From the top: Robert Montgomery, 'The City is Wilder Than You Think and Kinder Than You Think (Recycled Sunlight Poem)'; Imi Knoebel, 'Anima Mundi 6-3'; Junior Toscanelli, 'Cafaggio - Himmelfahrt'; Markus Keibel, 'Marx Engels ausgewählte Werke Band 1-6'; Douglas Gordon, 'Self Portrait of You + Me (Wilhelm Furtwängler 03) und Self Portrait of You + Me (Wilhelm Furtwängler 02)', images by artfridge and epicentro art, Berlin
Last week the curator and Berlin-based gallery owner Anna Jill Lüpertz invited the public to her new group show sublime kursiv. Following the mobile concept of her project room AJLART, which aims to display art at various places around the city, she now chose Marc Fiedler’s gallery space Epicentro Artspace that is based in one of the monumental socialist buildings at the boulevard of Karl-Marx Strasse in Berlin Mitte. The show presents a high volume of well known artists, such as Ralf Ziervogel, Christian Boltanski, Douglas Gordon or Robert Montgomery. Such a gathering of prestigious artists sometimes seems to leave the curatorial work behind – not so this time. Anna Jill Lüpertz did a great job in combining and opposing the different point of views and made sure that the focus was on the art itself, rather than interlacing them in an overall concept. Although the artists’ names are well known, there pieces didn’t fail to surprise.
Junior Toscanelli’s large scale painting ,Himmelfahrt (The Ascencion‘) is already impressive on first sight, but it reveals a multilayered technique and the emerging of wraithlike figures on closer observation - a beautiful and captivating piece of work. The inevitable Douglas Gordon is well featured with his double piece ,Selfportrait of me and you‘. Hanging in a corner, two halfway burned mirrors face each other and are thus an image of destruction, as well as completition. Opposed to Gordon’s mirror construction I was happy to find an older work by Christian Boltanski who is known for his autobiographic photo installations, which often seem to approach childhood. True to this concept, his piece ,Conversation work‘ is a black and white photograph of a young boy which is enlightened by an attached lamp whose warm glow serves to evoke a nostalgic notion on a both visual and instinctive level.
sublim kursiv - an exhibition that is neither scandalous nor overly commercial but a well executed aesthetic and ambitious endeavour.
sublim kursiv
until Oct 9th 2012
with Ralf Ziervogel, Christian Boltanski, Douglas Gordon, Imi Knoebel, Robert Montgomery, Björn Wallbaum, James Lee Byars, Junior Toscanelli, Christine Rusche and Markus Keibel
Epicentro Art
Karl-Marx-Allee 82-84
10243 Berlin
Opening Hours: Tue-Sat, 12-18h
-> ajlart.com
From the top: Christian Boltanski, 'Conversation Piece
(Portrait eines Jungen mit Tennisschläger)'; Ralf Ziervogel, 'Der
Kaktus hat Recht'; Christine Rusche. 'Double Cross', images by artfridge
and epicentro art, Berlin