a new aesthetical value of all „used elements“ – stone, signature and particularly a hole in glass… But a true reflection in a viewer’s mind could also sound like this: is it only a new aesthetical message, widening of artistic borders, or is it an urgent impulsion to think of the actual functioning of some specific institution? Let’s keep in mind that Viktor Frešo himself „put together“ one of private galleries in Bratislava… So, apparently, he is a man who has been given „something extra and other things to a lesser extent“ than his fellow men, and as he is mainly an extraordinary artist he articulates his need for reflection by a radical artistic gesture which is (still?) unexpected by the majority of our institutions.
Viktor Frešo is an artist who has thoroughly learnt the lesson of postmodernism and hence his artwork is based on realisation of various themes of problems, which he himself, under his own responsibility, considers to be important. His work is valuable and contributive, but also really multifaceted, and, in the artist’s opinion, his artworks that redefine the whole sphere of artistic practice are the most actual form of his endeavour.

Jiří Valoch

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Academy of fine arts in Prague

2003-2005 – AVU – New media studio, Michael Bielicky: Prague.
2001-2003 – AVU – painting studio, Vladimir Skrepl: Prague.
1999-2001 – VŠVU – sculpture studio, J.Jankovič, J.Hoffstädter: Bratislava.

01.02.2017 – Viktor Freso Now, DSC Gallery: Prague
10.01.2017 – Overheads, Nedbalka Gallery: Bratislava

10.03.2016 – Platform Project 1, Army of the Niemnads, Affordable Art fair: London

30.08.2015 – Niemand in Amsterdam, Unveiling of the public sculpture, Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam
29.08.2015 – Birth of the Niemand, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Bratislava
09.07.2015 – Fragments of the 90’s, Boskovice, CZ
11.06.2015 – DOKOUPIL – FRESO, Kunsthalle Košice, SK
04.03.2015 – Part 1, SODA Gallery, Bratislava, SK

22.10.2114 – I.N.D.I.A, all India Fine Arts & Crafts Society, New Delhi, India
20.08.2014 – Art is Nice, Dvoraksec contemporary, Prague, CZ
19.05.2014 – trAnSparEnt boX, Gallery Nova, Bratislava, SK
12.01.2014 – Park Me, Cotilla Gallery, Fort Lauderdale Miami, USA

04.04.2013 – Conceptual Hobby, Gallery JAMA, Ostrava, CZ
20.03.2013 – Pure For You, Gallery Komart, Berlin, Germany

13.11.2012 – Cataratas de Freso, Ciudad del Este, Paraguay
13.11.2012 – Maison de la Plage, Domaine du Rayol, Rayol-Canadel-sur-Mer, France
09.10.2012 – Μεταμορφώσεις Βσλ Χβλ, Soga, Bratislava, SK
03.09.2012 – Buena Europa, Sindicatura Nacional de Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina
23.02.2012 – Eastern Connector, Prinz Prager Gallery, Prague, CZ
17.01.2012 – CONNECTION, Eastern Slovakian Gallery, Košice, SK

13.10.2011 – VFINDC, The Koloman Sokol Gallery, Washington DC, USA
14.04.2011 – FRESOVSODE, SODA Gallery, Bratislava, SK

08.09.2010 – Something About ART, Galerie U Dobrého pastýře, Brno, CZ
04.05.2010 – POP-FIX, The Municipal Gallery Rimavská Sobota, SK
31.03.2010 – POP-MOP, Soga auction house, Bratislava, SK

22.10.2009 – VIKTOR FREŠO IN CHICAGO, Open concept gallery, Grand Rapids, USA

11.11.2008 – Nemám rád jazz, ale mám rád Traditional club, Trnava, SK
18.04.2008 – ‘Don’t write anything about me, you cunt!’. Gallery Art Factory, Prague, CZ
03.03.2008 – VIKTOR FREŠO retrospektíva, The House of Arts, Bratislava, SK

01.11.2007 – VIKTOR FREŠO v Košiciach ta ne?, MAKE UP Gallery, Košice, SK
2006 -2007 – WHO IS THE KING?, Trnava, Nitra, Bratislava, České Budejovice, Košice, SK / CZ

29.09.2005 – VIKTOR FREŠO IN THE SPACE, Bratislava, SK
28.09.2004 – VIKTOR FREŠO V ŽILINE, Žilina, Sk
15.06.2003 – SK-CZK.3-2.3. Gallery CO14, Prague, CZ
05.11.2002 – CLOSED, Gallery CO14, Prague, CZ

18.02.2017 – Pasce a evidencie, Nitrianska Galeria: Nitra

07.12.2016 – Edition, Soda Gallery: Bratislava
26.11.2016 – EXEDITION 8+, Fabrica de arte Cubano, Havana, Cuba
24.11.2016 – Time After Time, MeetFactory: Prague
25.06.2016 – Planinka, Slovakia
18.06.2016 – Art Safari 31, Bubec, Prague, Czech Republic
16.06.2016 – Gods Own Country, Yorkshire Festival, United Kingdom
11.06.2016 – Transitory People, Parco D’Arte Quarelli, Roccverano, Italy
04.06.2016 – The Kunstwerk Carshüte, Germany
23.03.2016 – VERTI-CALL / 100JATY, Papírna Plzeň
17.02.2016 – Zbierka umenia, Gallery Rimavská Sobota, SK

17.12.2015 – REVERSED, MSUV, Museum Of Contemporary Art Of Vojvodina: Novi Sad
11.12.2015 – Glassplus à la Borges, DSC Gallery: Prague
04.12.2015 – Pure Energy, Elektráreň Pieštany
10.10.2015 – Nuit BLanche, Bratislava.
08.09.2015 – Rekunstrukcie, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava.
08.09.2015 – Contemporary art 2015, gallery Nová síň, Prague
29.08.2015 – 3rd DANUBE BIENNALE, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Bratislava
29.05.2015 – Boží umnění, Kostel Nejsvětějšího Srdce Páně, DSC Gallery: Prague
23.03.2015 – THE SOFT CODES. Conceptual tendencies in Slovak Art, Wrocław Contemporary Museum, Wroclow, Poland

11.12.2014 – 999 I NINE NINE NINE, River Gallery, Bratislava
09.12.2014 – Christmas Bestseller vol.6, SODA Gallery, Bratislava, SK
05.10.2014 – God is Love, Nuit BLanche, Kosice, SK
06.09.2014 – Collection Meulensteen, Museum Danubiana, Bratislava
28.08.2014 – Danube Dialogues, Bel art Gallery, Novi Sad, Serbia
26.06.2014 – Socha a objekt XIX., Bratislava, SK
20.06,2014 – Sculpture Lab, 4D gallery, Bratislava, SK
18.06.2014 – Upstream, River Gallery, Bratislava, SK
13.06.2014 – Magical Thinking, Gallery Rene Mele, New York, USA
14.05.2014 – Paper Obsessed + 2, Dvorak Sec Contemporary, Prague, CZ
19.03.2014 – Slovak Now, Dvorak Sec Contemporary, Prague, CZ
06.03.2014 – Skydivers, Brides & Wheels, Chimera project, Budapest, HUN
28.02.2014 – Zo Zbierky GCM, The Cyprian Majernik Gallery, Bratislava, SK
08.02.2014 – Art Walk at Wynwood, Hangar Gallery, Miami, USA

18.12.2013 – Christmas Bestseller vol.5, SODA Gallery, Bratislava, SK
16.12.2013 – FRESHPOP, Roman Fecik Gallery, Bratislava, SK
11.12.2013 – Home sweet home, SODA Gallery, Bratislava, SK
07.12.2013 – ZERO YEARS, Freies Museum, Berlin, D
08.11.2013 – Contextual Art, The Cyprian Majernik Gallery, Bratislava, SK
20.09.2013 – Hommage a Peter Strassner III, Devin Castle Sculpture Exhibition, Bratislava, SK
14.09.2013 – ČESKO-SLOVENSKÉ HVĚZDY II, Gallery Miroslav Kubík, Litomyšl, CZ
12.09.2013 – TRKO, Trienále súčasného obrazu / Triennale of contemporary image, Kunsthalle Košice, SK
04.09.2013 – BODY VARU, Bludny kámen Gallery, Opava, CZ
17.07.2013 – Smalt art, Gallery Gong, Vítkovice, Ostrava, CZ
12.07.2013 – Creative Zone on Pohoda Festival: Trenčín
03.07.2013 – Opening of the new Kunsthalle, Unveiling of the public sculpture, Kunsthalle, Košice, SK
28.06.2013 – Open Studio, Bratislava, SK
27.06.2013 – Socha a objekt XVIII., The House of Arts, Bratislava, SK
25.06.2013 – CITY CODE, Slovak institute, Moscow, Sheremetevsky Palace, Sankt Peterburg, Russia
23.06.2013 – Perla dell Adriatico, Kursaal, Grottamarea, Italy
20.06.2013 – Ba City Beat Festival: Bratislava
17.01.2013 – Podozrivý voľný čas / Suspicious Free Time, Open Gallery, Bratislava, SK
08.01.2013 – BINDERFRESH, Wen Two Like You, The House of Arts, Bratislava, SK

12.12.2012 – Pod jedličkou, Gallery NOVA, Bratislava, SK
11.12.2012 – Christmas Bestseller 4, SODA Gallery, Bratislava, SK
28.11.2012 – Práce na papieri / Works on Paper, Gallery Z, Bratislava, SK
09.11.2012 – The Journey to St. Petersburg, Egbert Baqué Contemporary Art, Berlin, D
30.10.2012 – The Real Emotions at Muzeul Naţional de Artă Cluj, Cluj, Romania
28.09.2012 – Crazycurators Biennale 4, SPACE Gallery, Bratislava, SK
22.09.2012 – Hommage a Peter Strassner II, Devin Castle Sculpture Exhibition, Bratislava, SK
28.07.2012 – Intensivstation, Konzeptkunst aus Osteuropa, Endstation St. Josef, Königswinter, D
07.07.2012 – Sbírka Marek / The Marek Collection, The Moravian Gallery, Brno, CZ
06.07.2012 – Nové drevo: SNG on Pohoda Festival: Trenčín
30.06.2012 – We are still alive, Danubiana, Bratislava, SK
29.06.2012 – Socha a objekt XVII., Bratislava, SK
04.05.2012 – Binderfresh, Keď sa dvaja maju radi / When the two like each other, The Municipal Gallery Rimavská Sobota, SK
14.04.2012 – Balkón na Kudlákovej 5/ Balcony at Kudlakova St. 5, Cyprián Majerník Gallery, Bratislava, SK
10.04.2012 – Výstava zo zbierok MGRS / From the Collection of the Municipal Gallery Rimavská Sobota, SK
24.03.2012 – Zéró évek, Modern és Kortárs Művészeti Központ, Debrecen, HUN
24.03.2012 – Hommage a Markus Prachensky, Danubiana, Bratislava, SK
17.02.2012 – ObraSKovo nanovo / ObraSKovo Revisited, The Tatra Gallery, Poprad, SK

15.12.2011 – I Like, Binderfresh, Kressling gallery, Bratislava, SK
08.11.2011 – Zero Years, The House of Arts, Bratislava, SK
28.10.2011 – Bienale maľby III, The Municipal Gallery Rimavská Sobota, SK
20.10.2011 – Binderfrresh, animal live tour, The Oskar Čepán Award 2011, Bratislava, SK
02.10.2011 – Binderfresh, Fru Fru Gallery, Bratislava, SK
29.09.2011 – Binderfresh, Nuit BLanche, Kosice, SK
20.09.2011 – Sedmokrásky a klony / Daisies and Clones, The Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, SK
13.09.2011 – HOMMAGE À PICASSO”, Galerie de l’Institut Français, Bratislava, SK
14.09.2011 – Zero Years, The Art Gallery of Považie, Žilina, SK
16.08.2011 – L´Art Goulache, River gallery, Bratislava, SK
22.06.2011 – Socha a objekt XVI., Bratislava, SK
22.06.2011 – obraSkov, Contemporary Painting in Slovakia, Wannieck gallery, Brno, CZ
12.06.2011 – AMoYA, Museum of young art, Prague, CZ
19.05.2011 – PRAGUEBIENNALE 5, Whatever we do we cannot connect with you, Slovak section, Prague, CZ
03.05.2011 – VELOCYPEDIA, The NTK Gallery, Prague, CZ
03.05.2011 – Nový zlínsky salón 2011/ The New Zlin Salon 2011, Zlin, CZ
28.04.2011 – ELE-MENTA GESTURES, Houser-Frešo, Meetfactory, Prague, CZ
15.04.2011 – The opening of permanent display open depository, The Cyprián Majerník Gallery, Bratislava, SK
14.04.2011 – Contemporary Slovakian geometry2, The Municipal Gallery in Pilsen, Pilsen, CZ
02.02.2011 – La Part Manquante, Galerie Michel Journiac, Paris, F
24.02.2011 – Binderfresh, AM180, Prague, CZ

17.12.2010 – Kassapoint, Košice, SK
16.12.2010 – Artloop & Cultural Institute of the Republic of Hungary, Bratislava, SK
04.11.2010 – Yeasty medium, Slovak Photography 1990–2010, The House of Arts, Bratislava, SK
08.10.2010 – Mobilnale, Prague, CZ
02.10.2010 – Nuit Blanche, Košice, SK
25.06.2010 – Nenápadné médium/ Yeasty medium, The Cyprián Majerník Gallery, Bratislava, SK
25.06.2010 – art-now, Kasárne Kulturpark, Košice, SK
24.06.2010 – Socha a objekt XV., Bratislava, SK
03.06.2010 – KAS IR ČECHU MAKSLA. Kulturas centra Ilgumciems, Riga, Latvia
25.05.2010 – Transgression,Videotage// Asia’s New Media Art Collective Since, Hong Kong
25.03.2010 – scharfer blick, heises blut, Glaerie des Slowakischen Institut, Berlin, D
23.03.2010 – /+\=X, Cape Town, South Africa
25.02.2010 – Formate der Transformation 89-09, Museum auf Abruf, Vienna, AT
24.02.2010 – Nenápadné médium / Yeasty medium, The Eastern Slovakian Gallery, Košice, SK
04.02.2010 – 12X12 covers exhibition, 66 gallery, Prague, CZ

14.12.2009 – BIENÁLE MAĽBY II.. / The Painting Biennial, The Municipal Gallery Rimavská Sobota, SK
04.12.2009 – 1st Danube Biennale, Danubiana, Bratislava, SK
27.11.2009 – V4 sympozium, Egon Schiele Art Centrum, Česky Krumlov, CZ
17.11.2009 – Formáty transformace / Formats of Transformation, The House of Arts, Brno, CZ
13.11.2009 – DIPMASTER III, Galerie Stephanie Bender, Munich, D
16.09.2009 – The Exhibition of Oskar Čepán Award finalists, The Eastern Slovakian Gallery, Košice, SK
25.06.2009 – INTERTEXT, The Ján Koniarek Gallery, Trnava, SK
25.06.2009 – Socha a objekt XIV., Bratislava, SK
25.06.2009 – The Oskar Čepán Award 2009, Gallery medium, Bratislava, SK
04.06.2009 – Open Office, aircraft gallery, Bratislava, SK
21.05.2009 – Nenápadné médium/Yeasty Medium, The Art Gallery of Považie, Žilina, SK
20.05.2009 – SKÚTER II – bienále mladého umenia / The Biennial of Young Art, Trnava, SK
09.04.2009 – Black & White, Bratislava, SK
08.04.2009 – The exhibition of the permanent collection of modern and contemporary art, The National Gallery in Prague, Prague, CZ
19.03.2009 – Olejomaľba / Oil painting, The Cyprián Majerník Gallery, Bratislava, SK
12.03.2009 – Fifty- Fifty group, Gallery NOD, Prague, CZ
19.02.2009 – New entry, Kressling Gallery, Bratislava, SK
05.02.2009 – Contact, Contemporay Norwieg and Slovak Art, Oslo, Norway
05.02.2009 – Contact: Contemporay Norwieg and Slovak Art: Oslo
15.01.2009 – ENTROPA: Teamwork on the projects with David Černy, Brussels

05.12.2008 – Olejomaľba / Oil Painting, The Municipal Gallery Rimavská Sobota, SK
24.11.2008 – The language of homour, SOGA, Bratislava, SK
17.10.2008 – 1960 –> present time / slovak art + czech hosts, The City Gallery, Prague, CZ
03.10.2008 – BIG GRUPPEN HYBRID PAINTING SESSION, Prague, CZ
10.10.2008 – Jeune creation 08- Exposition internationale grande halle de la villette, Paris, F
14 08.2008 – CONTACT – Contemporary Norwegian and Slovak Art, Bratislava, SK
07.08.2008 – VIDEOART IS DEAD, Cell Gallery, Prague, CZ
06.07.2008 – IM HERZEN EUROPAS, Badhomburg, Germany
26.06.2008 – SOCHA A OBJEKT XIII., Bratislava, SK
19.06,2008 – Egoart, Case History,The Central Slovakian Gallery, Banska Bystrica, SK
04.06.2008 – INTRO 518 TEI 69 TEŽ TEI 180 BONUS Q TRACK!, Karlín studios, Prague, CZ
03.06.2008 – INTERNATIONAL TRIENNALE OF CONTEMPORARY ART, The National Gallery in Prague, Prague, CZ
17.05.2008 – Egoart, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, Vienna, AT, Bratislava, SK, Budapest, HUN
23.02.2008 – cesky videoart, po kunde ti upadne pero, aero cinema, Prague, CZ
19.02.2008 – Movement under Blava, site specific projekt: Bratislava

12.12.2007 – XYXX: Karlin studios, Prague, CZ
25.10.2007 – CZECHPOINT 2, Museum of Arts, Zilina, SK
03.10.2007 – Bio-power 2, C2C, Prague, CZ
20.09.2007 – S.O.S, Gallery Medium, Bratislava, SK
19.09.2007 – A4 – Sonata egoisticka, Popshop performance: Bratislava
07.09.2007 – Jesť sa musí / You have to eat, The Nitra Gallery, Nitra, SK
14.08.2007 – Bio-power, Gallery Medium, Bratislava, SK
27.05.2007 – PRAGUEBIENNALE 3, Prague, CZ
21.06.2007 – POHODA festival 2007
03.05.2007 – HDP, The City Gallery, Prague, CZ
26.02.2007 – ¼ MAGYAR, Liget gallery, Budapest, HUN
24.01.2007 – PitoreSKa Wannieck gallery, Brno, CZ
28.06.2007 – SOCHA A OBJEKT XII., Bratislava, SK
17.05.2007 – SKÚTER – prvé bienále sučastného slovenského umenia / 1st Biennial of contemporary Slovak art, Trnava, SK
08.08.2007 – Just between us, Karlín studios, Prague, CZ
08.02.2007 – Moc – Dominancia / Power – Domination, The Central Slovakian Gallery, Banská Bystrica, SK
11.01.2007 – Autovize, City Gallery Prague, Prague, CZ

06.12.2006 – Bazár, SPACE Gallery, Bratislava, SK
28.11.2006 – Fifty-Fifty group – Chaplin resident fighter, FUTURA, Prague, CZ
22.11.2006 – Sell me buy me, Galerie u Dobrého pastýře, Brno, CZ
01.11.2006 – CZECHPOINT, NoD Gallery, Prague, CZ
29.10.2006 – Memory day, Slovak Art Forum, Bratislava, SK
20.10.2006 – Transfer – Muzej savremene umenosti Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia
21.09.2006 – autobiographies, Secession Haus, Vienna, AT
20.09.2006 – for some seeds the meal is the end of the journey, Tranzit, Bratislava, SK
16.09.2006 – AIR CRUISER, Dunaújvaros, HUN
17.08.2006 – Tent of contemporary art, Piestany, SK
28.06.2006 – AIR CRUISER, Ustí nad Labem, CZ
22.06.2006 – Cibulák – Divadelny festival: Pezinok
25.05.2006 – RUNAWAY, SPACE Gallery, Bratislava, SK
08.05.2006 – AIR CRUISER, Forumstatpark, Graz, AT
22.03.2006 – Fifty-Fifty group – Ostblock, Wienstations, Vienna, AT
28.02.2006 – Fifty-Fifty group – Open studio, MuseumsQuartier: Wien
10.02.2006 – Fifty-Fifty group – presentation, MuseumsQuartier: Wien
16.02.2006 – Office art, C2c Gallery, Prague, CZ
26.01.2006 – Chlap, hrdina, duch, stroj – Egoart, Gallery Medium, Bratislava, SK

09.12.2005 – Bazár – Gallery Space: Bratislava.
09.12.2005 – Beauty free shop, Jungmannova str: Prague.
30.10.2005 – Sell me buy me, AVU Gallery: Prague.
29.09.2005 – Slovensky mýtus, Slovak National Gallery: Bratislava.
21.09.2005 – EGOART – 100 rokov reality,GMB City Gallery: Bratislava.
11.09.2005 – Market: Bratislava.
18.06.2005 – Hodokvas festival: Pezinok.
28.06.2005 – Beru si to osobne, Narrow Focus, Tranzit: Bratislava.
23.06.2005 – Vystava diplomovych prací, Veletržní palác, National Gallery: Prague.
23.06.2005 – Viktor Frešo kurátor: Žilina, Nitra, Trnava, Bratislava.
26.05.2005 – PRAGUEBIENNALE 2: Prague.
14.05.2005 – Blaspheme me – Utopiebaustelle Theaterplatz: Wiemar, Germany.
04.04.2005 – Konceptuální a intermediální tvorba: Prague.
01.04.2005 – Artist Bienale: Hong Kong.
21.03.2005 – Markéta Vanková: Prague.

