Mother
December 1, 2006- December 23, 2006
Reception: December 1, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
510 W 25th St
Bortolami Dayan is proud to bring to New York, Mother, an exhibition by
Jonathan Meese
and Tal R. The result of this collaboration was first shown at the Statens Museum for Kunst
in Copenhagen in 2005 followed by The Deichtorhallen in Hamburg in 2006. For the
exhibition in the gallery, German artist
Jonathan Meese joins his Danish colleague, Tal R,
in exploring the associations with this monumental figure through varying media,
materials and narratives. Housed within a giant pink castle, the artists each create unique
works in painting, sculpture, photography and collage.
Initially, these artists seem like an unlikely pair. Tal R’s work seeks out fantastical stories
that are replete with odd figures, animals, food and inanimate objects juxtaposed with
abstract patterning and geometric shapes all rendered in a naïve, self-taught style.
Whereas the paintings are tableaus of color, the sculptures are pared down to their basics
--- rendered in bronze and aluminum.
Jonathan Meese’s work touches on grand narratives
and heroic themes, particularly German history - figures such as Nietzsche, Wagner, selfportraits
as well as film and rock stars appear appropriately rendered with a gestural and
expressionistic hand. Because of the inevitable heavy associations with these figures, there
are multiple points from which to approach the work, all of which are left to the viewer for
interpretation.
Mother explores the various sentiments, associations, and attributions that are given to the
one person who gave us life. Photographs of the artists’ mothers as well as Freudian
references are incorporated within the paintings, drawings and sculptures that fill the pink
fortress. The exhibition will create a very diverse and multi-dimensional view of the mother
figure and explores the various emotions that she elicits.
Jonathan Meese was born in 1971 in Tokyo and lives and works in Berlin and Hamburg.
This year he had a solo exhibition at MAGASIN Centre National d’Art, Grenoble and at the
Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem. He was represented in the Berlin Biennial in 1998 and
more recently performed in Wagner’s, Parsifal in Berlin. Tal R was born in 1967 in Israel
and lives and works in Copenhagen. In 2007 he will have a solo exhibition at the Louisiana
Museum for Moderne Kunst in Copenhagen. In 2002 Tal R received the prestigious
Carnegie Art Award and in 2004 he received the Eckersberg Medal. He is an honorary
professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Dusseldorf.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show| Location | map | | Gallery | Bortolami | | Address | 510 W 25th St New York (Chelsea) NY, 10001 United States | | Phone | 212-727-2050 | | Fax | 212-727-2060 | |
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