strata - Sammlung Lenikus

STRATA
annual exhibition
opening 18.09.2012 at 7pm
19.09. – 10.11.2012
Passage Bauernmarkt 9 / Wildpretmarkt 6
1010 Vienna
artists in the show
Lutz Braun, Hugo Canoilas, Svenja Deininger, Stano Filko, Carsten
Fock, Nick Goss, Eva Kotatkova, Kalin Lindena, Alexander D.
Martinz, mahony, Keegan McHargue, Oswald Oberhuber, Nick
Oberthaler, Michael Part, Amalia Pica, Arnulf Rainer, Jackson
Slattery, Jannis Varelas
curated by Francesco Stocchi
Dialogue by Amalia Pica
opening
18. September 2012, 7 pm
opening hours
19.09. - 10.11. 2012
Thursday-Saturday
4-7 pm or by appointment
artists in the show
Lutz Braun, Hugo Canoilas, Svenja Deininger, Stano Filko, Carsten Fock, Nick Goss, Eva
Kotatkova, Kalin Lindena, Alexander D. Martinz, mahony, Keegan McHargue, Oswald
Oberhuber, Nick Oberthaler, Michael Part, Amalia Pica, Arnulf Rainer, Jackson Slattery,
Jannis Varelas
curated by Francesco Stocchi
contact
SAMMLUNG LENIKUS
Angela E. Akbari
T +43 650 605 64 81
sammlung@sammlunglenikus.at
www.sammlunglenikus.at
advisory board of the SAMMLUNG LENIKUS
Cosima Rainer
Jasper Sharp
Francesco Stocchi
Privatstiftung Lenikus
FN 176807k, HG Wien
Parkring 10 / A -1010 Wien
T +43 1 516 31 0
F +43 1 516 31 190
STRATA
Strata is a latin term signifying a series of layers within a structure. A painting can present
different strata in its composition, the materials used, or its techniques. A film is both a
sequence and a strata of objects, situations and sounds. A sculpture, like a drawing, can
carry allegories with many strata of meaning. And a collection of these objects, by its very
nature, is a strata composed of interpretative and communicative behaviour.
Considered and irrational decisions, expectations, regrets and reconsiderations. The process
of collecting can invigorate and cause suffering at the same time. It forms a portrait of the
collector, composed of manifold strata, in which one can perceive a passage of time, its
shifting states of mind and associations.
Recent acquisitions of the Lenikus Collection are assembled here, in a display that refers
to the tautology which the terms collection and stratification suggest. Through the work of
seventeen artists with dissimilar interests, experience and methods of research, Strata casts
light on the processes of creation, association, layering, addition and subtraction.
Lutz Braun
> untitled, 2010
indian ink on paper
29,7 x 21 cm
> untitled, 2010
indian ink on paper
29,7 x 21 cm
_
born 1976 in Schleswig, lives in Berlin
His work is concerned with matters of myth, Freudian subconsciousness and more recently with
political and social issues in a broader sense. Braun‘s paintings and drawings leave the viewer with a
sense of skeptic urgency, as everything, once depicted, would seem to be out of place. The artist´s
choices of dark combinations of colour and their expressive, misty applications, add to the ability to
promote uneasy feelings in the viewer.
Hugo Canoilas
> Void, 2010
oil on MDF
190 x 160 x 160 cm
_
born 1977 in Lisbon, lives in Vienna
Hugo Canoilas could be seen as a recycling propagandist. He enhances the urgency of artistic coproduction, mainly involving paintings or examinations around the medium itself. The political
engagement of his practice is manifest through the research investigations on form and a holistic
organization of the collective structure.
Svenja Deininger
> untitled, 2010
oil on canvas
65 x 50 cm
_
born 1974 in Vienna, lives in Vienna
Svenja Deininger‘s practice resides in a continuous tension between addition and subtraction. In a
perpetual quest towards a balance, a state of seemly order, the artist overlaps multiple view points,
techniques, substances to the erased elements. Nothing seems to follow a predetermined path:
geometrical abstracted figures implode into contrasts of tones and planes in relation, guided by a
transparent process which composes a realistic, trackable illusion.
Stano Filko
> Kosmologia – Heliocentrizsmus von Farbach 7 Akrier, ca. 1978 - 84
acryl on paper
70 x 50 cm
_
born 1937 in Velka Hradna, Slovak Republic, lives in Bratislava
Stanislav Filko belongs to the founders of conceptual art in Slovakia and was a key figure in the
Bratislava art circles of the 1960s and 1970s. His earlier work shows an interest in two dimensional
spatial concepts. From the late 1960s, his work takes a new turn, becoming tinged with references
to transcendental philosophy, history and metaphysics. Filko’s cosmological attitude to art creation is
hypersensitive, where colours, rather than forms, generate a spatial illusion.
Carsten Fock
> untitled, 2011
mixed media on cotton
145 x 115 cm
_
born 1968 in Gera, lives in Berlin and Vienna
Carsten Fock‘s practise emphasises drawings and paintings in which he combines fragments of texts
or individual words. These fragments are often painted over, sometimes they are still legible, but
frequently they can no longer be decoded. Invisibility clashes with sensorial faculties in a quest towards
the absolute.