09.12.2004 – Bazár, SPACE Gallery, Bratislava, SK
15.11.2004 – FOUR ROSES – Azorro group, Little Warshav, Kamera skura, Kunst-Fu, Bialystok, Poland.
09.10.2004 – BINDERFRESH – Autogramiáda, DK Vajnorská: Bratislava.
06.10.2004 – HOME PAGE – Daubner Gallery, Prague, CZ
01.10.2004 – Istroart, Medium Gallery, Bratislava, SK
14.09.2004 – BINDERFRESH – Erik Binder, Viktor Frešo, Open Gallery, Bratislava, SK
19.08.2004 – Hodokvas festival: Pezinok.
23.08.2004 – Workshop Kultur AXE: Gižycko, Poland.
11.06.2004 – XXX party, Nevertogether – Skrepl, Frešo, Mucska, Moyzes: Prague.
03.06.2004 – Error 1- Out of space, HIT Gallery, Bratislava, SK
22.05.2004 – Otváranie cementárne: Banská Bystrica.
23.04.2004 – Ber si to osobne / Take it personally, AM180, Prague, CZ
27.03.2004 – European media festival, Osnabrueck, Germany
20.03.2004 – New Media Art Festival, Bangkok, Thailand.
19.02.2004 – INTERNET FOR FREE – Egoart, HIT Gallery, Bratislava, SK

03.06.2004 – Error 1- Out of space, HIT Gallery, Bratislava, SK
23.04.2004 – Ber si to osobne / Take it personally, AM180, Prague, CZ
27.03.2004 – European media festival, Osnabrueck, Germany
20.03.2004 – New Media Art Festival, Bangkok, Thailand.
19.02.2004 – INTERNET FOR FREE – Egoart, HIT Gallery, Bratislava, SK

21.07.2003 – SCULPTURE GRANDE – Egoart: Prague
29.05.2003 – PRIVEĽA VÝNIMIEK – City Gallery: Žilina.
18.03.2003 – Vystava ateliéru Vladimíra Skrepla: Košice.
25.05.2003 – UNINISE – Mário Chromy, Viktor Frešo: Bratislava.
19.01.2003 – WORKSHOP – The school of the art institute of Chicago: Prague.
16.01.2003 – 281m2 – Václava Špála Gallery: Prague.

29.11.2002 – EGOART – V-klub, nám. SNP: Bratislava.
17.05.2002 – HEAVY METAL FOR SALE – Gallery Buryzon: Bratislava.
25.04.2002 – JOJO EFEKT: České Budejovice.

Awards and recognitions

Identification Code of Slovakia, Bratislava, SK

The Oskar Čepán Award finalist 2009, SK

Robert Schaberl

Robert Schaberl

Colours dance across the canvas, less like beams of light, more akin to flashes of lightning, iridescent and fleeting, crackling across smooth planes of colour.

Robert Schaberl’s works, in particular his Zentralformen, are comprised of thousands upon thousands of concentric circles built layer upon layer, one on top of the other. They radiate out from the centre of a circle like an infinitely expanding field. The work spreads out like a supernova before contracting back in on itself, only to reach out again, like the tides, an endless, organic, circular, rhythmic process of renewal.

In Schaberl’s work, each perfect circle is ringed with a fluorescent halo of colour, just visible around the edges of each smooth, luminescent disc, like the sun behind a lunar eclipse.

Colours dance across the canvas, less like beams of light, more akin to flashes of lightning, iridescent and fleeting, crackling across smooth planes of colour.

Robert Schaberl’s works, in particular his Zentralformen, are comprised of thousands upon thousands of concentric circles built layer upon layer, one on top of the other. They radiate out from the centre of a circle like an infinitely expanding field. The work spreads out like a supernova before contracting back in on itself, only to reach out again, like the tides, an endless, organic, circular, rhythmic process of renewal.

In Schaberl’s work, each perfect circle is ringed with a fluorescent halo of colour, just visible around the edges of each smooth, luminescent disc, like the sun behind a lunar eclipse.

Schaberl’s interest in colour – and its subsequent interplay with light – stems from a long-term fascination with movement. Before theZentralformen, his early oil on canvas works included an exploration of floating, lava-like forms and waterfalls, rippling across the surface with a focus on motion and space. He was fascinated with the way the shapes he painted appeared to move, and so he applied increasingly larger amounts of colour in order to enhance the effect. This reached a fever pitch when he realised that “I had gotten to a point where I had added so much colour that it was no longer music, in a sense, but just noise.” In attempting to use colour to initiate movement, he felt there was an ensuing barrage to the senses which completely overshadowed the nuances he was trying to achieve. This prompted Schaberl to strip back completely, subsequently working only in monochrome shades of black and grey. During this period Schaberl began to notice the way in which the pigment black absorbs all other colours, facilitating experimentation with the reflection and refraction of light. Instead of adding different colours together, he explored the ratio of linseed oil mixed in with his paint. The oil gave shininess to the paint, and so by adding differing quantities to the pigment, Schaberl was able to create different modulations of glossiness. At the same time, he began to experiment with the idea of the circle – creating the Zentralformen. This circular form allowed Schaberl to further push the boundaries of colour and light due to its unique optical properties. “The circle also gives a lot of room for interpretation,” he muses. “It is the universe, the sun, eternity. It is the shape of growth – like the rings of a tree – almost everything in nature grows out from a central point. On the other hand, the circle stands for technical evolution – think of the wheel, and all subsequent mechanical innovations.” The varying degrees of glossiness and the subsequent reflection and refraction of light achieved through the central focus provided by the circle marked a seminal point in Schaberl’s practice.

It was seven years later in 2000 when Schaberl came across Iriodin – an industrial pearl lustre pigment used in everything from car manufacturing to the cosmetics industry – and a watershed moment occurred. “The incorporation of Iriodin allowed me to really explore the optical properties of the work, and, more importantly, by combining it with regular paint, I was able to create hues that change colour.” With Iriodin, Schaberl began the precise alchemical process with which he calculates the colour combination for his works. The paint is applied by laying the canvas on a turning pivot, rather like a potter’s wheel. Schaberl then spins each work by hand while painstakingly applying layer upon layer of paint, often starting with a fluorescent base, which gives many of his works their characteristic brightly coloured ‘halo’. He then alternates gloss paint with Iriodin-enhanced colours, carefully gauging the amounts in order to create the precise effect he has in mind. “Different layers of colour affect each other – a blue layer with a grey base, for example, will produce a different effect to another blue one and is the difference between producing a deep purple or a soft violet. This allows for endless options – each colour can be a whole new spectrum.”The end result is paintings that change colour depending on where the viewer is standing, sometimes in subtle shades, such as from royal blue to a deep purple, and at other times in more contrasting tones, such as a rich gold through to a vibrant coppery red.The final effect is of light dancing across the surface and a gradual fluctuation of colour, rather akin to the sheen of a CD or LP record, or the rings of a tree. This use of the pigment was completely unprecedented, and led to a subsequent collaboration with largescale pigment manufacturer Merck, who supported Schaberl to do create a special façade for the Graz University of Technology in Austria.

For Schaberl, the play of colour between the artwork and the viewer is precisely the crux of his work. When you view the work straight on, you see a circle of full colour. “Perhaps a texture to the surface attracts you,” he explains. “but as soon as you move closer, or move to the side, you begin to feel your own presence in the space.” It is this environment and the involvement of the viewer in the work that completes the circle. In this sense, with these “Zentralformen” all viewers will see different colour within the work, depending on their position. “I’ve gone from seeking to create movement within my work to allowing for movement of the viewer who looks at the work and their interaction with it.” Indeed, the sophistication and complexity of the work suggests that the viewer plays and integral role in its interpretation.

In Spectrum of Light, Schaberl’s works have a new, even more intricate, modulation of colour. The colour pulses outwards from the centre of each circle like radials, a supernova of colour that expands and contracts depending on the viewer, as if the painting were breathing in and out. A finely-honed technique over the years, a deepened understanding of how the materials operate and interact combined with innovations in Iriodin has led to a new level of optical complexity. To accomplish the effect, Schaberl likens the technique to weaving. Where he would normally apply a thin, uniform layer of either Iriodin or regular paint, building up layer upon layer of either colour or Iriodin pigment, he now uses both Iriodin and colour within each layer in order to attempt to create both a pulsating movement and the magic of the sweeping change of colour across the whole work.

Schaberl’s appreciation of the viewer’s role can be likened to James Turrell in the way that Schaberl uses our sense of space and depth to challenge existing understandings of light and colour experiences and the way that our brain is programmed to process them. Schaberl explains; “Your mind is full of experiences with colours, and you have filed them away accordingly – for example, the sky is blue, water is blue.” Both Schaberl and Turrell are interested in how we understand colours in certain contexts, for instance, how blue ‘behaves’. Upon looking at Schaberl’s works, however, the mind is forced to question itself, for the rules of colour are taken out of context. “You see people come up close, then move further away, and you can witness them trying to readjust their sense of perception and the stored associations they have in their mind of experience, colour, light, surface and material.” For Schaberl the ultimate goal is to get people involved in experiencing these behaviours.” As an experiential process, with no one to see the change of colour and light, the circuit cannot be completed, and nor can the work.

Without light there is no colour, yet here, Schaberl tells us, without us there is neither – the very immateriality of what we thought we knew and what we experience means that the work is not what we see painted on the canvas, but, rather, exists only in the moment that we view it.

Robert Schaberl

Born in 1961 in Feldbach, Steiermark, A

EDUCATION

1979-85 studies at the Hochschule Mozarteum painting and art education

AWARDS

2007 First prize competition „Kunst und Bau”, art project for new chemistry building of the TechnicalUniversity,Graz (3000 qm large glass façade,designed by the artist)
1997 Awarded a state grant for the Arts by the Austrian Ministry for the Arts
1993-94 Awarded the “Softlab-Kulturpartnerschaft”- prize sponsored by Softlab (Vienna)
1984 First prize for original ideas in the international competition “Klangmaschinen- wettbewerb”, Dornbirn, Austria

ART IN PUBLIC SPACE

2007 3000 qm large glass façade art project for new chemistry building of the Technical University,Graz

2022 Galerie Leonhard , Graz, A  L.
Art Galerie, Spark Art Fair 2022 Vienna, A
2021 Panarte Galerie, “Zentralformen” , Wien, A
Panarte Galerie, “Robert Schaberl”  Parallel Art Fair, Wien, A The Columns Gallery, “Central Forms”  Singapore SG
2020 The Columns Gallery, Seoul, KOR
2019 Kugelmühle “Mühldorf” , Feldbach A Galerie Leonhard , Graz, A 
2017 The Columns Gallery, “Robert Schaberl”, Seoul , KOR
The Columns Gallery, “Robert Schaberl” Art Busan, Busan , KOR
2016 Kunsthalle Feldbach,” Robert Schaberl – Zentralformen”, Feldbach, A
AAC Palais Breuner, ” (De)Zentral” , Wien, A
2015 Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
2014 Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, London, UK
2013 Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, CH
Galerie im Fritz Winter Atelier, Diessen, D
2012 Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, CH
Galerie Lausberg,Toronto, CA
Galerie K, Paris, F
2011 Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
2010 Galerie Gölles, Fürstenfeld, A
Villa di Donato, Napoli, 
Galerie allerArt Bludenz, Bludenz , A
2009 Galerie Lausberg, Düsseldorf, D
2007 Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, CH
Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
2006 Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, NewYork, USA
Karpio-Facchini Gallery, Miami, USA
Zurich, Gallery Kashya Hildebrand , CH
2005 Galerie Bernhard Knaus, Mannheim, D
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, CH
2004 Galerie Weber, Wiesbaden, D
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San Jose, Costa Rica
Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum Graz, A
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, New York, USA
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Geneve, CH
2002 Galerie H.Curtze, Vienna, A
Stadtmuseum Graz, Ansichtssache, A
2001 Silvana Facchini Gallery, Miami, USA
2000 Galerie Weber, Wiesbaden, D
1998 Galerie H.Curtze,Vienna, A
Trinity College -Hartford University, Hartford, USA
Kultur Brauerei, Berliner Festwochen 98, Berlin, D
Burgtheater – Casino am Schwarzenbergplatz, Wien, A
1995 Galerie Steinek with Helmut Rainer, Wien, A
Gallery Steinek-Halle, Wien, A
1994 Galerie 5020, Salzburg, A
1993 Softlab(Softlab-Kulturpartnerschaft , Wien, A
1992 University for Economics Wien, Wien, A
1991 Austrian Trade Commision, Paris, F
Staatliche Gemäldegalerie, Moskau, GUS
Baku Arts Centre , Baku, GUS
1990 K’ArtGallery, Paris, F
1989 IBM-CenterWien, A
1987 Galerie in der Künstlerhauspassage, Wien, A
1984 Galerie Eboran, Salzburg, A

2022 Galerie Gölles, “Paint it Green”, Fürstenfeld, A
L.Art Galerie, “360°Special”, Salzburg,
2021 Galerie Lin Deletaille, Brusseles, B
Galerie Artecont, Vienna, A
Galerie Weihergut, Salzburg, A
Albertina Museum, “Wonderland”,  Vienna, A 
Centrul de Interes, “Monochrome Stories-Antal–Lusztig Collection, Debrecen”, Cluj-Napoca, ROU
Wei-Ling Contemporary Gallery, “Aesthetics of Silence”, Kuala Lumpur, MYS
Galerie Leonhard, Graz,  A
L.Art Galerie, “Winter Special”, Salzburg A
Vienna Art Week, House of losing Control, Vienna, A
2020 Gerberhaus Fehring, “Steirische Breite III, Fehring , A
Galerie Artemons Contemporary ” Einzelstücke ” Wien , A
2019 Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus, A
2018 Jacob Karpio Galeria, Bogota, COL
Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus, A 
2017 Lentos Museum Linz, “STARS – Cosmic Art from 1900 up to the Present” ; Linz, A
Galerie Deletaille, “The Evolution of Pigments”, Brüssel, BEL
2016 Museum Liaunig, ” Augen-Blicke -Neuerwerbungen ” ,Neuhaus, A
“UNICH” Con – and Temporary Art Space , Munich , D
Galerie Gölles, „Alfred Haberpointner – Robert Schaberl“ Fürstenfeld, A
Galerie Hollenbach, “Lichtbild”, Stuttgart, D
Galerie im Fritz Winter Atelier, “TRAUEN SIE IHREN AUGEN NICHT!”, Diessen, D
“OFF IS” Temporary Art Space
Galerie Gölles, „ein Original von ….IV“, Fürstenfeld, A
Galerie Hollenbach, “Arbeiten auf Papier”, Stuttgart, D
2015 Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, London, UK
Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
Galerie Gölles, Fürstenfeld, A
Frederick R Weisman Museum of Art, Malibu, USA
Loft 8, mit Andras Gal, Wien, A
2014 Kunsthalle Feldbach, Feldbach, A
2013 Galerie Lausberg, Düsseldorf, D
Villa Donato, Napoli, I
2012 Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus, A
Vasarely Museum, Budapest, H
2011 Galerie Lausberg,Toronto, CA
2010 Villa Rot, Burgrieden, D
Galerie Lausberg,Toronto, CA
2009 Galerie Lausberg,Toronto, CA
Galerie Lausberg, Düsseldorf, D
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, CH
2008 Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, A
Karlskirche, Wien, A, Galerie Eugen Lendl, Graz, A
Galeria Karpio, San José, Costa Rica
2007 Galerie Eugen Lendl, Graz, A
2006 Karpio+Facchini Gallery, Miami, USA
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, CH
Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
Galerie Lausberg, Düsseldorf, D
Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Stift Admont, Steiermark, A
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Gstaad, CH
2005 Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, A
Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Admont, A
Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, NewYork, USA
Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
Kashya Hildebrand Gallery,Geneva, CH
Museum moderner Kunst Kärnten, Klagenfurt, A
2004 Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, Geneva, CH
Galerie Bernhard Knaus, Mannheim, D
Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, NewYork, USA
Frederick R.Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University, Malibu, USA
Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, NewYork, USA
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, USA
2003 Silvana Facchini Gallery, Miami, USA
Galerie Heike Curtze, Salzburg,A
Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San Jose, Costa Rica
2002 Silvana Facchini Gallery, Miami, USA
Galerie Lendl, Graz, A
Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, D
Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
Galerie Heike Curtze, Salzburg, A
2001 Museum auf Abruf, Vienna, A
Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, A
2000 Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
Galerie Heike Curtze, Salzburg, A
1999 Galerie Heike Curtze, Salzburg, A
Galerie Heike Curtze, Vienna, A
1998 Galerie Heike Curtze, Salzburg, A
Centre Borschette, Brussels, BE
1997 Galerie Steinek,Vienna, A
Galerie Lendl, Graz, A
Galerie Heike Curtze,Vienna, A
1996 Galerie Steinek,Vienna, A
Austrian Parliament,Vienna, A
1995 Galerie Uluv, Prague, CZ
Galerie of Modern Art, Königgrätz, CZ
Regional Galerie, Iglau, CZ
Galerie Maecenas, Pilsen, CZ
1990 Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, A
Galerie Eboran, Salzburg, A
1989 Michael Walls Gallery, NewYork, USA,
1988 Michael Walls Gallery, NewYork, USA
Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, A
1987 Galerie Hoschek, Graz, A
1986 Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, A
1984 Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, A
Stadhalle, Dornbirn, A

Abu Dhabi Art, Arco Madrid, Armory Show NewYork, Arte Americas, Art Basel, Art Basel Miami, Art Brussels, Arte Buenos Aires, Art Chicago, Art Dubai, Art Fair Köln, Art Forum Berlin, Art Hong Kong, Art London, Arte Fiera Bologna, Art Frankfurt, Art Karlsruhe, Art Miami, Art Palm Beach, Art Stage Singapore, ArtTaipei, ArtToronto, Art Wynwood Miami, Houston Fine Art Fair, KIAF Seoul, Kunst Zürich, Los Angeles Art Show, MACO Mexico City, MAK-Wien, Scope Basel, Scope Miami, BRAFA Art Fair, Shanghai Contemporary, ViennAfair

Albertina Museum Wien, A
Sammlung Artothek des Bundes, A
Sammlung der Stadt Wien, A
MUSA- Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst in Wien
Museum Neue Galerie Graz, A
Sammlung des Landes Steiermark, A
Strabag Art Foundation A
Boston Consulting Group D
Frederick R.Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, USA
Neiman Marcus Collection, USA
Bovet Collection, CH/ USA
Collection Diursa, Spain
Collection M. Coleman in Chicago, USA
Collection Saks 5th Avenue New York, USA C
Sammlung Leder und Schuh, A
Sammlung Museum Liaunig, A
Sammlung Wojda, A
Sammlung Museum für Gegenwartskunst am Benediktinerstift Admont, A
Antal–Lusztig Collection, Debrecen, H
Museum of Fine Arts Budapest,

Schaberl’s interest in colour – and its subsequent interplay with light – stems from a long-term fascination with movement. Before theZentralformen, his early oil on canvas works included an exploration of floating, lava-like forms and waterfalls, rippling across the surface with a focus on motion and space. He was fascinated with the way the shapes he painted appeared to move, and so he applied increasingly larger amounts of colour in order to enhance the effect. This reached a fever pitch when he realised that “I had gotten to a point where I had added so much colour that it was no longer music, in a sense, but just noise.” In attempting to use colour to initiate movement, he felt there was an ensuing barrage to the senses which completely overshadowed the nuances he was trying to achieve. This prompted Schaberl to strip back completely, subsequently working only in monochrome shades of black and grey. During this period Schaberl began to notice the way in which the pigment black absorbs all other colours, facilitating experimentation with the reflection and refraction of light. Instead of adding different colours together, he explored the ratio of linseed oil mixed in with his paint. The oil gave shininess to the paint, and so by adding differing quantities to the pigment, Schaberl was able to create different modulations of glossiness. At the same time, he began to experiment with the idea of the circle – creating the Zentralformen. This circular form allowed Schaberl to further push the boundaries of colour and light due to its unique optical properties. “The circle also gives a lot of room for interpretation,” he muses. “It is the universe, the sun, eternity. It is the shape of growth – like the rings of a tree – almost everything in nature grows out from a central point. On the other hand, the circle stands for technical evolution – think of the wheel, and all subsequent mechanical innovations.” The varying degrees of glossiness and the subsequent reflection and refraction of light achieved through the central focus provided by the circle marked a seminal point in Schaberl’s practice.

