Olaf Metzel Galerie Parisa Kind
Olaf Metzel, Minima Moralia (Theodor Adorno), 2017, Galerie Parisa Kind
Olaf Metzel, 1952 born in Berlin, studied at the Freie Universität and the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. Since 1990 he has been professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he also served as principal 1995-1999. He had numerous solo exhibitions in Germany and abroad, as well as participated amongst others in documenta 8, Sculpture Projects Munster (1987 and 1997), Sydney Biennial (1990), Istanbul Biennial (1995), and Sao Paulo Biennial (2002). Metzel´s prizes inlclude the Villa Massimo Prize (Rome, 1987), the Arnold Bode Prize (Kassel, 1994), the Wilhelm Loth Prize (Darmstadt, 1997), the Lichtwark Prize (Hamburg, 2010), and the mfi Graduate Award (Essen, 2014). Public sculptures by Metzel can be seen in Germany, Europe, and Asia. He has curated many exhibitions – for example in 2006 as part of the Berlin Biennale – and published numerous contributions in newspapers and magazines. Metzel lives and works in Munich.
Olaf Metzel’s oeuvre deals with the public sphere we all share. As has generally been the case with his projects since the 1980s, the artworks address the entire spectrum of social issues ranging from politics to the arts, economy and sports. The artist portrays our era, lending it a shape, highlighting current topics, and prompting us to think about virulent socio-cultural questions. For a sculptor however, the main objective lies in creating three-dimensional images of our society. Metzel’s pieces are both portraits of our time and powerful material constructs. In terms of their formal aesthetics and in the elaboration of their details, his largespatial installations truly are sculptures. He draws inspiration from the pool of objects we surrounded ourselves with, as well as from the world of images connected to everyday political themes in the press. This gives rise to various allusions to everyday events, while at the same time placing his work in an arthistorical context.
Works of Olaf Metzel are amongst others part of the collections of Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Sammlung Falckenberg, Sammlung Ackermans, Sammlung René Block, Böckmann Collection, Munich Re Art Collection, Collection Deutsche Bank.
Laure Prouvost Galerie Nathalie Obadia
Laure Prouvost, Waiting for you, 2017, Galerie Nathalie Obadia
Laure Prouvost was born in 1978. She is a French artist that experiments with painting and installations. Laure Prouvost lives and works in Antwerp (BE). She won the 2013 Turner Prize. Solo exhibitions include ‘the wet wet wanderer’, as part of ‘Para|Fiction’, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2017); ‘softer and rounder so as to shine through your smooth marble’, SALT Galata, Istanbul, Turkey (2017); ‘And she will say: hi her, ailleurs, to higher grounds…’, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland (2016); ‘GDM – Grand Dad’s Visitor Center’, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy (2016); ‘all behind, we’ll go deeper, deep down and she will say,’ Museum Für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt Am Main, Frankfurt, Germany (2016); ‘Into All That is Here’, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, China (2016); ‘ we would be floating away from the dirty past’, Haus Der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2015); ‘For Forgetting’, New Museum, New York, NY, USA (2014); ‘While You Weren’t Looking’, Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico City, Mexico (2014); Max Mara Art Prize for Women, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK and Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy (2013); ‘Laure Prouvost / Adam Chodzko’ as part of ‘Schwitters in Britain’, Tate Britain, London, UK (2013); The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, UK (2012); and ‘All These Things Think Link’, Flat Time House, London, UK. Prouvost won the MaxMara Art Prize for Women in 2011.
Known for her immersive and mixed-media installations that combine film and installation in humorous and idiosyncratic ways, Prouvost’s work addresses miscommunication and things getting lost in translation. Playing with language as a tool for the imagination, Prouvost is interested in confounding linear narratives and expected associations among words, images and meaning. She combines existing and imagined personal memories with artistic and literary references to create complex film installations that twist fiction and reality. At once seductive and jarring, her unique approach to filmmaking employs layered storytelling, quick cuts, montage and wordplay and is composed of a rich, almost tactile assortment of pictures, sounds, spoken and written phrases.
