alberto seveso

firiyal

dio benedica la passera

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wallace berman

Michael Kohn Gallery at Art Basel

Art Basel 40

Hall 2.0

Booth W7

> kohngallery.com <

untitled (al-fet) [1964]

Michael Kohn Gallery is pleased to present never before seen works by Wallace Berman (1949-1976). Wallace Berman was born in 1926 in Staten Island, New York, and was widely considered to be the father of the assemblage movement. He began his career making sculptures from unused scraps and reject materials while working in an antique furniture factory. By the early 1950s, Berman had become an artist and active figure in the beat community in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Moving between the two cities, Berman devoted himself to his mail art publication, Semina, which contained a sampling of beat poetry and images selected by the artist. In 1963, Berman moved to Topanga Canyon in the Los Angeles area, and began work on verifax collages (printed images, often from magazines and newspapers, mounted in collage fashion onto a flat surface, sometimes with solid bright areas of acrylic paint). He continued cr eating these works, as well as rock assemblages, until his death in 1976.

In 2008 Wallace Berman was featured in a number of shows in Europe, including his first retrospective at the Camden Arts Centre in London as well as group shows at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. In 2009, Michael Kohn Gallery hosted a well-received two-person show that focused on the work of Wallace Berman and Richard Prince and the way in which the artists portrayed women in their art. Berman's work is included in public collections at numerous institutions including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. (via art-agenda.com)

myriam mechita / gregory jacobsen: fleischeslust (carnal desire)

FLEISCHESLUST

05 June - 11 July 2009 

Opening: Thursday, 04. June 2009, 7 pm 

Bongout Gallery

Torstrasse 110

10119 Berlin

Germany

Opening hours: Tu - Sa: 12 - 7pm 

+49 (0)30 280 93 758

www.bongout.org

Organs, entrails and genitals leading a life of their own, heaps of flesh interacting with creatures with mask-like faces, fleshy and wrinkled skin and open wounds, which, despite bearing human traits, look as though they had escaped from our worst nightmares. Shining strings of pearls are flowing from a deer's open neck, as though the animal's bowels were spilling onto the floor, intertwining and forming mysteriously glittering shapes. 

Despite obvious differences, the works of Gregory Jacobsen (USA) and Myriam Mechita (France) have in common that they turn reality upside down. Bringing the inner life of things to the fore, their near-surrealist stagings make visible that which usually lies hidden. 

"Dance of the Retarded Girl Slumped Sideways", "Massive head, foul smelling", "Choked off Clotting Lamp" - Gregory Jacobsen's song titles could just as well apply to his oil paintings, which he executes in the style of the great masters. Whether he makes music, paints or stages performances, the Chicago-based artist creates disquietingly grotesque atmospheres, which are partly owed to his creatures' facial expressions: they look happy and satisfied, and not in the least affected by their physical impediments or state of decay. 

Myriam Mechita has scattered body parts and cut-off heads of animals throughout the exhibition space. These physical remains are clad in polished surfaces, a coat of shining lacquer, and glass beads. The contrast between the mutilated body parts and the glistening materials creates an almost unbearable tension. The mirrors and the glass reflect the light and the surrounding space, producing distorted perspectives that challenge the viewer?s perception. Mechita's sculptural elements seem caught in the moment - before everything starts flowing again.

myriam mechita: le chant des héros [2006]

gregory jacobsen: sweat stained fancy heap for first rate ladies [2005]