It was seven years later in 2000 when Schaberl came across Iriodin – an industrial pearl lustre pigment used in everything from car manufacturing to the cosmetics industry – and a watershed moment occurred. “The incorporation of Iriodin allowed me to really explore the optical properties of the work, and, more importantly, by combining it with regular paint, I was able to create hues that change colour.” With Iriodin, Schaberl began the precise alchemical process with which he calculates the colour combination for his works. The paint is applied by laying the canvas on a turning pivot, rather like a potter’s wheel. Schaberl then spins each work by hand while painstakingly applying layer upon layer of paint, often starting with a fluorescent base, which gives many of his works their characteristic brightly coloured ‘halo’. He then alternates gloss paint with Iriodin-enhanced colours, carefully gauging the amounts in order to create the precise effect he has in mind. “Different layers of colour affect each other – a blue layer with a grey base, for example, will produce a different effect to another blue one and is the difference between producing a deep purple or a soft violet. This allows for endless options – each colour can be a whole new spectrum.”The end result is paintings that change colour depending on where the viewer is standing, sometimes in subtle shades, such as from royal blue to a deep purple, and at other times in more contrasting tones, such as a rich gold through to a vibrant coppery red.The final effect is of light dancing across the surface and a gradual fluctuation of colour, rather akin to the sheen of a CD or LP record, or the rings of a tree. This use of the pigment was completely unprecedented, and led to a subsequent collaboration with largescale pigment manufacturer Merck, who supported Schaberl to do create a special façade for the Graz University of Technology in Austria.

For Schaberl, the play of colour between the artwork and the viewer is precisely the crux of his work. When you view the work straight on, you see a circle of full colour. “Perhaps a texture to the surface attracts you,” he explains. “but as soon as you move closer, or move to the side, you begin to feel your own presence in the space.” It is this environment and the involvement of the viewer in the work that completes the circle. In this sense, with these “Zentralformen” all viewers will see different colour within the work, depending on their position. “I’ve gone from seeking to create movement within my work to allowing for movement of the viewer who looks at the work and their interaction with it.” Indeed, the sophistication and complexity of the work suggests that the viewer plays and integral role in its interpretation.

In Spectrum of Light, Schaberl’s works have a new, even more intricate, modulation of colour. The colour pulses outwards from the centre of each circle like radials, a supernova of colour that expands and contracts depending on the viewer, as if the painting were breathing in and out. A finely-honed technique over the years, a deepened understanding of how the materials operate and interact combined with innovations in Iriodin has led to a new level of optical complexity. To accomplish the effect, Schaberl likens the technique to weaving. Where he would normally apply a thin, uniform layer of either Iriodin or regular paint, building up layer upon layer of either colour or Iriodin pigment, he now uses both Iriodin and colour within each layer in order to attempt to create both a pulsating movement and the magic of the sweeping change of colour across the whole work.

Schaberl’s appreciation of the viewer’s role can be likened to James Turrell in the way that Schaberl uses our sense of space and depth to challenge existing understandings of light and colour experiences and the way that our brain is programmed to process them. Schaberl explains; “Your mind is full of experiences with colours, and you have filed them away accordingly – for example, the sky is blue, water is blue.” Both Schaberl and Turrell are interested in how we understand colours in certain contexts, for instance, how blue ‘behaves’. Upon looking at Schaberl’s works, however, the mind is forced to question itself, for the rules of colour are taken out of context. “You see people come up close, then move further away, and you can witness them trying to readjust their sense of perception and the stored associations they have in their mind of experience, colour, light, surface and material.” For Schaberl the ultimate goal is to get people involved in experiencing these behaviours.” As an experiential process, with no one to see the change of colour and light, the circuit cannot be completed, and nor can the work.

Without light there is no colour, yet here, Schaberl tells us, without us there is neither – the very immateriality of what we thought we knew and what we experience means that the work is not what we see painted on the canvas, but, rather, exists only in the moment that we view it.

Robert Schaberl

Born in 1961 in Feldbach, Steiermark, A

EDUCATION

1979-85 studies at the Hochschule Mozarteum painting and art education

AWARDS

2007 First prize competition „Kunst und Bau”, art project for new chemistry building of the TechnicalUniversity,Graz (3000 qm large glass façade,designed by the artist)
1997 Awarded a state grant for the Arts by the Austrian Ministry for the Arts
1993-94 Awarded the “Softlab-Kulturpartnerschaft”- prize sponsored by Softlab (Vienna)
1984 First prize for original ideas in the international competition “Klangmaschinen- wettbewerb”, Dornbirn, Austria

ART IN PUBLIC SPACE

2007 3000 qm large glass façade art project for new chemistry building of the Technical University,Graz

2022 Galerie Leonhard , Graz, A  L.
Art Galerie, Spark Art Fair 2022 Vienna, A
2021 Panarte Galerie, “Zentralformen” , Wien, A
Panarte Galerie, “Robert Schaberl”  Parallel Art Fair, Wien, A The Columns Gallery, “Central Forms”  Singapore SG
2020 The Columns Gallery, Seoul, KOR
2019 Kugelmühle “Mühldorf” , Feldbach A Galerie Leonhard , Graz, A 
2017 The Columns Gallery, “Robert Schaberl”, Seoul , KOR
The Columns Gallery, “Robert Schaberl” Art Busan, Busan , KOR
2016 Kunsthalle Feldbach,” Robert Schaberl – Zentralformen”, Feldbach, A
AAC Palais Breuner, ” (De)Zentral” , Wien, A
2015 Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
2014 Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, London, UK
2013 Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, CH
Galerie im Fritz Winter Atelier, Diessen, D
2012 Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, CH
Galerie Lausberg,Toronto, CA
Galerie K, Paris, F
2011 Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
2010 Galerie Gölles, Fürstenfeld, A
Villa di Donato, Napoli, 
Galerie allerArt Bludenz, Bludenz , A
2009 Galerie Lausberg, Düsseldorf, D
2007 Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, CH
Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
2006 Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, NewYork, USA
Karpio-Facchini Gallery, Miami, USA
Zurich, Gallery Kashya Hildebrand , CH
2005 Galerie Bernhard Knaus, Mannheim, D
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, CH
2004 Galerie Weber, Wiesbaden, D
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San Jose, Costa Rica
Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum Graz, A
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, New York, USA
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Geneve, CH
2002 Galerie H.Curtze, Vienna, A
Stadtmuseum Graz, Ansichtssache, A
2001 Silvana Facchini Gallery, Miami, USA
2000 Galerie Weber, Wiesbaden, D
1998 Galerie H.Curtze,Vienna, A
Trinity College -Hartford University, Hartford, USA
Kultur Brauerei, Berliner Festwochen 98, Berlin, D
Burgtheater – Casino am Schwarzenbergplatz, Wien, A
1995 Galerie Steinek with Helmut Rainer, Wien, A
Gallery Steinek-Halle, Wien, A
1994 Galerie 5020, Salzburg, A
1993 Softlab(Softlab-Kulturpartnerschaft , Wien, A
1992 University for Economics Wien, Wien, A
1991 Austrian Trade Commision, Paris, F
Staatliche Gemäldegalerie, Moskau, GUS
Baku Arts Centre , Baku, GUS
1990 K’ArtGallery, Paris, F
1989 IBM-CenterWien, A
1987 Galerie in der Künstlerhauspassage, Wien, A
1984 Galerie Eboran, Salzburg, A

2022 Galerie Gölles, “Paint it Green”, Fürstenfeld, A
L.Art Galerie, “360°Special”, Salzburg,
2021 Galerie Lin Deletaille, Brusseles, B
Galerie Artecont, Vienna, A
Galerie Weihergut, Salzburg, A
Albertina Museum, “Wonderland”,  Vienna, A 
Centrul de Interes, “Monochrome Stories-Antal–Lusztig Collection, Debrecen”, Cluj-Napoca, ROU
Wei-Ling Contemporary Gallery, “Aesthetics of Silence”, Kuala Lumpur, MYS
Galerie Leonhard, Graz,  A
L.Art Galerie, “Winter Special”, Salzburg A
Vienna Art Week, House of losing Control, Vienna, A
2020 Gerberhaus Fehring, “Steirische Breite III, Fehring , A
Galerie Artemons Contemporary ” Einzelstücke ” Wien , A
2019 Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus, A
2018 Jacob Karpio Galeria, Bogota, COL
Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus, A 
2017 Lentos Museum Linz, “STARS – Cosmic Art from 1900 up to the Present” ; Linz, A
Galerie Deletaille, “The Evolution of Pigments”, Brüssel, BEL
2016 Museum Liaunig, ” Augen-Blicke -Neuerwerbungen ” ,Neuhaus, A
“UNICH” Con – and Temporary Art Space , Munich , D
Galerie Gölles, „Alfred Haberpointner – Robert Schaberl“ Fürstenfeld, A
Galerie Hollenbach, “Lichtbild”, Stuttgart, D
Galerie im Fritz Winter Atelier, “TRAUEN SIE IHREN AUGEN NICHT!”, Diessen, D
“OFF IS” Temporary Art Space
Galerie Gölles, „ein Original von ….IV“, Fürstenfeld, A
Galerie Hollenbach, “Arbeiten auf Papier”, Stuttgart, D
2015 Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, London, UK
Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
Galerie Gölles, Fürstenfeld, A
Frederick R Weisman Museum of Art, Malibu, USA
Loft 8, mit Andras Gal, Wien, A
2014 Kunsthalle Feldbach, Feldbach, A
2013 Galerie Lausberg, Düsseldorf, D
Villa Donato, Napoli, I
2012 Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus, A
Vasarely Museum, Budapest, H
2011 Galerie Lausberg,Toronto, CA
2010 Villa Rot, Burgrieden, D
Galerie Lausberg,Toronto, CA
2009 Galerie Lausberg,Toronto, CA
Galerie Lausberg, Düsseldorf, D
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, CH
2008 Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, A
Karlskirche, Wien, A, Galerie Eugen Lendl, Graz, A
Galeria Karpio, San José, Costa Rica
2007 Galerie Eugen Lendl, Graz, A
2006 Karpio+Facchini Gallery, Miami, USA
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, CH
Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
Galerie Lausberg, Düsseldorf, D
Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Stift Admont, Steiermark, A
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Gstaad, CH
2005 Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, A
Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Admont, A
Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, NewYork, USA
Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
Kashya Hildebrand Gallery,Geneva, CH
Museum moderner Kunst Kärnten, Klagenfurt, A
2004 Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, Geneva, CH
Galerie Bernhard Knaus, Mannheim, D
Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, NewYork, USA
Frederick R.Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University, Malibu, USA
Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, NewYork, USA
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, USA
2003 Silvana Facchini Gallery, Miami, USA
Galerie Heike Curtze, Salzburg,A
Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San Jose, Costa Rica
2002 Silvana Facchini Gallery, Miami, USA
Galerie Lendl, Graz, A
Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, D
Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
Galerie Heike Curtze, Salzburg, A
2001 Museum auf Abruf, Vienna, A
Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, A
2000 Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart, D
Galerie Heike Curtze, Salzburg, A
1999 Galerie Heike Curtze, Salzburg, A
Galerie Heike Curtze, Vienna, A
1998 Galerie Heike Curtze, Salzburg, A
Centre Borschette, Brussels, BE
1997 Galerie Steinek,Vienna, A
Galerie Lendl, Graz, A
Galerie Heike Curtze,Vienna, A
1996 Galerie Steinek,Vienna, A
Austrian Parliament,Vienna, A
1995 Galerie Uluv, Prague, CZ
Galerie of Modern Art, Königgrätz, CZ
Regional Galerie, Iglau, CZ
Galerie Maecenas, Pilsen, CZ
1990 Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, A
Galerie Eboran, Salzburg, A
1989 Michael Walls Gallery, NewYork, USA,
1988 Michael Walls Gallery, NewYork, USA
Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, A
1987 Galerie Hoschek, Graz, A
1986 Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, A
1984 Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, A
Stadhalle, Dornbirn, A

Abu Dhabi Art, Arco Madrid, Armory Show NewYork, Arte Americas, Art Basel, Art Basel Miami, Art Brussels, Arte Buenos Aires, Art Chicago, Art Dubai, Art Fair Köln, Art Forum Berlin, Art Hong Kong, Art London, Arte Fiera Bologna, Art Frankfurt, Art Karlsruhe, Art Miami, Art Palm Beach, Art Stage Singapore, ArtTaipei, ArtToronto, Art Wynwood Miami, Houston Fine Art Fair, KIAF Seoul, Kunst Zürich, Los Angeles Art Show, MACO Mexico City, MAK-Wien, Scope Basel, Scope Miami, BRAFA Art Fair, Shanghai Contemporary, ViennAfair

Albertina Museum Wien, A
Sammlung Artothek des Bundes, A
Sammlung der Stadt Wien, A
MUSA- Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst in Wien
Museum Neue Galerie Graz, A
Sammlung des Landes Steiermark, A
Strabag Art Foundation A
Boston Consulting Group D
Frederick R.Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, USA
Neiman Marcus Collection, USA
Bovet Collection, CH/ USA
Collection Diursa, Spain
Collection M. Coleman in Chicago, USA
Collection Saks 5th Avenue New York, USA C
Sammlung Leder und Schuh, A
Sammlung Museum Liaunig, A
Sammlung Wojda, A
Sammlung Museum für Gegenwartskunst am Benediktinerstift Admont, A
Antal–Lusztig Collection, Debrecen, H
Museum of Fine Arts Budapest,

Gary Taxali

Gary Taxali

Gary Taxali is an award-winning illustrator and fine artist. Gary has worked for clients including Time, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, GQ and The New York Times. He has exhibited in many galleries and museums throughout North America and Europe including The Jonathan LeVine Gallery, MondoPOP Gallery, The Antonio Colombo Gallery, Steve Lazarides’ gallery, The Outsiders, The Andy Warhol Museum, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, and The Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators. He lives and works in Toronto, Canada.

In 2005, he launched his first vinyl toy, The Toy Monkey, which included a special edition along with a silkscreen print commissioned by The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. This led Gary to create his own toy company, Chump Toys, which coincided with the release of his OH NO and OH OH vinyl figures. In January 2012, The Royal Canadian Mint released 6 Gary Taxali limited edition 25¢ coins. In 2013 and 2014, Gary released three series of Italian silk pocket squares through Harry Rosen in Canada.

Gary created the cover art and inside illustrations for Aimee Mann’s album @#%&*! Smilers, which earned a 2009 Grammy Award Nomination for Best Art Package. He has also won hundreds of other awards including a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators, a Gold Medal from the National Magazine Awards Foundation, a Regional and National Gold Addy, a Shortlist Nomination for a Cannes Lion, and numerous awards from American Illustration, Communication Arts Illustration Annual, Print, Society of Publication Designers, The Chicago Creative Club and The Advertising and Design Club of Canada.

Gary Taxali is an award-winning illustrator and fine artist. Gary has worked for clients including Time, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, GQ and The New York Times. He has exhibited in many galleries and museums throughout North America and Europe including The Jonathan LeVine Gallery, MondoPOP Gallery, The Antonio Colombo Gallery, Steve Lazarides’ gallery, The Outsiders, The Andy Warhol Museum, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, and The Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators. He lives and works in Toronto, Canada.

In 2005, he launched his first vinyl toy, The Toy Monkey, which included a special edition along with a silkscreen print commissioned by The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. This led Gary to create his own toy company, Chump Toys, which coincided with the release of his OH NO and OH OH vinyl figures. In January 2012, The Royal Canadian Mint released 6 Gary Taxali limited edition 25¢ coins. In 2013 and 2014, Gary released three series of Italian silk pocket squares through Harry Rosen in Canada.

Gary created the cover art and inside illustrations for Aimee Mann’s album @#%&*! Smilers, which earned a 2009 Grammy Award Nomination for Best Art Package. He has also won hundreds of other awards including a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators, a Gold Medal from the National Magazine Awards Foundation, a Regional and National Gold Addy, a Shortlist Nomination for a Cannes Lion, and numerous awards from American Illustration, Communication Arts Illustration Annual, Print, Society of Publication Designers, The Chicago Creative Club and The Advertising and Design Club of Canada.

In 2010, his first children’s book entitled “This Is Silly!” was published by Scholastic Press and In 2011, 2 monographs of his works were released by 2 different publishers. “I Love You, OK?” by teNeues Publishing in Germany and “Mono Taxali by 24_9 Publishing in Italy.

Aside from his gallery shows and illustration work, Gary also devotes a portion of his time teaching and lecturing at various arts organizations and schools such as OCAD University (Toronto, Canada), where in 2014 he was appointed to a tenured position. He has also taught/lectured at The Art Director’s Club of Houston (Houston, USA), Dankmarks Designskole (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Istituto Europeo Di Design (Rome, Italy), SKAD (Hong Kong), The University of the Arts (Philadelphia, USA) and the National Institute of Design (Bangalore, India). He is a Founding Member of IPA (The Illustrators’ Partnership of America) and sits on the Advisory Board of 3×3: The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration. Gary has also juried many student and professional competitions including The Society of Illustrators, The National Magazine Awards, The Dallas Society of Visual Communications and 3×3: The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration.

Gary Taxali is an award-winning illustrator, artist, author and toy designer.

His work has appeared in many major magazines such as The New York Times, Newsweek, GQ and others.

He has exhibited in many galleries and museums throughout North America and Europe including The Jonathan LeVine Gallery.

In 2005, he launched his first vinyl toy, The Toy Monkey, which included a special edition along with a silkscreen print commissioned by The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. This led Gary to create his own toy company, Chump Toys, which recently saw the release of his OH NO and OH OH vinyl figures.[showhide type=”more2″ more_text=”Read More (%s More Words)” less_text=”Read Less (%s More Words)”]

Aside from his gallery shows and illustration work, Gary also devotes a portion of his time teaching and lecturing at various arts organizations and schools such as OCAD University (Toronto, Canada), The Art Director’s Club of Houston (Houston, USA), Dankmarks Designskole (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Istituto Europeo Di Design (Rome, Italy) . He is a Founding Member of IPA (The Illustrators’ Partnership of America) and sits on the Advisory Board of 3×3: The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration.

Gary has also juried many student and professional competitions including The Society of Illustrators, The National Magazine Awards, The Dallas Society of Visual Communications and 3×3: The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration. Gary created the cover art and inside illustrations for Aimee Mann’s latest album @#%&*! Smilers, which won a 2009 Grammy Award Nomination for Best Package Design.

CLIENTS

Rolling Stone, GQ, Esquire, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Fast Company, Reader’s Digest, Business Week, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Converse, Levi’s, Sony, McSweeny’s, MTV, Coca-Cola

PARTIAL BOOK LIST OF SELECTED WORKS/WRITINGS OF GARY TAXALI

Hively, Charles, “3X3: The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration – Vol 1, #”, Charles Hively Publisher, 2003, ISBN 1546-640X
Hyland, Angus; Bell, Roanne, “Hand to Eye: Contemporary Illustration”, Laurence King Publishing, 2003, ISBN 1-85669-339-2
Hazelmyer, Tom, “Qeedrophonic”. OX-OP Press, 2004, ISBN 0-9758579-0-8
Jordan, Matt Dukes, “Weirdo Deluxe”, Chronicle Books, 2005, ISBN 0-8118-4241-X
Beauchamp, Monte, “BLAB! #16”, Fantagraphics Books, 2005, ISBN 1-56097-683-7
STRANGEco, “Toys: New Designs from the Art Toy Revolution”, Universe Publishing (Rizzoli), 2005, ISBN 0-7893-1390-1
Wagner, Lisa; Dalton, Trinie; Horowitz, Eli, “Dear New Girl or Whatever Your Name Is”, McSweeny’s, 2005, ISBN 1-932416-17-X
Wiedemannm, Julius, “Illustration Now!”, Taschen, 2005. ISBN 3-8228-4033-5
Hively, Charles; “3×3: The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration” , interview with Henrik Drescher by Gary Taxali, 2007
Thaler, Peter; Denicke, Lars, “Pictoplasma – The Character Encyclopedia”, Pictoplasma Publishing, 2006, ISBN 3-981-04583-1
Klanton, Robert; Hübner, Matthias, “Dot Dot Dash – Designer Toys, Action Figures and Art”, Die Gestalten, 2006, ISBN 3-89955-161-3
Beauchamp, Monte, “BLAB! #17”, Fantagraphics Books, 2006, ISBN 978-1-56097-776-6
Someguy, “The 1000 Journals Project”, Chronicle Books, 2007, ISBN 0-8118-5856-1
Pony, Magic, “Fancy Action Now – The Art of Team Macho”, Interview with Team Macho by Gary Taxali, 2007, ISBN 978-0-9783568-0-4
Brereton, Richard, “Graphic Ha Ha – Issue 11”, BIS Publishers, 2007, ISBN -978-90-6369-164-4

American Illustration, Communication Arts Illustration Annual, Society of Illustrators (Gold Medal), Print, Society of Publication Designers, National Magazine Awards (Gold Medal), Chicago Creative Club, The Advertising and Design Club of Canada, National Gold Addy and Shortlist for a Cannes Lion

