Group show
MEN AT WORK
May 17, 2012 – June 30, 2012
WIDMER+THEODORIDIS contemporary is pleased to present this year’s group show by ten gallery artists from Europe and the U.S.A. They will exhibit photographs, paintings, sculptures, videos and mixed media works.
‘Men at Work’ combines artists that differ from each other in many ways. However there is one element that can be found in all of these artworks: they are all skillfully manufactured. After countless painstaking work steps the artists capture their piece of art or have their models do the hard work for them instead. Cutting, stitching, sticking, scratching or grinding – this is ‘Men at Work’.
Matthew Cox (USA) combines in his embroidered x-rays traditional craftsmanship with imaging technology. With cotton cloth and plastic – one tactile and labour intensive, the other technical and quickly a finished product – and fine laboratory images he creates fantastically coloured icons of mankind.
Othmar Eder (CH) is meanwhile well known for his precise sense of observation. Scenes that appear to be unimpressive at first have been brought to paper with great patience and precision. The film ‘Summer’ which was produced last year, takes the viewer on an amusing journey through Eder’s garden.
Andreas Fux (D) approaches his subjects very carefully and yet keeps cool distance. The human stands always confidently in the centre of Fux’ camera. For ‘Arne plays Ghost’ Fux flexes hard muscles and soft fabrics.
The material that Hiroshi Kumagai (USA) uses is quite unusual: coloured adhesive foil. While others are baring the image of layers of colour and graphite Kumagai glues together strips of plastic. The single pieces of adhesive foil form pixelated images of grandmothers, teenage girls and boys in love. All are anonymous pictures from internet chat rooms that Kumagai assembles in brilliant colours.
Johannes Post (D) is one of the seven prizewinners of the young talent project "gute aussichten - junge deutsche fotografie 2011/2012". The tableaus ‘Inform’ look like x-rays or magnetic resonance images but actually they are 36 images of cross-sections of his clothing. Post has neatly worked his way from head to toe, cut-by-cut and slice-by-slice.
Ernst Stark (F) approaches his work gradually. He detaches miniature landscapes, items or houses from massive wooden blocks. Despite the small dimensions his objects create an expansive view and a calm atmosphere of solitude.
Lars Theuerkauff (D) shows paintings from the series ‘L’Origine du Monde’. The title refers to the eponymous work by Gustave Courbet but shows, on the contrary, the male sex in variations. Theuerkauff’s paintings consist of multiple layers of colour and varnish that he applies with his fingers and other means instead of a brush.
Hans Thomann (CH) uses a two-dimensional model, which serves as a starting point and is then synthesized by a robot dot by dot to a frail sculpture. A grid frame captures the figure and permits a partial view depending on the angle of vision. However, the shadow of the figure remains permanently in view.
Nicolas Vionnet’s (CH) newest installation ‘Men after Work’ was specially created for the ‘Men at Work’ show: a blinking and beckoning road construction warning light with an evening red instead of an alerting yellow colouring. The second work ‘Icons’ embodies altered prints of well-known monuments. Traces of manipulation on the silver foil let the sites appear blurred and signal a threatening collapse.
Werner Widmer (CH) presents two new video works. In the graphic adaptation of the Tyrolian poem ‘Wenn die Berg streitn’ (When mountains quarrel) Widmer lets the Swiss Churfirsten have a proper dispute. Not quite as snappy is the other piece ‘Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne’ (The shark has pretty teeth). In this one-man-cinema-booth a shark competes with a singing Hildegard Knef.
Matthew Cox (USA) combines in his embroidered x-rays traditional craftsmanship with imaging technology. With cotton cloth and plastic – one tactile and labour intensive, the other technical and quickly a finished product – and fine laboratory images he creates fantastically coloured icons of mankind.
Othmar Eder (CH) is meanwhile well known for his precise sense of observation. Scenes that appear to be unimpressive at first have been brought to paper with great patience and precision. The film ‘Summer’ which was produced last year, takes the viewer on an amusing journey through Eder’s garden.
Andreas Fux (D) approaches his subjects very carefully and yet keeps cool distance. The human stands always confidently in the centre of Fux’ camera. For ‘Arne plays Ghost’ Fux flexes hard muscles and soft fabrics.
The material that Hiroshi Kumagai (USA) uses is quite unusual: coloured adhesive foil. While others are baring the image of layers of colour and graphite Kumagai glues together strips of plastic. The single pieces of adhesive foil form pixelated images of grandmothers, teenage girls and boys in love. All are anonymous pictures from internet chat rooms that Kumagai assembles in brilliant colours.
Johannes Post (D) is one of the seven prizewinners of the young talent project "gute aussichten - junge deutsche fotografie 2011/2012". The tableaus ‘Inform’ look like x-rays or magnetic resonance images but actually they are 36 images of cross-sections of his clothing. Post has neatly worked his way from head to toe, cut-by-cut and slice-by-slice.
Ernst Stark (F) approaches his work gradually. He detaches miniature landscapes, items or houses from massive wooden blocks. Despite the small dimensions his objects create an expansive view and a calm atmosphere of solitude.
Lars Theuerkauff (D) shows paintings from the series ‘L’Origine du Monde’. The title refers to the eponymous work by Gustave Courbet but shows, on the contrary, the male sex in variations. Theuerkauff’s paintings consist of multiple layers of colour and varnish that he applies with his fingers and other means instead of a brush.
Hans Thomann (CH) uses a two-dimensional model, which serves as a starting point and is then synthesized by a robot dot by dot to a frail sculpture. A grid frame captures the figure and permits a partial view depending on the angle of vision. However, the shadow of the figure remains permanently in view.
Nicolas Vionnet’s (CH) newest installation ‘Men after Work’ was specially created for the ‘Men at Work’ show: a blinking and beckoning road construction warning light with an evening red instead of an alerting yellow colouring. The second work ‘Icons’ embodies altered prints of well-known monuments. Traces of manipulation on the silver foil let the sites appear blurred and signal a threatening collapse.
Werner Widmer (CH) presents two new video works. In the graphic adaptation of the Tyrolian poem ‘Wenn die Berg streitn’ (When mountains quarrel) Widmer lets the Swiss Churfirsten have a proper dispute. Not quite as snappy is the other piece ‘Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne’ (The shark has pretty teeth). In this one-man-cinema-booth a shark competes with a singing Hildegard Knef.
