Sarah Ortmeyer, NATALIA VIII, 2016

The exhibition incorporates the formal elements of chess alongside a
series of new paintings and sculptures. In this show, the personification
of heaven and hell is also explored through the artist’s ‘emoji shadow
series,’ a body of work that interrogates the relationship to the origins
of painting, universal language, and iconography. In her paintings
of palm trees, devils, and rainbows, Ortmeyer captures the essence
of the codex as both a type of script and a physical object capable of
existing in nature.

Comprised of all new works in a massive arrangement, ‘FLYRT’ features classic artistic disciplines such as sculpture, painting, and film, developing non-traditional modes of presentation. HUMAN-SIZED CHESSBOARDS are interspersed throughout the three exhibition rooms. The CHESSBOARD PAINTINGS reflect the ethereal colors of the sky. These oversized panels are accompanied by a pair of MINIATURE CHESSBOARDS. The gridded pictures are the latest works in Ortmeyer’s long and continued investigation into chess, emphasizing the aesthetics and dynamics of this iconic sport. Throughout the building and protruding from the walls are chess pieces made of OSTRICH EGGS. Through nature these large female products have developed unique distorted surfaces. Premiering in Kunstverein München’s Kino, the silent movie FLYRT POETICA is the result of Ortmeyer’s long lasting correspondence with a rising teen idol and rapper, during which the pair developed a peculiar collective vocabulary punctuated by the consistent, repeated appearances of sophisticated POEMS, BLACK EMOJIS, DICK PICS, LUXURY ITEMS, NUDES, SPIDERS, FILM STILLS, IDEOGRAMS, LYRICS, SYMPHONIC SCORES, HOLLYWOOD, HEARTS, MUSES and ARTWORKS by artists such as ROSEMARIE TROCKEL, LOUISE
BOURGEOIS, ALMA THOMAS, and ORTMEYER herself. Demonstrating the rapid visually-focused nature of 21st century exchange, Ortmeyer articulates a return to HIEROGLYPHICS, where pictures have become a more immediate and nuanced form of language. This correspondence was collected as a HARDCOVER BOOK and
printed black on silver, a mutual material choice by the rapper and the artist. The book was then transposed into a moving image, to be projected onto the SILVER SCREEN. This procession of HIEROGLYPHS also forms the basis of a new series of painted works on silver paper. Featuring rapid hand-rendered icons of BLACK SPIDERS and BLACK HEARTS, these coded paintings chart a correspondence throughout the exhibition spaces. ‘FLYRT’ combines a system of relentlessly repeated variables varying in size and material, while keeping the core of
being emotionally completely raw.

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Showroom 01: Mircea Cantor, Latifa Echahkch, Simon Fujiwara, Yudith Levin, David Maljkovic, Sarah Ortmeyer, Ariel Schlesinger

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Sarah Ortmeyer

Exhibitions