Mitchell Anderson Galerie Maria Bernheim
Mitchell Anderson, Trail of Blood, 2014, Galerie Maria Bernheim
Born 1985 in Chicago, USA, he lives and works in Zug and Zurich, Switzerland and Marfa, Texas, USA. Selected Solo Exhibitions: 2017 Kunsthalle Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland (forthcoming) 2015 “An honest living”, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste Reto Project Room, Zurich, Switzerland 2014 “No Clock to Kill”, START, Wake Forest University, WinstonSalem, USA “All-American Boy on Trial”, Taylor Macklin, Zurich, Switzerland . Selected Group Exhibition: 2017 “Beauty and Room”, PALP, Sion, Switzerland 2016 “THE ARDENT V”, Up State, Zurich, Switzerland “Posthumous Lives: Mitchell Anderson – Jon Rafman”, Galerie Maria Bernheim, Zurich, Switzerland Swiss Art Awards, Basel, Switzerland “Noir dedans”, Le Manoir de la Ville de Martigny, Martigny, Switzerland “Turing Apple”, Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles, USA 2015 “Tunguska”, Galerie Maria Bernheim, Zurich, Switzerland “Body Bildung”, Galerie Max Mayer, Dusseldorf, Germany “Last Survivor of the Nostromo”, Plymouth Rock, Zurich, Switzerland 2014 “Courting Aporia”, Gebert Stiftung fur Kultur, Rapperswil-Jona, Rapperswil, Switzerland “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?”, Chez Rosenkranz, Zurich, Switzerland 2013 “DOOM”, Eichhalde 16, Zurich, Switzerland.
Bettina Rheims Xippas
Bettina Rheims, Elvire Duvelle-Charles & Neda Topaloski, FEMEN, mai 2017, Paris, 2017, Galerie Xippas
Born on 18th December 1952, Bettina Rheims is a French photographer and artist. She is the daughter a French novelist, art historian and auctioneer Maurice Rheims. Her sister, Nathalie is a writer, actress and film producer. In 1978, Rheims started exploring photography after being a journalist and a model. Prior to her being a photographer, she opened an art gallery as well. At first she worked on the commission basis producing covers for musical albums for singers like Jean Jacques Goldman.
Bettina Rheims has done solo shows in several cities across the world, including Berlin, Milan, New York, London, Sydney, Vienna and Moscow.
Gilles Barbier, Hawaiian Ghost #2, Courtesy Galerie GP & N Vallois, Paris, ph: JC Lett Born in 1965 in the Republic of Vanuatu, Barbier, a visual artist and sculptor, attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Art) in Marseille, where he was nicknamed “person locked inside the studio” for his passion for art. He has had numerous exhibitions in notable galleries and museums around the world, was a co-founder of Asterides, an organization that nurtures fledgling artists in Friche la Belle de Mai, and has been featured in art magazines, newspapers, and books such as ArtPress and Beaux-Arts Magazine. Regarding his artistic philosophy, Gilles Barbier wrote, “Nobody likes (especially not the market) an artist to go in unpredictable directions and that he is influenced by the slightest change in temperature, the wind sensitive to the slightest breath, and an entity without apparent logic,” for an interview with the MMCA. He continued, “Yet this chaotic structure appeals to me because it suits my desire for freedom.” His philosophy is manifested in the artworks displayed in Echo system: Gilles Barbier. Before entering the gallery, viewers will first notice “The Doctor’s Family from The Doctor’s Series” (1998) which consists of several framed paintings on the external wall of the gallery. These gouache on paper pieces seem to gingerly walk the thin line between insanity and humor. Within the series, one painting of a hippopotamus apparently portrays “the pet’s wife,” who is described as having been “raped by an extraterrestrial when she was 5.” The painting of a “distant” relative which is hung a large distance from the other paintings in the series added to the humor of the bizarre piece.
