N/V_PROJECTS ◊ BLOG

Sunday, March 31, 2013

New Age of Aquarius - group show - DUVE - Berlin

through May 4th 2013

SHEZAD DAWOOD, JAMES HOWARD, JULIANA CERQUEIRA LEITE, SHANA MOULTON, MATTHEW STONE, MARK TITCHNER, MARGO TRUSHINA

An astrological age lasts for approximately 2,150 years – the time it takes for the vernal equinox to move from one constellation of the zodiac into the next. In our era, this is a procession from Pisces to Aquarius. Some believe that such changes affect mankind, influencing the rise and fall of civilizations or cultural tendencies: The age of Aquarius is said to be associated with love, unity, integrity, freedom, modernization, rebellion, veracity and transparency. Its colors are silver, aqua, purple, electric pink and blue. But no one can agree whether this age has already arrived or if it is still far away.* Have we experienced a new dawn for mankind or are we still under the sign of the Piscean values - power and control? Can we pin our hopes on the stars? The works in this exhibition paint a picture of cosmic and earthly desires; they invoke other possible worlds and in some cases reject them. This Age of Aquarius catalogues artists’ wrestling with hope and doubt, questioning the effectiveness of new age symbolism in the 21st century.

curated by Nadim Samman

Julia Wachtel - Post Culture - Vilma Gold - London

through April 18th 2013

Emerging with the Pictures Generation artists in the early 1980s in New York, Wachtel has worked with juxtaposition and the visual language of mass culture for the last 30 years. Her oil, acrylic and silkscreen on canvas paintings enter into a visual language game wherein appropriated imagery is illustrated, simulated, replicated, altered and parodied. For her first exhibition at Vilma Gold, Wachtel brings together works from the 80s and 90s alongside recent painting and new poster work.

Samuel François - Joy of Man - Rod Barton - London

through April 6th 2013

Sterling Ruby - EXHM - Hauser & Wirth - London

through May 4th 2013

Los Angeles-based artist Sterling Ruby’s interdisciplinary practice channels the conflicts between individual impulses and mechanisms of social control, American domination and decline, an engagement with irrationality and dysfunctional psychology, and its end result in upheaval. Ruby’s works act as formally charged markers and allegories for the burdens that plague contemporary existence. Entitled ‘EXHM’, the artist’s abbreviation for ‘exhumation’, Ruby’s debut exhibition with Hauser & Wirth presents an installation of new ceramics, collages, fabric and urethane sculptures.

MEGAN FRANCIS SULLIVAN - New Images - Freymond & Guth - Zurich

through April 20th 2013

There is an I here, as well as a you, occurring simultaneously, as might be assumed, but not necessarily acknowledged. The works are readable at a first glance, and then as something else again.

Perhaps we have arrived, in a kind of uncanny trance, to stare at the consequences of the grammar of the personal pronoun, beyond which empty space seems to fall away.”

Haim Steinbach - Collections - Lia Rumma - Milan

through April 6th 2013

In his solo show at the Lia Rumma Gallery Haim Steinbach employs standard architectural building materials - metal studs, drywall, prefabricated shelving units, paint and wallpaper – evoking both domestic and institutional spaces as places ready for presentation. The artist exhibits over 50 objects selected from seven collections. The objects are arranged and placed on shelves, and are displayed on both the permanent gallery walls and Steinbach’s temporary walls.