First Canadian Place Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 2017
Idea Exchange at Design at Riverside, Cambridge, Canada, 2015
Revolver Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 2015
National Institute of Design, Bangalore, India, 2015
Savannah College of Art and Design – Hong Kong Campus, Hong Kong, 2014
Artscape Salon, Toronto, Canada, 2014
Grip Limited Agency, Toronto, Canada, 2014
Waddington’s Contemporary, Toronto, Canada, 2014
John St. Agency, Toronto, Canada, 2014[showhide type=”more3″ more_text=”Read More (%s More Words)” less_text=”Read Less (%s More Words)”]
Hong Kong Society of Illustrators, Hong Kong, 2013
Design Exchange, Toronto, ON, 2013
University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2013
United Adworkers, Milwaukee, WI, 2012
Algonquin College, Ottawa, Canada, 2012
Pictoplasma Conference, New York City, 2011
MagNet Conference, Toronto, Canada, 2010
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, 2009
OCAD University, Toronto, Canada, 2009
Centennial College, Toronto, Canada, 2009
Sheridan College, Toronto, Canada, 2009
Merz Akademie, Stuttgart, Germany, 2008
Istituto Europeo Di Design, Rome, Italy, 2008
Fachhochschule Mainz, Mainz, Germany, 2008
Danmarks Designskole, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2007
School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, 2006
Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada, 2006
Dallas Society of Visual Communications – Student Conference, Dallas, TX, 2005
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, 2005
Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, 2005
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, 2005
Sheridan College, Toronto, Oakville, Canada, 2004
Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, Canada, 2004
University of Kansas, MO, 2004
Art Directors Club of Houston, Houston, TX, 2003
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, 2003
Illustration Conference, Philadelphia, PA, 2003
Quebec Association of Illustrators, Montreal, QC, 2003

2016

“Unfamous: The Art of Gary Taxali”, First Canadian Place Gallery, Toronto, ON

2015

“Hotel There”, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York, NY
“Here and Now”, Idea Exchange at Design at Riverside, Cambridge, ON

2014

“Unforget Me”, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York, NY
“Shanti Town”, Waddington’s, Toronto, ON

2013

“Assemblages”, SOHO House, Toronto, ON

2012

“My Feelings Like You”, The Outsiders (Lazarides), London, UK
“Selected Works”, Antonio Colombo Gallery, Milano, Italy

2010

“The Taxali 300”, Narwhal Art Projects, Toronto, ON

2009

“Hindi Love Song”, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York, NY

2008

“Flop House Rules”, Iguapop Gallery, Barcelona, Spain

2007

“Save The Boreal”, New Print Launch and Show, Magic Pony Gallery, Toronto, ON
“Last Year’s Winner”, Magic Pony Gallery, Toronto, ON

2006

“The Up-N-Down Show”, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2005

“Chumpy’s Specials” – OX OP Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
“Toy Monkey Launch and New Prints” – Magic Pony, Toronto, ON
“Chumpy’s Night School” – La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2001

“Sweet Shop Toys, Candies and Books” – CPOP Gallery, Detroit, MI
“America Lucky Service“ – La Luz de Jesus Gallery

2000

“New Work” – Anno Domini Gallery, San José, CA

2017

“Cowboyland”, Heliumcowboy, Hamburg, Germany
“ArtExpo” New York, Wanroiij Gallery, New York, NY
“Illustrationen On Ice”, Deutsches Sport and Olimpia Museum, Cologne, Germany
“Something Strange in the Neighbourhood”, Feinkunst Kruger, Hambur, Germany
“Welcome to New Jersey”, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New Jersey, NY
“For Goodness Sake”, LA LA Land Gallery, Hollywood, CA
“Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of High Fructose”, Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH

2016

“Context Art Miami”, Matthew Namous, Miami, FL
“Cluster”, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York, NY
“Grande Ouverture”, Galerie Matthew Namour, Montreal, QC
“Greater Toronto: New Artist Textiles” NYCxDESIGN, New York, NY
“Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose”, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA
“Keep It Together”, Flower Pepper Gallery, Pasadena, LA
“Project 31”, OCAD University, Toronto, ON
“A Decade of Lazarides – 10th Anniversary Group Show”, Lazarides Rathbone, London, UK
“Illustrators 58”, Society of Illustrators, New York, NY

2015

“The Colour and the Fury – 10 Years of Jonathan LeVine Gallery”, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York, NY
“Mural Festival”, Yves LaRoche Gallery, Montreal, QC
“Push Me Pull Me – Pearl Jam Poster Exhibit”, Seattle International Airport, Seattle, WA
“Project 31”, OCAD University, Toronto, ON

2014

“Egregore – The Zenith of Pop Surrealism”, Yves Laroche Gallery, Montreal, QC
“Project 31”, OCAD University, Toronto, ON
“Pictoplasma Portrait Gallery”, Kaufaus Jandorf, Berlin, Germany

2013

“Good Work: The Illustration Art Invitational”, Arts Center Gallery, Rochester, NY
“Project 31”, OCAD University, Toronto, ON
“Waddington’s Concrete Contemporary Auction”, Waddington’s Auction House, Toronto, ON
“Wider Than a Postcard”, Group Show, Breezeblock Gallery, Portland, OR
“NXNE Showcase” SOHO House, Toronto, ON
“Small Works Project”, 2013 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
“Northern Lights”, Rotofugi, Chicago, IL
“Buddy System Invitational”, Breezeblock Gallery, Portland, OR

2012

“New Blood”, Thinkspace Gallery, Culver City, CA
Contemporary Canadian Art , Waddingtons Auction House, Toronto, Ontario
“Project 31”, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada
“BLAB WORLD 2012”, Copro Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
“The Post-It Show Eight”, Giant Robot, Los Angeles, CA

2011

“Made in Polaroid: 50/50/50”, Phillips de Purys, New York, NY
“Lucid Dreams”, Noel-Baza Fine Art Gallery, San Diego, CA
“Bologna Art Fair”, Antonio Colombo Gallery, Bologna, Italy
“3D Art Book”, Opera Gallery, New York, NY
American Museum of the Society of Illustrators, Traveling Show 53, New York, NY
“Lyric, Group Show”, 323 Gallery, Detroit, MI
“Project 31”, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada
“La Luz de Jesus 25th Anniversary Show”, Los Angeles, CA

2010

“Sanrio 50th Anniversary Art Show”, Los Angeles, CA
“Christmas Group Show”, The Outsiders Gallery, London, UK
“Project 31”, OCAD University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
“BLAB! A Retrospective”, Society of Illustrators, New York, NY
“5th year Anniversary Group Exhibition”, Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York, NY
“monUMENTAL”, Trifecta Gallery, Las Vegas, Nevada
“Never Judge…?”, Stolen Space Gallery, London, UK
“Fantasilandia”, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Italy
“A Starter Kit for Collectors: Art Exhibition”, Tribes Gallery, New York, NY
“Post-It Show”, Giant Robot Gallery, New York, NY
“The Vader Project”, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
“Where Is My Vote?”, Art Institute of Boston, Boston, MA
“Blow Up”, G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA
“Picture Mechanics Show”, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Group Show”, Gallery Nucleus, Pasadena, CA
“100 Heads for Haiti”, Spur Gallery, Baltimore, MD
“Small Favours”, Giant Robot Gallery, New York, NY

2009

“True Self Show”, Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York, NY
“Group Show”, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Beautiful Decay A-Z Exhibition”, Kopeikin Gallery, West Hollywood, CA
“Group Show”, The 4th Wall Gallery, Dallas, TX
“Natural Beauty”, Mondo Bizarro, Rome, Italy
“Poster Art Show”, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA
“Some Type of Wonderful”. Lifelounge
“The BLAB! Show”, Copro Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
“Berlin’s Smallest Gallery”, Smallery, Berlin, Germany
“Urban Superstar Festival”, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, Naples, Italy
“Screen Prints”, The Print Club, London, UK
“Summer Show”, G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA
“Superhero”, Comic-Con Art Exhibition, San Diego, CA
“Toronto International Art Fair”, Yves Laroche Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
“Aqua Art Fair”, Yves Laroche Gallery, Miami, FL
“Dimebag 3”, Giant Robot Gallery, New York, NY

2008

“The 1000 Journals Project”, SFMOMA, San Francisco
“Group Show”, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2007

“Tug Of War”, Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington, DC
“2007 Los Angeles Art Show”, Billy Shire Fine Arts Booth, Santa Monica, CA
“Charity by Numbers”, Corey Helford Gallery, Culver City, CA
“Look Behind You”, Giant Robot Gallery, New York, NY
“The Vader Project”, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA

2006

“Rumble Rumble: An Art Throw Down”, Artlab, Toronto, Canada
“MTV Overground #3”, Toy Tokyo, New York, NY
“Customized Munny; Traveling Show”, Kid Robot, New York, NY
“Nanospore Series 01, Customized Figures”, NY Comicon, New York, NY
“Juxtapoz 2006 Group Show”, OX-OP Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2005

“Everything But the Kitschen Sync” – La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Art Party” – Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
“I Am 8 Bit” – Gallery 1988, Los Angeles, CA
“Day of the Doon” – Bonny Doon Vineyard, Santa Cruz, CA
“Circus Punks Rule” – Toy Tokyo, New York, NY
“Blab Show” – Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
“TAAFI” – Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, ON
“Toronto Art Fair” – Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, ON
“Prints and Posters” – Outer Edge Studio, Monterey, CA
“Built for Speed” – L’Autre Galerie, Montreal, QC
“Partridge and Pear Trees” – Magic Pony Gallery, Toronto, ON
“Picture Mechanics Show” – Musuem of American Illlustration at the Society of Illustrators, New York, NY
“Art of Denim” – L’Autre Galerie, Montreal, QC
“Pop Pluralism” – Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York, NY
“Weirdo Deluxe” – StuARTGallery, Burbank, CA
“Male Pattern Baldness and Hummingbirds” – Reading Frenzy, Portland, OR
“The Postcard Project” – Fosterart, London, UK

2004

“Uncommercial Art by Commercial Artists” – La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“The Dress Up Show” – Star Shoes, Los Angeles, CA
“A Day on the Lawn” – Froden Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“The Art of Laughter, A Salute to Humor” – Jewish Community Center, Santa Monica, CA
“V&A Awards” – Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
“Contemporary Culture” – City of Brea Gallery, Brea, CA
“10th Anniversary Show” – Giant Robot Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Qeedrophonic Doll Show” – OX-OP Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
“Picture Mechanics Group Show” – Exploding Head Gallery, Sacramento, CA
“Dialogue: The Fine Art of Conversation” – Abbey Church, San Diego, CA
“Ghost Town” – Tin Man Alley, Philadelphia, PA

2003

“Uncommercial Art by Commercial Artist” – La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Robots Have Feelings Too” – Culture Cache Gallery, San Francisco, CA
“Cubed” – Tin Man Alley, Philadelphia, PA
“Hand to Eye” – Magma Books, London, UK
“Doll House Show” – Copro Nason Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Cartoon Musuem Show” – Cartoon Museum, San Francisco,CA
“Picture Mechanics Group Show” – Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN

2002

“Quartered de La Luz” – The Cartoon Network, Los Angeles, CA
“Picture Mechanics Group Show” – 69A Gallery, San Francisco, CA
“Circus, Carnival, Freaks and Oddities” – CPOP Gallery, Detroit, MI
“Decipher” – 450 Broadway Gallery, New York, NY
“La Luz de Leche” – Milk Bedroom Gallery, Toronto, ON

In 2010, his first children’s book entitled “This Is Silly!” was published by Scholastic Press and In 2011, 2 monographs of his works were released by 2 different publishers. “I Love You, OK?” by teNeues Publishing in Germany and “Mono Taxali by 24_9 Publishing in Italy.

Aside from his gallery shows and illustration work, Gary also devotes a portion of his time teaching and lecturing at various arts organizations and schools such as OCAD University (Toronto, Canada), where in 2014 he was appointed to a tenured position. He has also taught/lectured at The Art Director’s Club of Houston (Houston, USA), Dankmarks Designskole (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Istituto Europeo Di Design (Rome, Italy), SKAD (Hong Kong), The University of the Arts (Philadelphia, USA) and the National Institute of Design (Bangalore, India). He is a Founding Member of IPA (The Illustrators’ Partnership of America) and sits on the Advisory Board of 3×3: The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration. Gary has also juried many student and professional competitions including The Society of Illustrators, The National Magazine Awards, The Dallas Society of Visual Communications and 3×3: The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration.

Gary Taxali is an award-winning illustrator, artist, author and toy designer.

His work has appeared in many major magazines such as The New York Times, Newsweek, GQ and others.

He has exhibited in many galleries and museums throughout North America and Europe including The Jonathan LeVine Gallery.

In 2005, he launched his first vinyl toy, The Toy Monkey, which included a special edition along with a silkscreen print commissioned by The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. This led Gary to create his own toy company, Chump Toys, which recently saw the release of his OH NO and OH OH vinyl figures.[showhide type=”more2″ more_text=”Read More (%s More Words)” less_text=”Read Less (%s More Words)”]

Aside from his gallery shows and illustration work, Gary also devotes a portion of his time teaching and lecturing at various arts organizations and schools such as OCAD University (Toronto, Canada), The Art Director’s Club of Houston (Houston, USA), Dankmarks Designskole (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Istituto Europeo Di Design (Rome, Italy) . He is a Founding Member of IPA (The Illustrators’ Partnership of America) and sits on the Advisory Board of 3×3: The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration.

Gary has also juried many student and professional competitions including The Society of Illustrators, The National Magazine Awards, The Dallas Society of Visual Communications and 3×3: The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration. Gary created the cover art and inside illustrations for Aimee Mann’s latest album @#%&*! Smilers, which won a 2009 Grammy Award Nomination for Best Package Design.

CLIENTS

Rolling Stone, GQ, Esquire, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Fast Company, Reader’s Digest, Business Week, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Converse, Levi’s, Sony, McSweeny’s, MTV, Coca-Cola

PARTIAL BOOK LIST OF SELECTED WORKS/WRITINGS OF GARY TAXALI

Hively, Charles, “3X3: The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration – Vol 1, #”, Charles Hively Publisher, 2003, ISBN 1546-640X
Hyland, Angus; Bell, Roanne, “Hand to Eye: Contemporary Illustration”, Laurence King Publishing, 2003, ISBN 1-85669-339-2
Hazelmyer, Tom, “Qeedrophonic”. OX-OP Press, 2004, ISBN 0-9758579-0-8
Jordan, Matt Dukes, “Weirdo Deluxe”, Chronicle Books, 2005, ISBN 0-8118-4241-X
Beauchamp, Monte, “BLAB! #16”, Fantagraphics Books, 2005, ISBN 1-56097-683-7
STRANGEco, “Toys: New Designs from the Art Toy Revolution”, Universe Publishing (Rizzoli), 2005, ISBN 0-7893-1390-1
Wagner, Lisa; Dalton, Trinie; Horowitz, Eli, “Dear New Girl or Whatever Your Name Is”, McSweeny’s, 2005, ISBN 1-932416-17-X
Wiedemannm, Julius, “Illustration Now!”, Taschen, 2005. ISBN 3-8228-4033-5
Hively, Charles; “3×3: The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration” , interview with Henrik Drescher by Gary Taxali, 2007
Thaler, Peter; Denicke, Lars, “Pictoplasma – The Character Encyclopedia”, Pictoplasma Publishing, 2006, ISBN 3-981-04583-1
Klanton, Robert; Hübner, Matthias, “Dot Dot Dash – Designer Toys, Action Figures and Art”, Die Gestalten, 2006, ISBN 3-89955-161-3
Beauchamp, Monte, “BLAB! #17”, Fantagraphics Books, 2006, ISBN 978-1-56097-776-6
Someguy, “The 1000 Journals Project”, Chronicle Books, 2007, ISBN 0-8118-5856-1
Pony, Magic, “Fancy Action Now – The Art of Team Macho”, Interview with Team Macho by Gary Taxali, 2007, ISBN 978-0-9783568-0-4
Brereton, Richard, “Graphic Ha Ha – Issue 11”, BIS Publishers, 2007, ISBN -978-90-6369-164-4

American Illustration, Communication Arts Illustration Annual, Society of Illustrators (Gold Medal), Print, Society of Publication Designers, National Magazine Awards (Gold Medal), Chicago Creative Club, The Advertising and Design Club of Canada, National Gold Addy and Shortlist for a Cannes Lion

First Canadian Place Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 2017
Idea Exchange at Design at Riverside, Cambridge, Canada, 2015
Revolver Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 2015
National Institute of Design, Bangalore, India, 2015
Savannah College of Art and Design – Hong Kong Campus, Hong Kong, 2014
Artscape Salon, Toronto, Canada, 2014
Grip Limited Agency, Toronto, Canada, 2014
Waddington’s Contemporary, Toronto, Canada, 2014
John St. Agency, Toronto, Canada, 2014[showhide type=”more3″ more_text=”Read More (%s More Words)” less_text=”Read Less (%s More Words)”]
Hong Kong Society of Illustrators, Hong Kong, 2013
Design Exchange, Toronto, ON, 2013
University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2013
United Adworkers, Milwaukee, WI, 2012
Algonquin College, Ottawa, Canada, 2012
Pictoplasma Conference, New York City, 2011
MagNet Conference, Toronto, Canada, 2010
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, 2009
OCAD University, Toronto, Canada, 2009
Centennial College, Toronto, Canada, 2009
Sheridan College, Toronto, Canada, 2009
Merz Akademie, Stuttgart, Germany, 2008
Istituto Europeo Di Design, Rome, Italy, 2008
Fachhochschule Mainz, Mainz, Germany, 2008
Danmarks Designskole, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2007
School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, 2006
Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada, 2006
Dallas Society of Visual Communications – Student Conference, Dallas, TX, 2005
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, 2005
Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, 2005
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, 2005
Sheridan College, Toronto, Oakville, Canada, 2004
Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, Canada, 2004
University of Kansas, MO, 2004
Art Directors Club of Houston, Houston, TX, 2003
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, 2003
Illustration Conference, Philadelphia, PA, 2003
Quebec Association of Illustrators, Montreal, QC, 2003

2016

“Unfamous: The Art of Gary Taxali”, First Canadian Place Gallery, Toronto, ON

2015

“Hotel There”, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York, NY
“Here and Now”, Idea Exchange at Design at Riverside, Cambridge, ON

2014

“Unforget Me”, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York, NY
“Shanti Town”, Waddington’s, Toronto, ON

2013

“Assemblages”, SOHO House, Toronto, ON

2012

“My Feelings Like You”, The Outsiders (Lazarides), London, UK
“Selected Works”, Antonio Colombo Gallery, Milano, Italy

2010

“The Taxali 300”, Narwhal Art Projects, Toronto, ON

2009

“Hindi Love Song”, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York, NY

2008

“Flop House Rules”, Iguapop Gallery, Barcelona, Spain

2007

“Save The Boreal”, New Print Launch and Show, Magic Pony Gallery, Toronto, ON
“Last Year’s Winner”, Magic Pony Gallery, Toronto, ON

2006

“The Up-N-Down Show”, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2005

“Chumpy’s Specials” – OX OP Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
“Toy Monkey Launch and New Prints” – Magic Pony, Toronto, ON
“Chumpy’s Night School” – La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2001

“Sweet Shop Toys, Candies and Books” – CPOP Gallery, Detroit, MI
“America Lucky Service“ – La Luz de Jesus Gallery

2000

“New Work” – Anno Domini Gallery, San José, CA

2017

“Cowboyland”, Heliumcowboy, Hamburg, Germany
“ArtExpo” New York, Wanroiij Gallery, New York, NY
“Illustrationen On Ice”, Deutsches Sport and Olimpia Museum, Cologne, Germany
“Something Strange in the Neighbourhood”, Feinkunst Kruger, Hambur, Germany
“Welcome to New Jersey”, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New Jersey, NY
“For Goodness Sake”, LA LA Land Gallery, Hollywood, CA
“Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of High Fructose”, Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH

2016

“Context Art Miami”, Matthew Namous, Miami, FL
“Cluster”, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York, NY
“Grande Ouverture”, Galerie Matthew Namour, Montreal, QC
“Greater Toronto: New Artist Textiles” NYCxDESIGN, New York, NY
“Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose”, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA
“Keep It Together”, Flower Pepper Gallery, Pasadena, LA
“Project 31”, OCAD University, Toronto, ON
“A Decade of Lazarides – 10th Anniversary Group Show”, Lazarides Rathbone, London, UK
“Illustrators 58”, Society of Illustrators, New York, NY

2015

“The Colour and the Fury – 10 Years of Jonathan LeVine Gallery”, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York, NY
“Mural Festival”, Yves LaRoche Gallery, Montreal, QC
“Push Me Pull Me – Pearl Jam Poster Exhibit”, Seattle International Airport, Seattle, WA
“Project 31”, OCAD University, Toronto, ON

2014

“Egregore – The Zenith of Pop Surrealism”, Yves Laroche Gallery, Montreal, QC
“Project 31”, OCAD University, Toronto, ON
“Pictoplasma Portrait Gallery”, Kaufaus Jandorf, Berlin, Germany

2013

“Good Work: The Illustration Art Invitational”, Arts Center Gallery, Rochester, NY
“Project 31”, OCAD University, Toronto, ON
“Waddington’s Concrete Contemporary Auction”, Waddington’s Auction House, Toronto, ON
“Wider Than a Postcard”, Group Show, Breezeblock Gallery, Portland, OR
“NXNE Showcase” SOHO House, Toronto, ON
“Small Works Project”, 2013 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
“Northern Lights”, Rotofugi, Chicago, IL
“Buddy System Invitational”, Breezeblock Gallery, Portland, OR

2012

“New Blood”, Thinkspace Gallery, Culver City, CA
Contemporary Canadian Art , Waddingtons Auction House, Toronto, Ontario
“Project 31”, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada
“BLAB WORLD 2012”, Copro Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
“The Post-It Show Eight”, Giant Robot, Los Angeles, CA

