Topsy-Turvy World
Topsy-Turvy World, a group show at Haeusler Contemporary presents artists from the gallerie’s programme along with guests who open up unusual views on everyday objects: Reto Boller, Sébastien de Ganay, Jonas Etter, Marcius Galan, Alicja Kwade, Richard Allen Morris, Arnold Odermatt, Koka Ramishvili, Ariel Schlesinger, Roman Signer.
Art often finds ways to show us familiar things from unfamiliar perspectives and to reveal characteristics of objects that we do not expect from them in the first place. Tendencies of the 1960s and 1970s, which are one of our gallery’s focal points, essentially aimed at casting new light on the traditional understanding of art. Free from this specifically artistic discourse contemporary artists often focus on a new perception of everyday objects.
Sometimes, their creations thus tend to be surreal, comical or absurd. With this exhibition the gallery will present works that distinctly show these aspects as Deborah Keller, from the gallery, states.
Reto Boller (b. 1966, Zurich) drafts new ways of understanding painting and sculpture. He was granted diverse awards and has been a professor for painting at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart. Sébastien de Ganay (b. 1962, Boulogne-Billancourt) is another representative of contemporary experimental painting and sculpture. He had solo shows in Europe, US and South America and is co-founder of the artists’ book publisher «onestar press».
For his objects, Jonas Etter (b. 1981, Zurich) often uses materials unusual for art and focuses on material processes and alienations. In 2013, he was granted fellowships of the city and of the canton of Zurich. With his installations, objects, photographs and videos, all of minimalist aesthetics, Marcius Galan (b. 1972, São Paulo) mixes up our understanding of space and objects. The artist who was granted various awards and is widely exhibited will be in a group show with James Turrell in São Paulo this summer.
Alicja Kwade (b. 1979, Katowice), who also was awarded several prizes, finds visual metaphors for abstract notions in her objects and installations. An extensive solo exhibition just ended at Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, another one will open at Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt in March. Since the 1960s, Richard Allen Morris (b. 1933,San Diego) has been pushing painting on the edge of object and relief, and with humor and irony he oscillates between concreteness and abstraction. In 2004, the Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld had shown an extensive retrospective of this «Artists’ Artits». Arnold Odermatt (b. 1925, Oberdorf) did not create his photographs with artistic intention in the first place. However, ever since Harald Szeemann had presented the pictures of the former police officer at the Venice Biennial in 2001, exhibitions in renowned institutions all over the world followed. Working in various media including video, painting, drawing, photography, object, and installation, Koka Ramishvili (b. 1956,Tbilisi) pursues the relationship between form and content, mind and matter, reality and appearance. In 2015, his first extensive monograph will be published. In the work of Ariel Schlesinger (b. 1980, Berlin), a key role is granted to everyday objects alienated from their usual function. Kunsthaus Baselland had introduced the artist to the Swiss public with a first extensive exhibition round here in 2013. Roman Signer (b.1938, St.Gallen) is one of the most important Swiss artists of our time whose work is celebrated all over the world. Since the 1970s he has been contributing significantly to the renewal of sculpture with his sculptural events and installations.
