Jonathan Monk at Meyer Riegger, Berlin

That’s About the Size of It  is Jonathan Monk’s solo show at Meyer Riegger / 15 March – 13 April 2019 / Opening on Friday, March 15, 2019, from 6 to 9 pm / On the occasion of the opening the works will be actived. For the duration of the exhibition further performances will happen each Saturday, from 2 to 5 pm. Jonathan Monk’s works often remake other artworks. They are also funny. For his exhibition at Meyer Riegger Gallery, the artist presents two new, small sculptures, which restage Tom Wesselmann’s (1931-2004) assemblage, ‘Bedroom Tit Box’ (1968-1970). A miniature, room-like tableau stuffed with out-of-scale models of domestic objects (including an ashtray holding a cigarette, an orange and a vase with vulva-like rose petals protruding from its rim), Wesselmann’s disturbing assemblage is activated by the insertion of a live female breast through a circular hole cut into its ceiling. In Monk’s humorous recasts, which also play on scale, Wesselmann’s tit-box remains intact save that a live penis is now inserted through each assemblage-roof instead (and when the penises are unavailable, then phallic-looking fruit). By substituting the female breast with the penis, Monk parodies Wesselmann’s fetishistic assemblage in which the female body is objectified, aligned with objects of female ‘domesticity’ and with the form of the artwork itself – a frequent trope in Wesselmann’s work. The exposed male appendage makes Monk’s works awkward; undermining rather than affirming masculinity. As reflected in the exhibition title – ‘that’s about the size of it’ – male size really does matter if you are a man though for different reasons than if you are a woman. Since the late 1990s Jonathan Monk has created artworks based on other artworks, referencing, in particular, the languages of conceptual and pop art.

Jonathan Monk at Kindl, Berlin

Under the title Exhibit Model Four – plus invited guests, Jonathan Monk continues his exhibition series, which began in 2016 as a kind of retrospective, and which he has conceptually expanded for the KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art / 10 March – 21 July 2019 / Opening: Saturday, 9 March 2019, 5 pm

Douglas Gordon’s “I had nowhere to go” in Newcastle

Douglas Gordon’s “I had nowhere to go” will be screened at Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle / March 10th, 2019 at 2.30pm

Douglas Gordon at Belvedere, Vienna

Douglas Gordon is participatin in Talking Heads: Contemporary Dialogues with F. X. Messerschmidt at Belvedere, Vienna / March 8 – August 18, 2019 / The Belvedere’s exhibition asks questions based around categories such as the psyche, perception, and (self-)reflection – whether this is in Lutz Mommartz’s filmic portrayal of an artist like Joseph Beuys or in the way Maria Lassnig perceived herself in her paintings. While Miriam Cahn often references violent current events in her faces, Anna Artaker’s work explores the archaic impression of the death mask. This multimedia exhibition focuses not on the individual face but rather on how it is “processed,” and on the head as a (vital) body part. Curator: Axel Köhne

Shilpa Gupta will be participating in the Venice Biennial

This year Shilpa Gupta will be participating in the Venice Biennial

Simon Fujiwara has been shortlisted for the 2019 Preis der Nationalgalerie

Dvir Gallery is pleased to announce that Simon Fujiwara has been shortlisted for the 2019 Preis der Nationalgalerie. Established in 2000 by the Freunde der Nationalgalerie, the Preis is awarded biennially and promotes young, important positions in contemporary art that reflect the internationality and vitality of the art scene in Germany. A joint exhibition of the four nominated artists’ work will be shown from August 16, 2019 to January 12, 2020 at Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin. Simon Fujiwara’s work takes multiple forms including theme park style rides, wax figures, robotic cameras, ‘make-up’ paintings and short films that address the complexity and contradictions of identity in a post-internet, hyper-capitalist world. Fujiwara often investigates themes of popular interest such as tourist attractions, famous icons, historic narratives and mass media imagery and has collaborated with the advertising and entertainment industries to produce his work in a process he describes as ‘hyper-engagement’ with dominant forms of cultural production. His work can be seen as a complex response to the human effects of image fetish, technology and social media on his generation. Photography by Reto Schmid for Numéro France, October 2018

A Critical Workshop by Thomas Hirschhorn, Pavilion, Cabral Yard, Kochi-Muziris Biennale (India)

4 – 28 March, 2019/ 10:00 am – 1:00 pm & 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm / Everybody is welcome to attend the Critical Workshop: “Energy: Yes! Quality: No!”. Everyone, not only those interested in art, is welcome to participate, but there are three requirements: 1- To bring a single input, contribution, work (it can bea text, an original painting, a drawing, a song, a collage, a sculpture, a video, or something else) 2- To engage in common work, discussions, exchange, thinking, judging. 3- To attend a full session (3 hours) The goals are: 1-To encourage doing something, a work of one’s own. 2- To be ready to have it judged. 3- To trust one’s own — very own — judgement. The input of every participant is discussed together in equality, in its outcome and consequences. The work will be judged through questions and debate such as “Is there implication?”, “Is it an event?”, “Are there encounters?”, “Does it create a new term in art?” Critical Workshop “Energy: Yes! Quality: No!” is part of Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life, curated by Anita Dube.

Miri Segal participating in ₡ U R ₹ € ₦ ₢ ¥ group show at Nome, Berlin

Miri Segal will participate in ₡ U R ₹ € ₦ ₢ ¥ group show at Nome, Berlin / March 2 – April 19, 2019 / The etymology of the word “currency” relates to flowing, running, and circulating. Aligned with this liquid condition, ₡ U R ₹ € ₦ ₢ ¥ brings together works that deal with money as a channel, money as a concept, money as a formal (or informal) structure. In the United States, the birth of Conceptual Art overlapped with the end of the Gold Standard in 1971, and since then, the entwinement of art and finance has become evermore abstracted. The artworks assembled in ₡ U R ₹ € ₦ ₢ ¥ manifest a double value—that of the artwork on the market, and that of the money and materials employed to make this work. From Agnieszka Kurant’s representation of multiple forms of currency to Michal Helfman’s drawing inspired by the greenish imagery of the US dollar and Pratchaya Phinthong’s installation around the exchange of rice in his native Thailand; from Paolo Cirio’s imagination of a new virtual currency to Goldin+Senneby’s bound documents of confidential trading strategies, acquired in exchange for artworks. These artworks perform in various ways the acrobatics of the complex relationships between art and money. ₡ U R ₹ € ₦ ₢ ¥ builds upon Lucie Fontaine’s previous show Soft Shock, which revolved around the origins and philosophy of Bitcoin.  

Adel Abdessemed at Galeria Solo, Madrid

Adel Abdessemed will be presenting  Eran las 5 en todos los relojes, his first show in Spain, at Galeria Solo, in Madrid / February 27 – May 4, 2019 / Opening February 27th at 7pm