2011

“Made in Polaroid: 50/50/50”, Phillips de Purys, New York, NY
“Lucid Dreams”, Noel-Baza Fine Art Gallery, San Diego, CA
“Bologna Art Fair”, Antonio Colombo Gallery, Bologna, Italy
“3D Art Book”, Opera Gallery, New York, NY
American Museum of the Society of Illustrators, Traveling Show 53, New York, NY
“Lyric, Group Show”, 323 Gallery, Detroit, MI
“Project 31”, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada
“La Luz de Jesus 25th Anniversary Show”, Los Angeles, CA

2010

“Sanrio 50th Anniversary Art Show”, Los Angeles, CA
“Christmas Group Show”, The Outsiders Gallery, London, UK
“Project 31”, OCAD University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
“BLAB! A Retrospective”, Society of Illustrators, New York, NY
“5th year Anniversary Group Exhibition”, Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York, NY
“monUMENTAL”, Trifecta Gallery, Las Vegas, Nevada
“Never Judge…?”, Stolen Space Gallery, London, UK
“Fantasilandia”, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Italy
“A Starter Kit for Collectors: Art Exhibition”, Tribes Gallery, New York, NY
“Post-It Show”, Giant Robot Gallery, New York, NY
“The Vader Project”, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
“Where Is My Vote?”, Art Institute of Boston, Boston, MA
“Blow Up”, G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA
“Picture Mechanics Show”, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Group Show”, Gallery Nucleus, Pasadena, CA
“100 Heads for Haiti”, Spur Gallery, Baltimore, MD
“Small Favours”, Giant Robot Gallery, New York, NY

2009

“True Self Show”, Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York, NY
“Group Show”, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Beautiful Decay A-Z Exhibition”, Kopeikin Gallery, West Hollywood, CA
“Group Show”, The 4th Wall Gallery, Dallas, TX
“Natural Beauty”, Mondo Bizarro, Rome, Italy
“Poster Art Show”, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA
“Some Type of Wonderful”. Lifelounge
“The BLAB! Show”, Copro Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
“Berlin’s Smallest Gallery”, Smallery, Berlin, Germany
“Urban Superstar Festival”, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, Naples, Italy
“Screen Prints”, The Print Club, London, UK
“Summer Show”, G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA
“Superhero”, Comic-Con Art Exhibition, San Diego, CA
“Toronto International Art Fair”, Yves Laroche Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
“Aqua Art Fair”, Yves Laroche Gallery, Miami, FL
“Dimebag 3”, Giant Robot Gallery, New York, NY

2008

“The 1000 Journals Project”, SFMOMA, San Francisco
“Group Show”, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2007

“Tug Of War”, Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington, DC
“2007 Los Angeles Art Show”, Billy Shire Fine Arts Booth, Santa Monica, CA
“Charity by Numbers”, Corey Helford Gallery, Culver City, CA
“Look Behind You”, Giant Robot Gallery, New York, NY
“The Vader Project”, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA

2006

“Rumble Rumble: An Art Throw Down”, Artlab, Toronto, Canada
“MTV Overground #3”, Toy Tokyo, New York, NY
“Customized Munny; Traveling Show”, Kid Robot, New York, NY
“Nanospore Series 01, Customized Figures”, NY Comicon, New York, NY
“Juxtapoz 2006 Group Show”, OX-OP Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2005

“Everything But the Kitschen Sync” – La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Art Party” – Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
“I Am 8 Bit” – Gallery 1988, Los Angeles, CA
“Day of the Doon” – Bonny Doon Vineyard, Santa Cruz, CA
“Circus Punks Rule” – Toy Tokyo, New York, NY
“Blab Show” – Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
“TAAFI” – Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, ON
“Toronto Art Fair” – Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, ON
“Prints and Posters” – Outer Edge Studio, Monterey, CA
“Built for Speed” – L’Autre Galerie, Montreal, QC
“Partridge and Pear Trees” – Magic Pony Gallery, Toronto, ON
“Picture Mechanics Show” – Musuem of American Illlustration at the Society of Illustrators, New York, NY
“Art of Denim” – L’Autre Galerie, Montreal, QC
“Pop Pluralism” – Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York, NY
“Weirdo Deluxe” – StuARTGallery, Burbank, CA
“Male Pattern Baldness and Hummingbirds” – Reading Frenzy, Portland, OR
“The Postcard Project” – Fosterart, London, UK

2004

“Uncommercial Art by Commercial Artists” – La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“The Dress Up Show” – Star Shoes, Los Angeles, CA
“A Day on the Lawn” – Froden Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“The Art of Laughter, A Salute to Humor” – Jewish Community Center, Santa Monica, CA
“V&A Awards” – Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
“Contemporary Culture” – City of Brea Gallery, Brea, CA
“10th Anniversary Show” – Giant Robot Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Qeedrophonic Doll Show” – OX-OP Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
“Picture Mechanics Group Show” – Exploding Head Gallery, Sacramento, CA
“Dialogue: The Fine Art of Conversation” – Abbey Church, San Diego, CA
“Ghost Town” – Tin Man Alley, Philadelphia, PA

2003

“Uncommercial Art by Commercial Artist” – La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Robots Have Feelings Too” – Culture Cache Gallery, San Francisco, CA
“Cubed” – Tin Man Alley, Philadelphia, PA
“Hand to Eye” – Magma Books, London, UK
“Doll House Show” – Copro Nason Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Cartoon Musuem Show” – Cartoon Museum, San Francisco,CA
“Picture Mechanics Group Show” – Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN

2002

“Quartered de La Luz” – The Cartoon Network, Los Angeles, CA
“Picture Mechanics Group Show” – 69A Gallery, San Francisco, CA
“Circus, Carnival, Freaks and Oddities” – CPOP Gallery, Detroit, MI
“Decipher” – 450 Broadway Gallery, New York, NY
“La Luz de Leche” – Milk Bedroom Gallery, Toronto, ON

Martin C. Herbst

Martin C. Herbst

Austrian artist Martin C. Herbst pushes the limits of traditional painting. Most of his delicately executed paintings expand to the third dimension without denying their two-dimensional origin. His artistic career has been shaped by his lifelong interest in the human face and figure and by the question how to transform a portrait of a certain individual into a transpersonal and touching artwork. He understands (portrait) painting as a search for universal validity that is somehow larger than life.

Austrian artist Martin C. Herbst pushes the limits of traditional painting. Most of his delicately executed paintings expand to the third dimension without denying their two-dimensional origin. His artistic career has been shaped by his lifelong interest in the human face and figure and by the question how to transform a portrait of a certain individual into a transpersonal and touching artwork. He understands (portrait) painting as a search for universal validity that is somehow larger than life.

MARTIN C. HERBST
Born 1965, Salzburg, Austria
EDUCATION 
1989         
Magister Artium, Class of Painting, Hochschule Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria

In the spheres series faces appear on one half of mirror-polished spheres and look like mysterious moonfaces. The artist uses highly polished stainless steel spheres and paints a distorted face on one half. The other half of the sphere remains unpainted and functions as a powerful distorting mirror.
This series is inspired by a famous painting of the Italian Mannerism, Parmigianino’s Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror

In the scupltural hidden treasure series, painting and mirror are amalgamated, transforming tangible paint into an ephemeral and virtual manifestation. As a result of the complex folds in the mirrored aluminium, most of the actual painting is only seen in its reflection.  More, the painting seems to take life and even become animated, because the part of the mirror producing the reflection is uneven. As soon as the beholder begins to explore its secrets by moving from side to side, the work unfolds a surprising array of subtly shifting reflections of the painted image.

In the garden of delights series flowers make a grand entrance in the staging of large panels. The curved background’s mirrored surface produces permanently shifting distorted reflections of the beholder and the space around the painting. The flower seems animated, because our eye and brain cannot process the perception of an image deriving from a solid object in which parts change dynamically and others remain stable.

Paintings on flat aluminum plates and paintings on canvas were the starting point of Herbst´s artistic caree and still play an important role in his work with the series Maria Magdalena , Bella and others.

 

Mercury
The works of Martin C. Herbst

I. Multi-perspectivity

The works of Martin C. Herbst invite the viewer to observe them from multiple perspectives, as we immediately understand that the art pieces work on various levels. They are curious, polyvalent as well as visually and intellectually appealing, similar to mercury, this fascinating element that has inspired thinkers, artists and alchemists since the Antiquity. However, it is not only the elegant and pleasing appearance of mercury, the bright silver colour that bears important similarities with the artist’s work, but also another feature: its constant movement. Also called quicksilver, a sense of continuous movement is attributed to the shiny and liquid metal that can be seen in parallel with the way that Martin C. Herbst’s art pieces oscillate between periods, genres and media. Therefore, mercury here refers to not merely the visual features, but also to the works’ ability to act as messengers (Mercurius) between other artworks, masters, ages, traditions, forms, media and aesthetic experiences.

At first sight it is the pure beauty and the meticulous execution that appears, pleasing our senses, and letting the viewer enjoy the clear and stainless objects. However, the artist does not stop at this primary aesthetic appeal, but includes multi-layered art historical references that stimulate the viewer to examine the relationship between the present contemporary work and that of the forerunners from older periods. Hence, Martin C. Herbst opens a continuous and inspiring discussion between art pieces, traditions, artist and public. By viewing the art objects, the observer can arrive at critical and noteworthy theoretical considerations on issues such as the becoming of an artwork, on the essence of an art piece, on the problem of what distinguishes a copy from a reference, and on the difference between direct quotation and inspiration.

It is important to note however, that these three aspects of the works of Martin C. Herbst – i.e. the pure aesthetic appeal, the historical references and their capacity of initiating considerations on the ultimate essence of art – are not in a hierarchy or in any kind of order or level of importance. One can choose one aspect or another, or concentrate on any of these. Perhaps one prefers to only admire the clear surfaces and the reflection, while others focus on the examination of the artist’s references to those earlier colleagues who inspired him, and again others employ the works in considerations on art itself. These aspects are thus both separate and connected, and show the multi-perspectivity of Martin C. Herbst’s art.

II. Beyond the primary

A further feature that stimulates the observer is the works’ ability to destabilise us as viewers in our position, and that instructs us to see beyond, and also how to see beyond. The art pieces guide and enlighten us to learn to challenge the first answer we find, that would be a (seemingly) obvious solution, with an easy explanation. We are practically forced to immerse ourselves in the work itself, we feel right from the beginning that there is something much more crucial going on beyond their shiny surface. In fact, at first sight the works look so direct, transparent and self-evident that this arises doubt in the spectator, and makes us understand that we need to start seeing and seeking beyond. And we are right in doing so, since several of the elements and aspects of the works and of the working process of Martin C. Herbst is not what it first appears. The primary impression or preliminary consideration needs to be modified after a conscious and attentive look – of course, the works, being inspiringly complex, do not let themselves be conquered easily by the interested observer. Nevertheless, even after examining them more in depth and ruminating on their characteristics, they still keep on “disturbing” us, naturally in a positive sense of the word: they keep on shining in our mind, making us reflect on their aesthetic potentials. We continue thinking of them, while trying to refine our interpretation. Let’s see a couple of examples and how the elements and working processes of the works are different and more complex than they first appear.

II/1. The use of the mirror

The first element that is not what it looks like at the beginning, and that is not used in the way we would think of, is the mirror. The mirror and the mirroring surface – created by either traditional glass mirror, polished stainless steel or by state-of-the-art alternatives like mirror-dibond and a high-end aluminium sheet used mainly in industrial settings and known for its high-quality light-reflection that guarantees a colour-true reflection – is one of the most easily recognisable connecting element between the series, and at the same time is a curious reference to a millenia-long topos and art historical tradition. However, it is not used in the way we can see it in this very tradition. Earlier it was mainly represented, i.e. directly painted in the image, as we can see it in the famous examples of Jan van Eyck’s Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife from 1434, or in Lukas Furtenagel’s The Painter Hans Burgkmair and his Wife from 1529. The use of mirror was then an ideal way of either including metaphorical and allegorical considerations – like in Furtenagel’s image, where the older couple’s faces are reflected as skulls in the mirror, thus referring to the approaching end of their life – or to put the artist himself in the image, like in Eyck’s portrait, where, even if in miniature, we can see the painter too. This latter will be an important approach for Martin C. Herbst in his own work as well, just like the well-known self-portrait of Parmigianino from 1524, where the flat surface of the round painting imitates what we can see in a convex mirror – or, actually, what the artist himself saw when painting his self-portrait. In the contemporary arts however, the mirror can have new potentialities when it is not only represented through painting, but also used as a medium, i.e. a base and material for the work. Again, from the endless instances we can remember the oeuvre of Michelangelo Pistoletto who both paints on it and often breaks it, or for example Mona Hatoum who also uses it as a medium for her conceptual works, or even Anish Kapoor who uses its glossy and reflecting feature as a sculptural quality. The curiosity in Martin C. Herbst’s work is that in his series he connects himself to all of these two traditions, i.e. to the representation of the mirror, to the appearance of the mirrored image and to the usage of the mirror as a medium. Thus the mirror will not only be a medium or a pure historical reference, more like a starting point for the creation of new artistic approaches.

II/2. Form and medium

The pieces of almost all of the recent series have a sculptural appearance when seen for the first time. The works from the spherical Parmigianino-series, or of the folded pieces of the Hidden Treasure or even the double mirrors of the Perfect Faces all have a primarily sculptural effect, being three dimensional forms in space or on the wall. Nevertheless, Martin C. Herbst strongly and decisively remains a painter. The works are thus in an intriguing balance between the two most basic and antique forms of artistic expression, i.e. three-dimensional sculpture and two-dimensional painting. The artist’s intention is not the creation of a sculptural work in the classical sense of the medium: he is not aiming to make a piece whose primary aesthetic force lies in the volume, in the proportion between occupied space and incorporated void or in the solidity of the material in itself. Instead of regarding the works as the results of an attempt of the physical extension of painting, we should rather interpret them as essential additions to the concept of painting, or its re-definition. As a similar case, we can think of the example of Frank Stella’s oeuvre, who after his famous shaped canvases started to create objects and assemblages, normally hanging from the wall. Although these works are three-dimensional, they still can be considered as the further development of Stella’s own approach to painting. Something similar happens in Martin C. Herbst’s oeuvre too: even though it seems almost paradoxical, we can say that whatever the medium is, he emphasises the two-dimensionality of the works, through the painted surface. To illustrate this, it is worth examining how the accurate use of the painting technique guarantees the importance of the surface itself, for example through the thin layers and their shiny and glossy appearance. Therefore, the reflection is always on the surface and thanks to the surface, the work remains a painting, keeping its two-dimensionality.
            What then is the reason for painting a three-dimensional object if not the intention of a classical sculptural effect? Why having shaped forms as the bearer and medium of painting if their most obvious quality, the spatial seems to remain unexploited? Actually, it is exactly in the favour of the very painting itself. Through this working method the artist can gain more out of the painting, he can enlarge its potentialities and forces of expression and can have several – or perhaps an endless – number of images through the same painting. For example we can turn the faces of the Spheres even upside down to have another effect, and also the Hidden Treasures in the folded series are continuously changing their facial expressions even if the observer only slightly changes his position. Hence, we can see that the three-dimensional medium of the different series is not in the aim of a classical sculptural effect, more like expanding the possibilities of painting with the help of having the third dimension not only represented as a perspectivist illusion, but using it as the perceptive context of the very painting itself.

II/3. Approach and style

In several groups of works we can find familiar motives that are well-known from the classical art historical tradition. Some of them are concrete elements, for example one of Michelangelo’s Libyan Sibyl from the 1511 from the Sistine Chapel in Martin C. Herbst’s Re-Re series, while in other cases we can see famous and particular motives re-worked by the artist, like the convex self-portrait of Parmigianino in the aforementioned series. However, also these re-elaborations are not what they seem at first. Martin C. Herbst is not intending to create copies, but re-interpretations, using the known forms and solutions for creating new meanings by the special reading of the original art piece. This becomes obvious if we examine his works and the concept behind the series, and trace the differences. For example when using Parmigianino’s Pallas Athene from 1539 as a starting point, the artist had chosen a slightly changed format compared to the original, and painted different versions, where he put diverse focuses, one is more accentuating the sfumato qualities of the of the original, while others examine the relationship of Parmigianino to the classical Graeco-Roman art heritage, again another version concentrates on the gestures, as well as on the bodily and facial expressions. All of them however get a significant “contemporary touch” by the use of vibrant and flash colours and vivid brushstrokes that can be very well observed also on the giclée-prints made of the painting. Besides this however, the most curious “contemporarysation” is the insertion of a Walt Disney-figure in the medallion of the Antique goddess. Actually, in a similar way, noteworthy alterations we can observe in the pieces from the Re-Re series too: Michelangelo’s Libyan Sibyl was chosen as a starting point, taken out of her original context, not only by cropping her body, but also by eliminating the book from her hands as well as all the other details around her body and in the background. Using the deconstructed form of the original subject, Martin C. Herbst then created thirty variations with different colours and tonalities.
            These examples already show that he is not interested in following the direction proposed by Pop-art; his re-interpretations are exactly the contrary of what the intention of the first representatives of this movement was alike. The classical pop-artists tried to blur the line between high- and popular culture, on the one hand by including pop-phenomena (media stars, products of mass consumption, widely-read cartoons etc.) in the sphere of elite culture, on the other hand by multiplying the motive and thus depriving the original subject of its authenticity that sometimes led to the banalisation of this very original itself. Looking from this perspective, Martin C. Herbst’s re-interpretations are not that of a pop-artist’s action. In fact, there are several differences: when working on a classical subject, for example motives taken from the Renaissance and Baroque masters’ work, the artist does not choose them because of their fame and popularity, but rather to create a dialogue between the historical periods, between his present and the old masters’ past. He strives for a better understanding of the idea behind the classical artists’ images, to re-interpret the theories and to show his version manifested in his own work. Thus, he is not copying, but transferring the theme to his own style by changing the sizes and stretching out the proportions, using other colours that are remarkably diverse from the original, and accentuating individual aspects of the image. Therefore, what he does is not a devaluation, more like a re-evaluation, seeking and analysing the qualities and forces of his departure point, of the original work through the series. And this is how his opposition to Pop-art will be more understandable. Instead of the multiplication, exactly the single differences will be emphasised, since each of them, i.e. each version of the series will definitely be unique, giving a new reading of the same subject.

II/4. Series and the dialogue

The viewer may be surprised by another unusual approach and method of the artist: i.e. the lack of separation between the various series and groups of works in the oeuvre, and thus the lack of a strict chronology. Sometimes a solution or form from an earlier series turns up in a later work, or a new piece is added to a previous body of paintings. The focus is not on the developing of a closed set of series, but on the constant development of his painting in itself. A continuous research characterises his artistic approach, a desire of being in an artistic and intellectual dialogue with the old masters. This also explains his method of choosing a certain aspect when creating his versions of the classical masters’ work, thus initiating the dialogue, and giving a form for the re-interpretations. For example, in the aforementioned series based on Parmigianino’s Pallas Athene, the artist not only painted his new versions that are – as mentioned – examining and emphasising certain aspects of the original, but curiously connects himself in another way too: he made giclée prints of his own paintings, and in the case of this series, these prints are to be considered the final artwork. Through this multiplication he also managed to create another layer of reference to the late Renaissance master and his age, since it was the period when knowledge, forms, inventions and discoveries started to get disseminated at an exponential speed thanks to the recently invented technology of printing. Martin C. Herbst’s dialogue with Parmigianino then consists of not only a direct re-interpretation of some pictorial aspects of the Italian master, but also indirectly in examining how the 16th century culture, shaped by the experience of printing and the 21st century world of the digital revolution relate to each other. And just like he regularly turns back to his favourite old masters’ for conversation – almost as if they were both physically present in a Renaissance-type paragone – he is also often reconsidering his experiences gained from his own previous series. Hence we can say that just as Martin C. Herbst is creating an intellectual dialogue between the works of his forerunners who inspired him when creating his art pieces, he actually keeps the same conversation ongoing with himself too.

II/5. The artwork

As in previous cases we could find in the oeuvre of the artists’ elements, aspects and creative processes that turned out to be different or more complex than what they seemed at the beginning. The same happens when we start to think a bit deeper on the questions related to the (painted) image, the artwork as a whole and its context: in many examples we have a deep exploration of the traditional appearance, functioning and effect of the artwork itself. Especially because of the multifaceted use of the mirroring surface, the viewer can often be unsure where the work is? This will be especially intriguing when thinking of the Hidden Treasures-series. These pieces were developed from the Spheres, using the same mirroring surface. At the beginning the artist was just painting a portrait on a metal layer but then folded it in to make a preliminary change of the facial expression. Later however it turned out to be a more intricate display than just a simple painted and folded surface: the image appears in a kind of mirror-cage, only in the reflection. It then becomes a very fascinating problem that actually we can never see the original painted face, or at least not the complete face. Once it is created, it is folded in, or we can say: locked inside the mirror-cage, from where we can observe it only through the reflection behind. Naturally here too, just like in the case of the Spheres, the face will have multiple expressions as the viewer changes his position.
            Hence we can say that we can never see the original painted motive. But in fact, what is the original and what is the new? Or, the ultimate questions that the pieces of the Hidden Treasures pose will then be: where and what this final work is? Is it the (partly) invisible painted surface only that is folded inside, or is the metal medium an integral part of it? Is it at all possible to divide the image and its reflection only because the original remains partly invisible forever? Actually, the theoretical problem that Martin C. Herbst is investigating through these series is that since the “original” or “real” painting, that is the result of the direct interaction of the artist (i.e. the process of painting itself) is partly unobservable and sometimes physically untouchable too, the reflected mediation by the distorted mirror will become the true image. The original painting practically becomes virtual, but at the same time the complete artwork, including this original motive’s reflection will become real and substantial. The hidden original, the reflecting metal surface and the mirrored image of the original will then together create the final artwork.
            Still as part of the questions on the essence of the work we can mention the curious feature of many of the pieces that due to the use of mirror, the context of the work is reflected through it. It becomes especially spectacular in the case of the Spheres, where the unpainted and accurately mirror-polished half of the artwork renders the environment, including the gallery space, the other exhibited artworks and last but not least the viewer himself. As part of his continuous dialogue with the respected forerunners, Martin C. Herbst thus initiates to reconsider the concept of painting as being a mirror to and a painted representation of the world. The Renaissance masters interpreted the painting as a mirror of the world, trying to grasp an order in it and represent it through the very image. Martin C. Herbst divides the metaphor, and by this separation shows that the painting and the reflected image in the distorted though all-inclusive convex mirror is just two sides of the same endeavour of understanding and representation. None of them is more objective, more true or more valid than the other and none of them provides us with the exact answer, even the objective-seeming mirror cannot give us certainty because of its distortion. In their strong presence the works aesthetically reveal to us their own truth, and are convincingly showing that both of these “images” are valid. There are no ready answers, and just like the artist was striving to find his interpretation, we as viewers are invited to do the same. And this instruction and invitation is beautifully illustrated by the fact that in the sphere we can find ourselves too.

III. Artist of the contemporary

As we saw, the works from the different series of Martin C. Herbst have a great potential to surprise the viewer. Their trick is some of the elements and creative processes are not what they first appear. We often have something beyond the primary aspect: the complex use of the potentialities of the mirror as a medium, the sculpture-like works that maintain their pictorial focus and qualities, the process of using the classical motifs not as copying or a pop-art-like exploitation but with the aim of introducing new considerations by the themes’ re-interpretation. The desire to create an intellectual conversation with the forerunners and with the artist himself through the dialogue between the series and, last but not least, the analyses of the essence of the work and its relationship to both its context and its viewer – these are all intriguing details in understanding the effect of the pieces.
            However, the works of Martin C. Herbst are noteworthy not only because of this surprising elements beyond the primary aspect, but also in the way how they can demonstrate the contemporaneity of their creator and the influential force of the classical tradition in our present. The artist can become truly contemporary not because he does something completely new, but something that describes his epoch. And in order to do this, an ideal way is to shows how his age is rooted in the tradition, how the period relates itself to the previous ones, and what is our current reading and appreciation of our predecessors. Although sounding paradoxical, we can say that by getting inspired by the older masters’ works, we can become “more” contemporary. The aim of being contemporary, i.e. an artist who is a noteworthy representative of his given particular historical period does not need to be part of or follow a current fashionable movement, especially because trendy styles, voguish movements and ephemeral hypes quickly change. A solid approach however, a theoretically and historically well-based intellectual dialogue is never out of fashion. If we accept that art is one of the ways – and definitely among the most pleasing ways – of better understanding our historical and present existence, then such works that display the results of an artist who continuously strives to show his current state in relation to his tradition is never out of date. Therefore, the title of this present volume becomes even more clear by now: what we saw as a key particularity of mercury, i.e. the sense of constant fluidity of the appealing element is analogous to Martin C. Herbst’s own approach. His elegant and surprising works are in constant oscillation between tradition and contemporaneity, between the respected original and the creative novel elaboration of it, as well as between numerous genres and media. When enjoying and interpreting his re-interpretations, the observer is thus provided with thrilling examples of how to approach and re-vitalise the strength of classical works to transmit their force in the present through novel pieces of art.

Zoltán Somhegyi
text published 2021 in the book ‘mercury’

2022    BEGE Galerien Ulm, Germany (upcoming)
2020    MCH, Galeria Contrast, Barcelona, Spain
Martin C. Herbst- Revisted, Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Das Archiv der Blicke, Kunsthaus Köflach, Austria
Friktion – Martin C. Herbst und Levente Herman, Austrian Cultural Forum Budapest
2019    Essence, Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary
2018     Focus August, Le Royer, Montreal, Québec, Canada
Hidden Treasures, Zemack Gallery, Tel Aviv
2017     Positions, BEGE Galerien, Ulm, Germany
2015     WUNDERKAMMER, Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary
Martijn van Wenen, Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2014     take my eyes, Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada
afterimage, Juan Ruiz Gallery, Miami, USA
2013     Der Schöne Schein; GPL contemporary, Vienna, Austria
Wahre Illusion; Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Deutschland
Martin C. Herbst, Boloix Fine Arts, Ketchum/Idaho, USA
2012     strange days, Jacob Karpio Gallery, San José, Costa Rica
Vom Sein und Schein der Welt, Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary
2011      metamorphosis, Mark Hachem Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
Precious, Mark Hachem Gallery, Paris, France
2010     Traces, Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada
garden of delights ,Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Germany
metamorphosen,T-40 Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
2009     most már dereng, Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary
Ariodante, Mike Weiss Gallery, New York, NY
2007     Speculum-Spectaculum, MITO, Barcelona, Spain
Das Archiv der Blicke – Paintings on Aluminium, Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm,German
The Presence of Memory/az emlékezet jelene, Várfok
Inspired (by), Leonhard Ruethmueller Contemporary
2006    Pontormo, Rudolf Budja Galerie / Artmosphere, Graz,
2005    Angelus und Pomona, Rudolf Budja Galerie / Angelus, Rudolf Budja Galerie / Artmosphere, Vienna,
2003    Faces – Surfaces, Artmosphere Vienna, Austria

2021     VOLTA, Basel, with Christian Marx Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
2020     91_-DIVOC, Zemack Gallery Tel Aviv, Israel
Time to watch, Galeria Contrast, Barcelona, Spain
Art Wynwood, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Miami, FL, USA
Art Wynwood, with Wanrooij Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
Art Karlsruhe, with Christian Marx Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
2019   Art Miami, with Zemack Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
Art Miami, with Wanrooij Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
CONTEXT Miami, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Miami, FL, USA
Summer Exhibition, Boloix Fine Arts, Ketchum, ID, USA
French Salon, Zemack Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
 Fresh Paint, Zemack Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
 KunstRAI Amsterdam, with Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Art Central Hong Kong, with Zemack Gallery, Hong Kong, CHN
Art Karlsruhe, with Christian Marx Galerie, Rheinstetten, Germany
 Palm Beach Modern & Contemporary, with ZK Gallery, Palm Beach, FL, USA
 Another Dream, Zemack Galllery, Tel Aviv, Israel
 The Power of Portrait, Christian Marx Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
Art Palm Beach, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Palm Beach, FL, USA
2018     AAF Hamburg, with Wanrooij Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
Art Miami, with Wanrooij Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
SCOPE Miami, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Miami, FL, USA
Art Miami, with Zemack Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
SOFA Chicago, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Chicago, IL, USA
AAF Amsterdam, with Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Art Toronto, with Zemack Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Positions Berlin, with Christopher Cutts Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Summer Show, Zemack Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Fresh Paint, Zemack Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
KunstRAI Amsterdam, with Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Art Central Hong Kong, with Zemack Gallery, Hong Kong, CHN
French Salon, Zemack Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Art Boca Raton, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Boca Raton, FL, USA
AAF Brussels, with Wanrooij Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
AAF London, with Wanrooij Gallery, London, UK
Art Stage Singapore, with Zemack Gallery, Singapore
The Art of Portrait, Boloix Fine Arts, Ketchum, ID, USA
Metall 3, Pforzheim Galerie, Pforzheim, Germany
Art Palm Beach, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Palm Beach, FL, USA
2017   Art Miami, with Wanrooij Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
SCOPE Miami, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Miami, FL, USA
Positions Berlin, with Christopher Cutts Gallery, Berlin, Germany
A Cup of Sugar, Exhibit A, Corning, NY, USA
Art New York, with Wanrooij Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Einfach GroßARTig, BEGE Galerien, Ulm, Germany
AAF London, with Wanrooij Gallery, London, UK
Art Palm Springs, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Palm Springs, CA, USA
Art Karlsruhe, with Die Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
2016    Art Miami, with Wanrooij Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
Art Miami, with Christopher Cutts Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
SCOPE Miami, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Miami, FL, USA
Art Toronto, with Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
AAF Amsterdam, with Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Summer Collective, Le Royer, Montreal, Québec, Canada
Summer Group Show, Rarity Gallery, Mykonos, Greece
Half a Pound of Art, störpunkt, Galerie für Gegenwartskunst, Munich, Germany
2015     Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Varfok Gallery´s 25th Anniversary Exhibition
Várnegyed Gallery, Budapest, Hungary: Várfok 25  – a selection from 25 private contemporary art collections
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Miami, USA: up with diversity!
Mana Contemporary, New York: Here’s Looking Back at You: Images of Woman
Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Binghampton NY, USA: Eleven Years
Boloix Fine Arts, Ketchum/Idaho: summer exhibition
Galerie LeRoyer, Montreal: summer collective
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada: Summer
Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Binghampton NY, USA: Palm Springs Fine Art Fair
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: AAF Brussels
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: AAF London
Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Germany: Art Karlsruhe 2015
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Art Miami New York
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Art Silicon Valley
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada: ArtFair Köln
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Art Market Budapest
Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Binghampton NY, USA: Context Art Miami
Jacob Karpio Gallery, Bogotá: Scope Miami
2014     Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: opening Amsterdam 2014
Fischerplatzgalerie Ulm, Germany: 30 Jahre Fischerplatzgalerie
Wanrooij Gallery, Arnheim, The Netherlands: Realisme 14 (Amsterdam)
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Miami, USA: art wynwood
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: AAF New York
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: AAF Amsterdam
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Scope Miami
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Miami
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada: Art Toronto
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Hamburg
2013     Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto,Canada:Winter Solstice Painting Extravaganza
CAP-Exhibition Space Kuwait: Body Variances, Five European Sculptors
Kunst Palais Liechtenstein: GrauRand
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Diving Lines
collective exhibition, Mark Hachem Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
winter group show, Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto fairs:
Wanrooij Gallery, Arnheim, The Netherlands: Realisme 13 (Amsterdam)
Wanrooij Gallery, Arnheim, The Netherlands: Art at the Warehouse (Rotterdam)
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Miami, USA: art wynwood
Wanrooij Gallery, Arnheim, The Netherlands: Art 2013 (Utrecht)
Wanrooij Gallery, Arnheim, The Netherlands: SCOPE Basel
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Miami, USA: Art Miami
2012     Claire Oliver Gallery, New York: Beyond Bling, The artist as Jeweler
GPL Contemporary, Wien: Halali: Die Jagd nach dem Zeitgenössischen
Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm: schwarzweiß weißschwarz
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto: Summer Group Show
REÖK, Szeged:Kontrazstok vonzásában / attracted by contrasts
Fischerplatz Galerie, Ulm: WinterARTigkeiten
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto: Armory show, New York
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: art palm beach
Mauger Modern London: India Art fair
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: art wynwood
Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie, Zürich, Switzerland: Scope Basel
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: FIA Caracas
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: ARTBO, Bogota
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: Art Miami
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Miami
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto: Art Miami
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Art Market Budapest
2011      Die Galerie, Frankfurt am Main: Figurative Kunst aus Österreich
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto: Bakers Dozen
Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie, Zürich, Switzerland: TWENTY – FIVE
T-40, Düsseldorf, Germany: 7th anniversary
Fischerplatzgalerie Ulm: SommerARTigkeiten
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Jacob Karpio Who
dvorac sec contemporary, Prague: No borders – Appeal to heaven
Mark Hachem Beirut: Epilogue
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: art palm beach
Mauger Modern London: London Art Fair
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: Scope New York
Mauger Modern London: Scope New York
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto: Art Chicago
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: FIA Caracas
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Basel
Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie, Zürich, Switzerland: Scope Basel
Mauger Modern London: KIAF, Korea
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto: Art Toronto (sculpturfield)
Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie, Zürich, Switzerland: Kunst Zürich
Regis Krampf Gallery New York: Istanbul Contemporary
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: Art Miami
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Miami
2010     Várfok Galéria, Budapest: Crescendo
Life as a Legend: Marilyn Monroe – MOCA – Museum of Contemporary Art                         Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL
GPL Contemporary, Wien: neue und etablierte Positionen
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Miami International Fair
Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Germany: Art Karlsruhe
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada: Art Chicago
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: FIA, Caracas
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Basel
Fabian&Claude Walter Galerie Zürich: Scope Basel
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: ARTBO, Bogota
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: ARTBO, Bogota
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada: Art Toronto
Fabian&Claude Walter Galerie Zürich: Kunst Zürich
Regis Krampf Gallery New York: Istanbul Contemporary
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: SCOPE Miami
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada: SCOPE Miami
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela:Art Miami
2009     Fabian&Claude Walter Galerie Zürich: The Beautiful Painting Show
T-40 Galerie, Düsseldorf: 5th Anniversary
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Los Angeles Art Show
Mike Weiss Gallery, N.Y.: Scope New York
Mike Weiss Gallery, N.Y.: Chicago Art Fair
Fabian&Claude Walter Galerie Zürich: Scope Basel
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Basel
Várfok Galéria, Budapest: Art Vilnius
MITO, Barcelona, Arte Santander
Fischerplatzgalerie Ulm: Art Bodensee
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Artbo, Bogota
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Budapest Art Fair
2008     Galerie Bailly Contemporain,  Paris: phobea
SPUR projects, Portola Valley, CA
Five Year Anniversary Show, Mike Weiss Gallery, New York, NY
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: MIS-EN ABYME (KÉP A KÉPBEN)
Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Germany: Ganz schön ART-ig: LECKERBISSEN III
T-40 Galerie, Düsseldorf: Summer Jam
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Miami
MITO,Barcelona, Spain: Art Madrid
Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Germany: Art Karlsruhe
Mike Weiss Gallery, N.Y.: Scope N.Y.
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Art Brussels
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Basel
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Balelatina Basel
Fabian&Claude Walter Galerie Zürich: Scope Basel
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Hamptons
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Artbo, Bogota International Art Fair               MITO, Barcelona, Spain : Scope London
Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Germany:10. Art International Zürich
Galerie Bailly Contemporain Show Off , Paris
Galerie von Braunbehrens, München, Germany: Kunst Zürich
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Budapest Art Fair
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Miami
Mike Weiss Gallery, N.Y.: Scope Miami
2007   Leonhard Ruethmueller Contemporary, Basel, Switzerland: Art Miami
Leonhard Ruethmueller Contemporary, Basel, Switzerland: palmbeach3
Fischerplatzgalerie,Ulm,Germany: schwarzweiß- weißschwarz
Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Germany: Art Karlsruhe
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: real-irreal
KunstHausWien, Vienna, Austria: Malerei der Gegenwart:Zurück zur Figur
Dayton Art Institute, Ohio
Huntington Museum of Art, WV
Sioux City Art Center, Iowa
Galerie von Braunbehrens, München, Germany: KIAF, Seoul
Leonhard Ruethmueller Contemporary, Basel, Switzerland: Art Moscow
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: arteBA, Buenos Aires
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Basel
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Artbo 2007, Bogota
Leonhard Ruethmueller Contemporary, Basel, Switzerland: modern 07, München
Leonhard Ruethmueller Contemporary, Basel, Switzerland selection 07, Moskau
Fischerplatzgalerie,Ulm,Germany: ART.FAIR 21, Köln
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Cologne Fine Art, Köln
MITO,Barcelona, Spain: arte Lisboa, Portugal
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Art.Fair, Budapest
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Art Basel Miami Beach
2006     MITO,Barcelona, Spain CAP-I-CUA
Rudolf Budja Galerie/ Artmosphere Salzburg: AMADEUS – MADEUSA
Boca Raton Museum of Art, FL, USA: Life as a Legend – Marilyn Monroe
Rudolf Budja Galerie/ Artmosphere Wien: Art Miami
Rudolf Budja Galerie/ Artmosphere Wien: palmbeach3
Rudolf Budja Galerie/ Artmosphere Wien: 10th International Art Fair Moscow
Leonhard Ruethmueller Contemporary, Basel, Switzerland: art.fair, Köln
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: plug – contemporary art show Budapest
2005     Rudolf Budja Galerie / Artmosphere – Salzburg: “Beauty
Galerie Kulterer/Schloß Wolfsberg /Austria “Wiesionen – Zeitkunst“
Galleria Juris and Perl, Venice, Italy
Centro Cultural de la Villa Madrid; Claustro de Exposiciones del Palacio                Provincial de Cádiz; “marilyn, una vida de leyenda“
2004   Rudolf Budja Galerie / Artmosphere Salzburg “Love”
Reales Atarazanes de Valencia – Spain; Vakko Beyoglu Art Gallery, Istanbul,                     “marilyn, una vida de leyenda”
2003    Artmosphere Vienna “The Last Supper”
“Marilyn. The life of a legend”, County Hall Gallery, Galerie Levi, Hamburg
2001   Christine König Galerie, Vienna: “Ich Tarzan – Du felix Austria?”

MARTIN C. HERBST
Born 1965, Salzburg, Austria
EDUCATION 
1989         
Magister Artium, Class of Painting, Hochschule Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria

In the spheres series faces appear on one half of mirror-polished spheres and look like mysterious moonfaces. The artist uses highly polished stainless steel spheres and paints a distorted face on one half. The other half of the sphere remains unpainted and functions as a powerful distorting mirror.
This series is inspired by a famous painting of the Italian Mannerism, Parmigianino’s Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror

In the scupltural hidden treasure series, painting and mirror are amalgamated, transforming tangible paint into an ephemeral and virtual manifestation. As a result of the complex folds in the mirrored aluminium, most of the actual painting is only seen in its reflection.  More, the painting seems to take life and even become animated, because the part of the mirror producing the reflection is uneven. As soon as the beholder begins to explore its secrets by moving from side to side, the work unfolds a surprising array of subtly shifting reflections of the painted image.

In the garden of delights series flowers make a grand entrance in the staging of large panels. The curved background’s mirrored surface produces permanently shifting distorted reflections of the beholder and the space around the painting. The flower seems animated, because our eye and brain cannot process the perception of an image deriving from a solid object in which parts change dynamically and others remain stable.

Paintings on flat aluminum plates and paintings on canvas were the starting point of Herbst´s artistic caree and still play an important role in his work with the series Maria Magdalena , Bella and others.

 

Mercury
The works of Martin C. Herbst

I. Multi-perspectivity

The works of Martin C. Herbst invite the viewer to observe them from multiple perspectives, as we immediately understand that the art pieces work on various levels. They are curious, polyvalent as well as visually and intellectually appealing, similar to mercury, this fascinating element that has inspired thinkers, artists and alchemists since the Antiquity. However, it is not only the elegant and pleasing appearance of mercury, the bright silver colour that bears important similarities with the artist’s work, but also another feature: its constant movement. Also called quicksilver, a sense of continuous movement is attributed to the shiny and liquid metal that can be seen in parallel with the way that Martin C. Herbst’s art pieces oscillate between periods, genres and media. Therefore, mercury here refers to not merely the visual features, but also to the works’ ability to act as messengers (Mercurius) between other artworks, masters, ages, traditions, forms, media and aesthetic experiences.

At first sight it is the pure beauty and the meticulous execution that appears, pleasing our senses, and letting the viewer enjoy the clear and stainless objects. However, the artist does not stop at this primary aesthetic appeal, but includes multi-layered art historical references that stimulate the viewer to examine the relationship between the present contemporary work and that of the forerunners from older periods. Hence, Martin C. Herbst opens a continuous and inspiring discussion between art pieces, traditions, artist and public. By viewing the art objects, the observer can arrive at critical and noteworthy theoretical considerations on issues such as the becoming of an artwork, on the essence of an art piece, on the problem of what distinguishes a copy from a reference, and on the difference between direct quotation and inspiration.

It is important to note however, that these three aspects of the works of Martin C. Herbst – i.e. the pure aesthetic appeal, the historical references and their capacity of initiating considerations on the ultimate essence of art – are not in a hierarchy or in any kind of order or level of importance. One can choose one aspect or another, or concentrate on any of these. Perhaps one prefers to only admire the clear surfaces and the reflection, while others focus on the examination of the artist’s references to those earlier colleagues who inspired him, and again others employ the works in considerations on art itself. These aspects are thus both separate and connected, and show the multi-perspectivity of Martin C. Herbst’s art.

II. Beyond the primary

A further feature that stimulates the observer is the works’ ability to destabilise us as viewers in our position, and that instructs us to see beyond, and also how to see beyond. The art pieces guide and enlighten us to learn to challenge the first answer we find, that would be a (seemingly) obvious solution, with an easy explanation. We are practically forced to immerse ourselves in the work itself, we feel right from the beginning that there is something much more crucial going on beyond their shiny surface. In fact, at first sight the works look so direct, transparent and self-evident that this arises doubt in the spectator, and makes us understand that we need to start seeing and seeking beyond. And we are right in doing so, since several of the elements and aspects of the works and of the working process of Martin C. Herbst is not what it first appears. The primary impression or preliminary consideration needs to be modified after a conscious and attentive look – of course, the works, being inspiringly complex, do not let themselves be conquered easily by the interested observer. Nevertheless, even after examining them more in depth and ruminating on their characteristics, they still keep on “disturbing” us, naturally in a positive sense of the word: they keep on shining in our mind, making us reflect on their aesthetic potentials. We continue thinking of them, while trying to refine our interpretation. Let’s see a couple of examples and how the elements and working processes of the works are different and more complex than they first appear.

II/1. The use of the mirror

The first element that is not what it looks like at the beginning, and that is not used in the way we would think of, is the mirror. The mirror and the mirroring surface – created by either traditional glass mirror, polished stainless steel or by state-of-the-art alternatives like mirror-dibond and a high-end aluminium sheet used mainly in industrial settings and known for its high-quality light-reflection that guarantees a colour-true reflection – is one of the most easily recognisable connecting element between the series, and at the same time is a curious reference to a millenia-long topos and art historical tradition. However, it is not used in the way we can see it in this very tradition. Earlier it was mainly represented, i.e. directly painted in the image, as we can see it in the famous examples of Jan van Eyck’s Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife from 1434, or in Lukas Furtenagel’s The Painter Hans Burgkmair and his Wife from 1529. The use of mirror was then an ideal way of either including metaphorical and allegorical considerations – like in Furtenagel’s image, where the older couple’s faces are reflected as skulls in the mirror, thus referring to the approaching end of their life – or to put the artist himself in the image, like in Eyck’s portrait, where, even if in miniature, we can see the painter too. This latter will be an important approach for Martin C. Herbst in his own work as well, just like the well-known self-portrait of Parmigianino from 1524, where the flat surface of the round painting imitates what we can see in a convex mirror – or, actually, what the artist himself saw when painting his self-portrait. In the contemporary arts however, the mirror can have new potentialities when it is not only represented through painting, but also used as a medium, i.e. a base and material for the work. Again, from the endless instances we can remember the oeuvre of Michelangelo Pistoletto who both paints on it and often breaks it, or for example Mona Hatoum who also uses it as a medium for her conceptual works, or even Anish Kapoor who uses its glossy and reflecting feature as a sculptural quality. The curiosity in Martin C. Herbst’s work is that in his series he connects himself to all of these two traditions, i.e. to the representation of the mirror, to the appearance of the mirrored image and to the usage of the mirror as a medium. Thus the mirror will not only be a medium or a pure historical reference, more like a starting point for the creation of new artistic approaches.

II/2. Form and medium

The pieces of almost all of the recent series have a sculptural appearance when seen for the first time. The works from the spherical Parmigianino-series, or of the folded pieces of the Hidden Treasure or even the double mirrors of the Perfect Faces all have a primarily sculptural effect, being three dimensional forms in space or on the wall. Nevertheless, Martin C. Herbst strongly and decisively remains a painter. The works are thus in an intriguing balance between the two most basic and antique forms of artistic expression, i.e. three-dimensional sculpture and two-dimensional painting. The artist’s intention is not the creation of a sculptural work in the classical sense of the medium: he is not aiming to make a piece whose primary aesthetic force lies in the volume, in the proportion between occupied space and incorporated void or in the solidity of the material in itself. Instead of regarding the works as the results of an attempt of the physical extension of painting, we should rather interpret them as essential additions to the concept of painting, or its re-definition. As a similar case, we can think of the example of Frank Stella’s oeuvre, who after his famous shaped canvases started to create objects and assemblages, normally hanging from the wall. Although these works are three-dimensional, they still can be considered as the further development of Stella’s own approach to painting. Something similar happens in Martin C. Herbst’s oeuvre too: even though it seems almost paradoxical, we can say that whatever the medium is, he emphasises the two-dimensionality of the works, through the painted surface. To illustrate this, it is worth examining how the accurate use of the painting technique guarantees the importance of the surface itself, for example through the thin layers and their shiny and glossy appearance. Therefore, the reflection is always on the surface and thanks to the surface, the work remains a painting, keeping its two-dimensionality.
            What then is the reason for painting a three-dimensional object if not the intention of a classical sculptural effect? Why having shaped forms as the bearer and medium of painting if their most obvious quality, the spatial seems to remain unexploited? Actually, it is exactly in the favour of the very painting itself. Through this working method the artist can gain more out of the painting, he can enlarge its potentialities and forces of expression and can have several – or perhaps an endless – number of images through the same painting. For example we can turn the faces of the Spheres even upside down to have another effect, and also the Hidden Treasures in the folded series are continuously changing their facial expressions even if the observer only slightly changes his position. Hence, we can see that the three-dimensional medium of the different series is not in the aim of a classical sculptural effect, more like expanding the possibilities of painting with the help of having the third dimension not only represented as a perspectivist illusion, but using it as the perceptive context of the very painting itself.

II/3. Approach and style

In several groups of works we can find familiar motives that are well-known from the classical art historical tradition. Some of them are concrete elements, for example one of Michelangelo’s Libyan Sibyl from the 1511 from the Sistine Chapel in Martin C. Herbst’s Re-Re series, while in other cases we can see famous and particular motives re-worked by the artist, like the convex self-portrait of Parmigianino in the aforementioned series. However, also these re-elaborations are not what they seem at first. Martin C. Herbst is not intending to create copies, but re-interpretations, using the known forms and solutions for creating new meanings by the special reading of the original art piece. This becomes obvious if we examine his works and the concept behind the series, and trace the differences. For example when using Parmigianino’s Pallas Athene from 1539 as a starting point, the artist had chosen a slightly changed format compared to the original, and painted different versions, where he put diverse focuses, one is more accentuating the sfumato qualities of the of the original, while others examine the relationship of Parmigianino to the classical Graeco-Roman art heritage, again another version concentrates on the gestures, as well as on the bodily and facial expressions. All of them however get a significant “contemporary touch” by the use of vibrant and flash colours and vivid brushstrokes that can be very well observed also on the giclée-prints made of the painting. Besides this however, the most curious “contemporarysation” is the insertion of a Walt Disney-figure in the medallion of the Antique goddess. Actually, in a similar way, noteworthy alterations we can observe in the pieces from the Re-Re series too: Michelangelo’s Libyan Sibyl was chosen as a starting point, taken out of her original context, not only by cropping her body, but also by eliminating the book from her hands as well as all the other details around her body and in the background. Using the deconstructed form of the original subject, Martin C. Herbst then created thirty variations with different colours and tonalities.
            These examples already show that he is not interested in following the direction proposed by Pop-art; his re-interpretations are exactly the contrary of what the intention of the first representatives of this movement was alike. The classical pop-artists tried to blur the line between high- and popular culture, on the one hand by including pop-phenomena (media stars, products of mass consumption, widely-read cartoons etc.) in the sphere of elite culture, on the other hand by multiplying the motive and thus depriving the original subject of its authenticity that sometimes led to the banalisation of this very original itself. Looking from this perspective, Martin C. Herbst’s re-interpretations are not that of a pop-artist’s action. In fact, there are several differences: when working on a classical subject, for example motives taken from the Renaissance and Baroque masters’ work, the artist does not choose them because of their fame and popularity, but rather to create a dialogue between the historical periods, between his present and the old masters’ past. He strives for a better understanding of the idea behind the classical artists’ images, to re-interpret the theories and to show his version manifested in his own work. Thus, he is not copying, but transferring the theme to his own style by changing the sizes and stretching out the proportions, using other colours that are remarkably diverse from the original, and accentuating individual aspects of the image. Therefore, what he does is not a devaluation, more like a re-evaluation, seeking and analysing the qualities and forces of his departure point, of the original work through the series. And this is how his opposition to Pop-art will be more understandable. Instead of the multiplication, exactly the single differences will be emphasised, since each of them, i.e. each version of the series will definitely be unique, giving a new reading of the same subject.

II/4. Series and the dialogue

The viewer may be surprised by another unusual approach and method of the artist: i.e. the lack of separation between the various series and groups of works in the oeuvre, and thus the lack of a strict chronology. Sometimes a solution or form from an earlier series turns up in a later work, or a new piece is added to a previous body of paintings. The focus is not on the developing of a closed set of series, but on the constant development of his painting in itself. A continuous research characterises his artistic approach, a desire of being in an artistic and intellectual dialogue with the old masters. This also explains his method of choosing a certain aspect when creating his versions of the classical masters’ work, thus initiating the dialogue, and giving a form for the re-interpretations. For example, in the aforementioned series based on Parmigianino’s Pallas Athene, the artist not only painted his new versions that are – as mentioned – examining and emphasising certain aspects of the original, but curiously connects himself in another way too: he made giclée prints of his own paintings, and in the case of this series, these prints are to be considered the final artwork. Through this multiplication he also managed to create another layer of reference to the late Renaissance master and his age, since it was the period when knowledge, forms, inventions and discoveries started to get disseminated at an exponential speed thanks to the recently invented technology of printing. Martin C. Herbst’s dialogue with Parmigianino then consists of not only a direct re-interpretation of some pictorial aspects of the Italian master, but also indirectly in examining how the 16th century culture, shaped by the experience of printing and the 21st century world of the digital revolution relate to each other. And just like he regularly turns back to his favourite old masters’ for conversation – almost as if they were both physically present in a Renaissance-type paragone – he is also often reconsidering his experiences gained from his own previous series. Hence we can say that just as Martin C. Herbst is creating an intellectual dialogue between the works of his forerunners who inspired him when creating his art pieces, he actually keeps the same conversation ongoing with himself too.

II/5. The artwork

As in previous cases we could find in the oeuvre of the artists’ elements, aspects and creative processes that turned out to be different or more complex than what they seemed at the beginning. The same happens when we start to think a bit deeper on the questions related to the (painted) image, the artwork as a whole and its context: in many examples we have a deep exploration of the traditional appearance, functioning and effect of the artwork itself. Especially because of the multifaceted use of the mirroring surface, the viewer can often be unsure where the work is? This will be especially intriguing when thinking of the Hidden Treasures-series. These pieces were developed from the Spheres, using the same mirroring surface. At the beginning the artist was just painting a portrait on a metal layer but then folded it in to make a preliminary change of the facial expression. Later however it turned out to be a more intricate display than just a simple painted and folded surface: the image appears in a kind of mirror-cage, only in the reflection. It then becomes a very fascinating problem that actually we can never see the original painted face, or at least not the complete face. Once it is created, it is folded in, or we can say: locked inside the mirror-cage, from where we can observe it only through the reflection behind. Naturally here too, just like in the case of the Spheres, the face will have multiple expressions as the viewer changes his position.
            Hence we can say that we can never see the original painted motive. But in fact, what is the original and what is the new? Or, the ultimate questions that the pieces of the Hidden Treasures pose will then be: where and what this final work is? Is it the (partly) invisible painted surface only that is folded inside, or is the metal medium an integral part of it? Is it at all possible to divide the image and its reflection only because the original remains partly invisible forever? Actually, the theoretical problem that Martin C. Herbst is investigating through these series is that since the “original” or “real” painting, that is the result of the direct interaction of the artist (i.e. the process of painting itself) is partly unobservable and sometimes physically untouchable too, the reflected mediation by the distorted mirror will become the true image. The original painting practically becomes virtual, but at the same time the complete artwork, including this original motive’s reflection will become real and substantial. The hidden original, the reflecting metal surface and the mirrored image of the original will then together create the final artwork.
            Still as part of the questions on the essence of the work we can mention the curious feature of many of the pieces that due to the use of mirror, the context of the work is reflected through it. It becomes especially spectacular in the case of the Spheres, where the unpainted and accurately mirror-polished half of the artwork renders the environment, including the gallery space, the other exhibited artworks and last but not least the viewer himself. As part of his continuous dialogue with the respected forerunners, Martin C. Herbst thus initiates to reconsider the concept of painting as being a mirror to and a painted representation of the world. The Renaissance masters interpreted the painting as a mirror of the world, trying to grasp an order in it and represent it through the very image. Martin C. Herbst divides the metaphor, and by this separation shows that the painting and the reflected image in the distorted though all-inclusive convex mirror is just two sides of the same endeavour of understanding and representation. None of them is more objective, more true or more valid than the other and none of them provides us with the exact answer, even the objective-seeming mirror cannot give us certainty because of its distortion. In their strong presence the works aesthetically reveal to us their own truth, and are convincingly showing that both of these “images” are valid. There are no ready answers, and just like the artist was striving to find his interpretation, we as viewers are invited to do the same. And this instruction and invitation is beautifully illustrated by the fact that in the sphere we can find ourselves too.

III. Artist of the contemporary

As we saw, the works from the different series of Martin C. Herbst have a great potential to surprise the viewer. Their trick is some of the elements and creative processes are not what they first appear. We often have something beyond the primary aspect: the complex use of the potentialities of the mirror as a medium, the sculpture-like works that maintain their pictorial focus and qualities, the process of using the classical motifs not as copying or a pop-art-like exploitation but with the aim of introducing new considerations by the themes’ re-interpretation. The desire to create an intellectual conversation with the forerunners and with the artist himself through the dialogue between the series and, last but not least, the analyses of the essence of the work and its relationship to both its context and its viewer – these are all intriguing details in understanding the effect of the pieces.
            However, the works of Martin C. Herbst are noteworthy not only because of this surprising elements beyond the primary aspect, but also in the way how they can demonstrate the contemporaneity of their creator and the influential force of the classical tradition in our present. The artist can become truly contemporary not because he does something completely new, but something that describes his epoch. And in order to do this, an ideal way is to shows how his age is rooted in the tradition, how the period relates itself to the previous ones, and what is our current reading and appreciation of our predecessors. Although sounding paradoxical, we can say that by getting inspired by the older masters’ works, we can become “more” contemporary. The aim of being contemporary, i.e. an artist who is a noteworthy representative of his given particular historical period does not need to be part of or follow a current fashionable movement, especially because trendy styles, voguish movements and ephemeral hypes quickly change. A solid approach however, a theoretically and historically well-based intellectual dialogue is never out of fashion. If we accept that art is one of the ways – and definitely among the most pleasing ways – of better understanding our historical and present existence, then such works that display the results of an artist who continuously strives to show his current state in relation to his tradition is never out of date. Therefore, the title of this present volume becomes even more clear by now: what we saw as a key particularity of mercury, i.e. the sense of constant fluidity of the appealing element is analogous to Martin C. Herbst’s own approach. His elegant and surprising works are in constant oscillation between tradition and contemporaneity, between the respected original and the creative novel elaboration of it, as well as between numerous genres and media. When enjoying and interpreting his re-interpretations, the observer is thus provided with thrilling examples of how to approach and re-vitalise the strength of classical works to transmit their force in the present through novel pieces of art.

Zoltán Somhegyi
text published 2021 in the book ‘mercury’

2022    BEGE Galerien Ulm, Germany (upcoming)
2020    MCH, Galeria Contrast, Barcelona, Spain
Martin C. Herbst- Revisted, Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Das Archiv der Blicke, Kunsthaus Köflach, Austria
Friktion – Martin C. Herbst und Levente Herman, Austrian Cultural Forum Budapest
2019    Essence, Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary
2018     Focus August, Le Royer, Montreal, Québec, Canada
Hidden Treasures, Zemack Gallery, Tel Aviv
2017     Positions, BEGE Galerien, Ulm, Germany
2015     WUNDERKAMMER, Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary
Martijn van Wenen, Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2014     take my eyes, Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada
afterimage, Juan Ruiz Gallery, Miami, USA
2013     Der Schöne Schein; GPL contemporary, Vienna, Austria
Wahre Illusion; Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Deutschland
Martin C. Herbst, Boloix Fine Arts, Ketchum/Idaho, USA
2012     strange days, Jacob Karpio Gallery, San José, Costa Rica
Vom Sein und Schein der Welt, Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary
2011      metamorphosis, Mark Hachem Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
Precious, Mark Hachem Gallery, Paris, France
2010     Traces, Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada
garden of delights ,Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Germany
metamorphosen,T-40 Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
2009     most már dereng, Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary
Ariodante, Mike Weiss Gallery, New York, NY
2007     Speculum-Spectaculum, MITO, Barcelona, Spain
Das Archiv der Blicke – Paintings on Aluminium, Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm,German
The Presence of Memory/az emlékezet jelene, Várfok
Inspired (by), Leonhard Ruethmueller Contemporary
2006    Pontormo, Rudolf Budja Galerie / Artmosphere, Graz,
2005    Angelus und Pomona, Rudolf Budja Galerie / Angelus, Rudolf Budja Galerie / Artmosphere, Vienna,
2003    Faces – Surfaces, Artmosphere Vienna, Austria

2021     VOLTA, Basel, with Christian Marx Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
2020     91_-DIVOC, Zemack Gallery Tel Aviv, Israel
Time to watch, Galeria Contrast, Barcelona, Spain
Art Wynwood, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Miami, FL, USA
Art Wynwood, with Wanrooij Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
Art Karlsruhe, with Christian Marx Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
2019   Art Miami, with Zemack Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
Art Miami, with Wanrooij Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
CONTEXT Miami, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Miami, FL, USA
Summer Exhibition, Boloix Fine Arts, Ketchum, ID, USA
French Salon, Zemack Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
 Fresh Paint, Zemack Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
 KunstRAI Amsterdam, with Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Art Central Hong Kong, with Zemack Gallery, Hong Kong, CHN
Art Karlsruhe, with Christian Marx Galerie, Rheinstetten, Germany
 Palm Beach Modern & Contemporary, with ZK Gallery, Palm Beach, FL, USA
 Another Dream, Zemack Galllery, Tel Aviv, Israel
 The Power of Portrait, Christian Marx Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
Art Palm Beach, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Palm Beach, FL, USA
2018     AAF Hamburg, with Wanrooij Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
Art Miami, with Wanrooij Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
SCOPE Miami, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Miami, FL, USA
Art Miami, with Zemack Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
SOFA Chicago, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Chicago, IL, USA
AAF Amsterdam, with Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Art Toronto, with Zemack Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Positions Berlin, with Christopher Cutts Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Summer Show, Zemack Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Fresh Paint, Zemack Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
KunstRAI Amsterdam, with Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Art Central Hong Kong, with Zemack Gallery, Hong Kong, CHN
French Salon, Zemack Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Art Boca Raton, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Boca Raton, FL, USA
AAF Brussels, with Wanrooij Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
AAF London, with Wanrooij Gallery, London, UK
Art Stage Singapore, with Zemack Gallery, Singapore
The Art of Portrait, Boloix Fine Arts, Ketchum, ID, USA
Metall 3, Pforzheim Galerie, Pforzheim, Germany
Art Palm Beach, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Palm Beach, FL, USA
2017   Art Miami, with Wanrooij Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
SCOPE Miami, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Miami, FL, USA
Positions Berlin, with Christopher Cutts Gallery, Berlin, Germany
A Cup of Sugar, Exhibit A, Corning, NY, USA
Art New York, with Wanrooij Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Einfach GroßARTig, BEGE Galerien, Ulm, Germany
AAF London, with Wanrooij Gallery, London, UK
Art Palm Springs, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Palm Springs, CA, USA
Art Karlsruhe, with Die Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
2016    Art Miami, with Wanrooij Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
Art Miami, with Christopher Cutts Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
SCOPE Miami, with Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Miami, FL, USA
Art Toronto, with Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
AAF Amsterdam, with Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Summer Collective, Le Royer, Montreal, Québec, Canada
Summer Group Show, Rarity Gallery, Mykonos, Greece
Half a Pound of Art, störpunkt, Galerie für Gegenwartskunst, Munich, Germany
2015     Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Varfok Gallery´s 25th Anniversary Exhibition
Várnegyed Gallery, Budapest, Hungary: Várfok 25  – a selection from 25 private contemporary art collections
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Miami, USA: up with diversity!
Mana Contemporary, New York: Here’s Looking Back at You: Images of Woman
Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Binghampton NY, USA: Eleven Years
Boloix Fine Arts, Ketchum/Idaho: summer exhibition
Galerie LeRoyer, Montreal: summer collective
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada: Summer
Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Binghampton NY, USA: Palm Springs Fine Art Fair
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: AAF Brussels
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: AAF London
Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Germany: Art Karlsruhe 2015
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Art Miami New York
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Art Silicon Valley
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada: ArtFair Köln
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Art Market Budapest
Anthony Brunelli Fine Arts, Binghampton NY, USA: Context Art Miami
Jacob Karpio Gallery, Bogotá: Scope Miami
2014     Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: opening Amsterdam 2014
Fischerplatzgalerie Ulm, Germany: 30 Jahre Fischerplatzgalerie
Wanrooij Gallery, Arnheim, The Netherlands: Realisme 14 (Amsterdam)
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Miami, USA: art wynwood
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: AAF New York
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: AAF Amsterdam
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Scope Miami
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Miami
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada: Art Toronto
Wanrooij Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Hamburg
2013     Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto,Canada:Winter Solstice Painting Extravaganza
CAP-Exhibition Space Kuwait: Body Variances, Five European Sculptors
Kunst Palais Liechtenstein: GrauRand
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Diving Lines
collective exhibition, Mark Hachem Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
winter group show, Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto fairs:
Wanrooij Gallery, Arnheim, The Netherlands: Realisme 13 (Amsterdam)
Wanrooij Gallery, Arnheim, The Netherlands: Art at the Warehouse (Rotterdam)
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Miami, USA: art wynwood
Wanrooij Gallery, Arnheim, The Netherlands: Art 2013 (Utrecht)
Wanrooij Gallery, Arnheim, The Netherlands: SCOPE Basel
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Miami, USA: Art Miami
2012     Claire Oliver Gallery, New York: Beyond Bling, The artist as Jeweler
GPL Contemporary, Wien: Halali: Die Jagd nach dem Zeitgenössischen
Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm: schwarzweiß weißschwarz
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto: Summer Group Show
REÖK, Szeged:Kontrazstok vonzásában / attracted by contrasts
Fischerplatz Galerie, Ulm: WinterARTigkeiten
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto: Armory show, New York
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: art palm beach
Mauger Modern London: India Art fair
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: art wynwood
Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie, Zürich, Switzerland: Scope Basel
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: FIA Caracas
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: ARTBO, Bogota
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: Art Miami
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Miami
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto: Art Miami
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Art Market Budapest
2011      Die Galerie, Frankfurt am Main: Figurative Kunst aus Österreich
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto: Bakers Dozen
Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie, Zürich, Switzerland: TWENTY – FIVE
T-40, Düsseldorf, Germany: 7th anniversary
Fischerplatzgalerie Ulm: SommerARTigkeiten
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Jacob Karpio Who
dvorac sec contemporary, Prague: No borders – Appeal to heaven
Mark Hachem Beirut: Epilogue
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: art palm beach
Mauger Modern London: London Art Fair
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: Scope New York
Mauger Modern London: Scope New York
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto: Art Chicago
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: FIA Caracas
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Basel
Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie, Zürich, Switzerland: Scope Basel
Mauger Modern London: KIAF, Korea
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto: Art Toronto (sculpturfield)
Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie, Zürich, Switzerland: Kunst Zürich
Regis Krampf Gallery New York: Istanbul Contemporary
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: Art Miami
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Miami
2010     Várfok Galéria, Budapest: Crescendo
Life as a Legend: Marilyn Monroe – MOCA – Museum of Contemporary Art                         Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL
GPL Contemporary, Wien: neue und etablierte Positionen
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Miami International Fair
Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Germany: Art Karlsruhe
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada: Art Chicago
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: FIA, Caracas
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Basel
Fabian&Claude Walter Galerie Zürich: Scope Basel
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: ARTBO, Bogota
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela: ARTBO, Bogota
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada: Art Toronto
Fabian&Claude Walter Galerie Zürich: Kunst Zürich
Regis Krampf Gallery New York: Istanbul Contemporary
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: SCOPE Miami
Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto, Canada: SCOPE Miami
Juan Ruiz Galeria, Maracaibo, Venezuela:Art Miami
2009     Fabian&Claude Walter Galerie Zürich: The Beautiful Painting Show
T-40 Galerie, Düsseldorf: 5th Anniversary
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Los Angeles Art Show
Mike Weiss Gallery, N.Y.: Scope New York
Mike Weiss Gallery, N.Y.: Chicago Art Fair
Fabian&Claude Walter Galerie Zürich: Scope Basel
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Basel
Várfok Galéria, Budapest: Art Vilnius
MITO, Barcelona, Arte Santander
Fischerplatzgalerie Ulm: Art Bodensee
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Artbo, Bogota
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Budapest Art Fair
2008     Galerie Bailly Contemporain,  Paris: phobea
SPUR projects, Portola Valley, CA
Five Year Anniversary Show, Mike Weiss Gallery, New York, NY
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: MIS-EN ABYME (KÉP A KÉPBEN)
Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Germany: Ganz schön ART-ig: LECKERBISSEN III
T-40 Galerie, Düsseldorf: Summer Jam
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Miami
MITO,Barcelona, Spain: Art Madrid
Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Germany: Art Karlsruhe
Mike Weiss Gallery, N.Y.: Scope N.Y.
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Art Brussels
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Basel
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Balelatina Basel
Fabian&Claude Walter Galerie Zürich: Scope Basel
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Hamptons
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Artbo, Bogota International Art Fair               MITO, Barcelona, Spain : Scope London
Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Germany:10. Art International Zürich
Galerie Bailly Contemporain Show Off , Paris
Galerie von Braunbehrens, München, Germany: Kunst Zürich
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Budapest Art Fair
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Miami
Mike Weiss Gallery, N.Y.: Scope Miami
2007   Leonhard Ruethmueller Contemporary, Basel, Switzerland: Art Miami
Leonhard Ruethmueller Contemporary, Basel, Switzerland: palmbeach3
Fischerplatzgalerie,Ulm,Germany: schwarzweiß- weißschwarz
Fischerplatzgalerie, Ulm, Germany: Art Karlsruhe
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: real-irreal
KunstHausWien, Vienna, Austria: Malerei der Gegenwart:Zurück zur Figur
Dayton Art Institute, Ohio
Huntington Museum of Art, WV
Sioux City Art Center, Iowa
Galerie von Braunbehrens, München, Germany: KIAF, Seoul
Leonhard Ruethmueller Contemporary, Basel, Switzerland: Art Moscow
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: arteBA, Buenos Aires
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Scope Basel
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Artbo 2007, Bogota
Leonhard Ruethmueller Contemporary, Basel, Switzerland: modern 07, München
Leonhard Ruethmueller Contemporary, Basel, Switzerland selection 07, Moskau
Fischerplatzgalerie,Ulm,Germany: ART.FAIR 21, Köln
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Cologne Fine Art, Köln
MITO,Barcelona, Spain: arte Lisboa, Portugal
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: Art.Fair, Budapest
Jacob Karpio Galeria, San José, Costa Rica: Art Basel Miami Beach
2006     MITO,Barcelona, Spain CAP-I-CUA
Rudolf Budja Galerie/ Artmosphere Salzburg: AMADEUS – MADEUSA
Boca Raton Museum of Art, FL, USA: Life as a Legend – Marilyn Monroe
Rudolf Budja Galerie/ Artmosphere Wien: Art Miami
Rudolf Budja Galerie/ Artmosphere Wien: palmbeach3
Rudolf Budja Galerie/ Artmosphere Wien: 10th International Art Fair Moscow
Leonhard Ruethmueller Contemporary, Basel, Switzerland: art.fair, Köln
Várfok Galéria, Budapest, Hungary: plug – contemporary art show Budapest
2005     Rudolf Budja Galerie / Artmosphere – Salzburg: “Beauty
Galerie Kulterer/Schloß Wolfsberg /Austria “Wiesionen – Zeitkunst“
Galleria Juris and Perl, Venice, Italy
Centro Cultural de la Villa Madrid; Claustro de Exposiciones del Palacio                Provincial de Cádiz; “marilyn, una vida de leyenda“
2004   Rudolf Budja Galerie / Artmosphere Salzburg “Love”
Reales Atarazanes de Valencia – Spain; Vakko Beyoglu Art Gallery, Istanbul,                     “marilyn, una vida de leyenda”
2003    Artmosphere Vienna “The Last Supper”
“Marilyn. The life of a legend”, County Hall Gallery, Galerie Levi, Hamburg
2001   Christine König Galerie, Vienna: “Ich Tarzan – Du felix Austria?”

Christian Voigt

Christian Voigt

We will allow you to take photos of us while we are eating if you meditate with us afterwards,“ a friendly monk of a remote Buddhist monastery told Christian Voigt a few years ago. And with it, of course, gave his foreign guest two gifts at once: the generous offer to allow him to participate in the everyday life of the religious community – and the opportunity for a wonderful photo. „I learned how to practice walking meditation during my time in the monastery. I continue to practise it to this day,“ says the photographer.

Isn`t travel simply a gift of life for those who allow themselves to experience something new and foreign, far from the well-worn paths of their home? „A trip is like drinking from the source of life,“ stated German poet and dramatist Friedrich Hebbel in the 19th century. The seductive essence of this drink, an elixir of life that has a profound impact on the viewer, flows from Christian Voigt`s photographs.

The Hamburg-based photographer manages to find images on his trips that leave us in awe of the world. That might even be his biggest talent, hidden amidst his photos that convey almost hyper-realistic perfection. We stand in front of the images like a child amazed by his first fireworks display and rediscover our sense of wonder for some precious moments.

We will allow you to take photos of us while we are eating if you meditate with us afterwards,“ a friendly monk of a remote Buddhist monastery told Christian Voigt a few years ago. And with it, of course, gave his foreign guest two gifts at once: the generous offer to allow him to participate in the everyday life of the religious community – and the opportunity for a wonderful photo. „I learned how to practice walking meditation during my time in the monastery. I continue to practise it to this day,“ says the photographer.

Isn`t travel simply a gift of life for those who allow themselves to experience something new and foreign, far from the well-worn paths of their home? „A trip is like drinking from the source of life,“ stated German poet and dramatist Friedrich Hebbel in the 19th century. The seductive essence of this drink, an elixir of life that has a profound impact on the viewer, flows from Christian Voigt`s photographs.

The Hamburg-based photographer manages to find images on his trips that leave us in awe of the world. That might even be his biggest talent, hidden amidst his photos that convey almost hyper-realistic perfection. We stand in front of the images like a child amazed by his first fireworks display and rediscover our sense of wonder for some precious moments.

In these moments, Christian Voigt`s monumental pictures open up to us like vast pools for the senses. We gently lose ourselves in an archetypal dune landscape that evokes the realm of myths and fairy tales, and then find ourselves in the historical architecture of an ancient Egyptian temple. Our thoughts cross continents and cultures in these images. They open up breathtaking horizons, where authentic living culture meets the aesthetic culture of images. A new adventure of the senses awaits us with each image. We can almost hear the evening drone of moped and motorcycle engines revving in the streets of Vietnam, the stomping rhythm oft he music emanating from the glowing red Las Vegas strip club where a stripper appears to gyrate in the blurred background of our fantasies. Our eyes and our thoughts set off on an excursion in Voigt’s „world images.“

The apparently restless globetrotter Christian Voigt shares a condensed world culture from his trips with us. He raves about the power of a large print in XXL format that practically pulls his viewers into the picture. „I need the massiveness to capture my emotions. When you sit in front oft he large format the result is a feast for the eyes.“ Voigt`s imposing and monumental works effortlessly fill the room, shaping the atmosphere of the interior. The people in these images are often small, providing proportion to a large-scale scenario of a location and everything going on in it.

The charismatic big image hunter has an eye for cultural rites and magical moments abroad and allows us to share in his emotions during these precious moments. In addition to several images that have been prepared for years, there are also often spectacular examples of his spontaneous reaction to locations and encounters

„Christian captures the beauty oft he world in pictures“, gushes a Californian patron of his work when asked why he is such a fan oft he German photographer`s work. His photogrphs often do seem to be a visual approach to the definition of beauty. „I love depicting beauty,“ says the photographer, not meaning a one-dimensional concept. Voigt says that he also looks for and finds this beauty in the chaos of an Asian street market, for example. Of course the beauty of these images is in their creative precision, their clear, vibrant colors, and perfectly executed compositions.

Voigt`s motifs offer the viewer a perfect arrangement of harmonies and targeted dissonances. The passionate photographer composes complex symphonies for the eyes. The photo artist does not care wheater these locations have been frequently photographed or never been photographed. „I have taken pictures of New York`s Central Park. A billion photos of it have been taken already,“ says Christian Voigt. „I’m not worried, because I know that my photo will look different.“ The 20th century artistic genius Pablo Picasso once said, „Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.“ However, a painter that transforms a yellow spot into a sunrise is an artist. Christian Voigt loves this quote. And transforms a single photo into an atmospheric picture that , using up to 30 picutures, condenses one spot into a newly enriched complete picuture that reflects its pulse and appeal. The result could be photographs of the collective works of an ancient library or details of the street life of  a faraway land. Chaos and order, opulence and simplicity are all equals in a pictorial cosmos that shows us the multifacteted nature of the world.

2009
St. Tropez, Chateau St. Amé / groupshow / August

2010
New York, Opera Gallery, groupshow / April – May
St. Tropez, Barbara de Palma Gallery / April – September

2011
Los Angeles, Karl Hutter Fine Art / solo exhibition / April – May
St. Tropez, Barbara de Palma Gallery / Juli – October
Den Haag, Wanrooij Gallery / Arti 11 / October
Arnhem, Wanrooij Gallery / solo exhibition / October

2012
Amsterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / Realisme 12 / January
Basel, Wanrooij Gallery / Scope / June
Miami, Wanrooij Gallery / Scope / November
Amsterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / Lxry Masters / December
Hamburg, solo exhibition „Visions of Infinity“, Hamburg Art Week / December – February

2013
London, Wanrooij Gallery / London Art Fair / January
Amsterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / Realisme 13 / January
Rotterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / Art at the Warehouse / February
Utrecht,Wanrooij Gallery / art 13 / April
Basel, Wanrooij Gallery /Scope / June
Dubai, Salsali Private Museum / solo exhibition / September – November
London, Wanrooij Gallery / Strata Art Fair / October
Miami, Wanrooij Gallery / Scope / December

2014
Amsterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / Realism / Januar
Dubai, Icon House / February – December
St. Barth, Space SBH / solo exhibition / March – April
Basel, Wannroij Gallery / Scope / June
Amsterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / solo exhibition „The Rijksmusem Project“ / October – December
Madrid, Spain, Galería Lucia Mendoza / Photoespaña / June – July
Madrid, Spain, Galería Lucia Mendoza / solo exhibition „Temples And Religion / September – November
Miami, Wanrooij Gallery / Scope / December
Amsterdam, Masters of LXRY / December

2015
Gstaad, Bel Air Fine Art / December – April
La Coruna, Atlantica Centro de Arte / solo exhibition / February – March
New York, Wanrooij Gallery / Art Miami / May
Geneva, Bel Air Fine Art /solo exhibition / June
Gstaad, Bel Air Fine Art / Hublot Polo Gold Cup / August
Beirut, Bel Air Fine Art / Beirut Art Fair / September
Madrid, Lucia Mendoza Gallery / Summa Contemporary / September
Amsterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / solo exhibition „Trust & Savings“ / October
San Francisco, Wanrooij Gallery / Art Silicon Valley / October
Amsterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / Masters of LXRY / December
Miami, Art Miami / UNIX Gallery / December

2016
New York, UNIX Gallery solo exhibition „Photography“ / January – March
Houston, UNIX Gallery solo exhibition „Photography“ / March – April
Madrid, Photoespaña & solo exhibition „Inner Landscape“ / June – August
Madrid, Lucia Mendoza Gallery / solo exhibition „Inner Landscape“ / June – August
Hamburg, Die Hamburger Gallery / solo exhibition „Inner Landscape“ / September – October
Köln, Die Hamburg Gallery / Art Cologne / October
Paris, Bel Air Fine Art / 8e Avenue Art Show / October
Amsterdam, Wannroij Gallery / Masters of LXRY / December
Miami, Unix / Art Miami / December

2017
Palm Beach, Unix Gallery / Palm Beach modern & Contemporary Art Fair / Januar
Miami, Bel Air Fine Art / groupshow / Jan – April
New York, aipad / April
Madrid, Spain, Galería Lucia Mendoza / solo exhibition „Live in motion“ part of Photoespaña / June – July

Book:

2015
Christian Voigt Photography, published by teNeues, www.teneues.com

In these moments, Christian Voigt`s monumental pictures open up to us like vast pools for the senses. We gently lose ourselves in an archetypal dune landscape that evokes the realm of myths and fairy tales, and then find ourselves in the historical architecture of an ancient Egyptian temple. Our thoughts cross continents and cultures in these images. They open up breathtaking horizons, where authentic living culture meets the aesthetic culture of images. A new adventure of the senses awaits us with each image. We can almost hear the evening drone of moped and motorcycle engines revving in the streets of Vietnam, the stomping rhythm oft he music emanating from the glowing red Las Vegas strip club where a stripper appears to gyrate in the blurred background of our fantasies. Our eyes and our thoughts set off on an excursion in Voigt’s „world images.“

The apparently restless globetrotter Christian Voigt shares a condensed world culture from his trips with us. He raves about the power of a large print in XXL format that practically pulls his viewers into the picture. „I need the massiveness to capture my emotions. When you sit in front oft he large format the result is a feast for the eyes.“ Voigt`s imposing and monumental works effortlessly fill the room, shaping the atmosphere of the interior. The people in these images are often small, providing proportion to a large-scale scenario of a location and everything going on in it.

The charismatic big image hunter has an eye for cultural rites and magical moments abroad and allows us to share in his emotions during these precious moments. In addition to several images that have been prepared for years, there are also often spectacular examples of his spontaneous reaction to locations and encounters

„Christian captures the beauty oft he world in pictures“, gushes a Californian patron of his work when asked why he is such a fan oft he German photographer`s work. His photogrphs often do seem to be a visual approach to the definition of beauty. „I love depicting beauty,“ says the photographer, not meaning a one-dimensional concept. Voigt says that he also looks for and finds this beauty in the chaos of an Asian street market, for example. Of course the beauty of these images is in their creative precision, their clear, vibrant colors, and perfectly executed compositions.

Voigt`s motifs offer the viewer a perfect arrangement of harmonies and targeted dissonances. The passionate photographer composes complex symphonies for the eyes. The photo artist does not care wheater these locations have been frequently photographed or never been photographed. „I have taken pictures of New York`s Central Park. A billion photos of it have been taken already,“ says Christian Voigt. „I’m not worried, because I know that my photo will look different.“ The 20th century artistic genius Pablo Picasso once said, „Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.“ However, a painter that transforms a yellow spot into a sunrise is an artist. Christian Voigt loves this quote. And transforms a single photo into an atmospheric picture that , using up to 30 picutures, condenses one spot into a newly enriched complete picuture that reflects its pulse and appeal. The result could be photographs of the collective works of an ancient library or details of the street life of  a faraway land. Chaos and order, opulence and simplicity are all equals in a pictorial cosmos that shows us the multifacteted nature of the world.

2009
St. Tropez, Chateau St. Amé / groupshow / August

2010
New York, Opera Gallery, groupshow / April – May
St. Tropez, Barbara de Palma Gallery / April – September

2011
Los Angeles, Karl Hutter Fine Art / solo exhibition / April – May
St. Tropez, Barbara de Palma Gallery / Juli – October
Den Haag, Wanrooij Gallery / Arti 11 / October
Arnhem, Wanrooij Gallery / solo exhibition / October

2012
Amsterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / Realisme 12 / January
Basel, Wanrooij Gallery / Scope / June
Miami, Wanrooij Gallery / Scope / November
Amsterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / Lxry Masters / December
Hamburg, solo exhibition „Visions of Infinity“, Hamburg Art Week / December – February

2013
London, Wanrooij Gallery / London Art Fair / January
Amsterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / Realisme 13 / January
Rotterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / Art at the Warehouse / February
Utrecht,Wanrooij Gallery / art 13 / April
Basel, Wanrooij Gallery /Scope / June
Dubai, Salsali Private Museum / solo exhibition / September – November
London, Wanrooij Gallery / Strata Art Fair / October
Miami, Wanrooij Gallery / Scope / December

2014
Amsterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / Realism / Januar
Dubai, Icon House / February – December
St. Barth, Space SBH / solo exhibition / March – April
Basel, Wannroij Gallery / Scope / June
Amsterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / solo exhibition „The Rijksmusem Project“ / October – December
Madrid, Spain, Galería Lucia Mendoza / Photoespaña / June – July
Madrid, Spain, Galería Lucia Mendoza / solo exhibition „Temples And Religion / September – November
Miami, Wanrooij Gallery / Scope / December
Amsterdam, Masters of LXRY / December

2015
Gstaad, Bel Air Fine Art / December – April
La Coruna, Atlantica Centro de Arte / solo exhibition / February – March
New York, Wanrooij Gallery / Art Miami / May
Geneva, Bel Air Fine Art /solo exhibition / June
Gstaad, Bel Air Fine Art / Hublot Polo Gold Cup / August
Beirut, Bel Air Fine Art / Beirut Art Fair / September
Madrid, Lucia Mendoza Gallery / Summa Contemporary / September
Amsterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / solo exhibition „Trust & Savings“ / October
San Francisco, Wanrooij Gallery / Art Silicon Valley / October
Amsterdam, Wanrooij Gallery / Masters of LXRY / December
Miami, Art Miami / UNIX Gallery / December

2016
New York, UNIX Gallery solo exhibition „Photography“ / January – March
Houston, UNIX Gallery solo exhibition „Photography“ / March – April
Madrid, Photoespaña & solo exhibition „Inner Landscape“ / June – August
Madrid, Lucia Mendoza Gallery / solo exhibition „Inner Landscape“ / June – August
Hamburg, Die Hamburger Gallery / solo exhibition „Inner Landscape“ / September – October
Köln, Die Hamburg Gallery / Art Cologne / October
Paris, Bel Air Fine Art / 8e Avenue Art Show / October
Amsterdam, Wannroij Gallery / Masters of LXRY / December
Miami, Unix / Art Miami / December

2017
Palm Beach, Unix Gallery / Palm Beach modern & Contemporary Art Fair / Januar
Miami, Bel Air Fine Art / groupshow / Jan – April
New York, aipad / April
Madrid, Spain, Galería Lucia Mendoza / solo exhibition „Live in motion“ part of Photoespaña / June – July

Book:

2015
Christian Voigt Photography, published by teNeues, www.teneues.com

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