Nick Goss
> Beacon, 2011
oil on paper
153 x 122 cm
_
born 1981 in Bristol, England, lives in London
The paintings and works on paper of Nick Goss investigate distinctly liminal areas and subcultures,
in which elusive traces of human presence gradually emerge from a ground of subtly contrasting
textures. They deliberately seek out geographies and subject matter that exist somewhere between the
landscape and the industrial, the recognisable and the ambiguous.
Eva Kotatkova
> from the series parallel biography, 2012
wooden boards painted, paper-drawings, collages
70 x 400 cm
_
born 1979 in Prague, lives in Prague
Eva Kotatkova’s interest is directed towards the human body, the psyche, in relation to recollections.
She understands them as expressions of social conditioning mechanisms. The underlying authoritarian
ideologies are targeted with a certain sense of humour by her drawings, paper-photos and collages in
relation to metal structures installations which compose a dualistic, ambiguous whole.
Kalin Lindena
> Statist: Reifentanz, 2011
hula hoop, wood, cardboard, car mirror
200 x 80 x 89 cm
_
born 1977 in Hannover, lives in Berlin
Kalin Lindena dramatically plays with her spectators. Her sculptures represent multi-layered figures,
fragmented visions in three dimensional collages. The artist orchestrates silent ballet of frozen moment
in time. Material qualities such as colour, weight and shape fail to remember their properties to
compose choreographical compositions.
mahony
> Bir Tawil, 2010
gouache on paper
100 x 130 x 20 cm
_
live and work in Vienna
Much of mahonys artistic production dances in balance well known and unknown historical facts.
This kind of appropriation means for the austrian collective questioning, transforming, translating,
re-associating and reactivating the chosen topic. These processes suggest new, manifold relations
connecting past to the present throughout geographical and historical zones, social and political
contexts.
Alexander D. Martinz
> henry sam ocean, 2009
_
Video, Dauer 4:47
Alexander Martinz assembles his moving pictures out of takes from other films. The finished
works show a sort of polyphony: The divisions of the projected area in the form of strips symbolize
autonomous voices; The array of the sound tracks and image sequences creates the impression of a
visual notation system.
Keegan McHargue
> untitled, 2011
indian ink on paper
_
42 x 30 cm
born 1982 in Portland, Oregon, lives in New York
Keegan McHargue combines banal interiors, pattern, and disjointed figures to create paintings and
drawings that reference both art history and popular culture. His colour palettes, compositions and
his natural ability towards painting is both enchanting and meticulous. Each work presents a dualism
between an independence of vision and a careful approach to composition.
Oswald Oberhuber
> Komposition mit Pferd, 1994
drawing
_
44 x 56 cm
born in 1931 in Meran, lives in Vienna
Oswald Oberhuber has greatly influenced the post-1950 Austrian art world, not only as an artist, but
also as a curator, professor and theorist. He is the father of informal painting and sculpture in Austria.
Expressing his artistic talent through a corollary of languages, materials and techniques, he is an
inspiring figure for following generations of artists.
Nick Oberthaler
> untitled, 2012
indian ink gouache pastel on paper
_
48 x 36 cm
born 1981 in Bad Ischl, lives in Vienna
Nick Oberthaler’s painting research is expressed through different techniques such as wax, crayons,
Indian ink, combining them with applied cardboard. Oberthaler’s windows open towards imaginary
landscapes offer a subtle poetic imagery that seeks to capture moments of desire.
Michael Part
> untitled, 2011
silver on brass
100 x 67 cm
> untitled, 2011
silver on brass (zementation)
_
100 x 67 cm
born 1979 in Vienna, lives in Vienna
Michael Part’s copper and brass panels are closely linked to analogue photography through their
materials and production process. In a conceptual process generating unexpected formal qualities‘
reactions, the artist immerses metal panels into silver gelatin prints‘ solutions extracted from early
photographic prints. What is obsolete, labelled as historical, or nostalgic grows into new, enriching
prospects.
Amalia Pica
> Dialogue (Paper and Mountain), 2010
_
image composed with A3 photocopies (small), 1/3
born 1978 in Neuquen, Argentina, lives in London
Amalia Pica works in a variety of media ranging from sculpture, photography, film, to installation,
adopting a conceptual approach marked by wit and a sense of play. “The works often explore the idea
of enunciation and the performative nature of thought and speech” in the artist’s words. Perception,
time, memory, and a sense of how particular gestures read in different cultural contexts are central
to Pica‘s work. What interests the artist is the distance between sender and receiver, the ways we
misunderstand or misremember.
Arnulf Rainer
> untitled, 1995
lithography, 33/35
_
63 x 49 cm
born 1929 in Baden, lives in Vienna
The Austrian printmaker, painter and photographer employed a technique akin to the Surrealists‘
automatic writing and evolved towards Destruction of Forms. Working with materials such as pencils
and oil paints, Rainer draws overtop photographs, self-portrait and images made by classical and
contemporary artists. From the mid-1970s the artist reworked photographs on a variety of subjects,
constantly adding to his repertory of images he continued to exploit the interaction of intellectual
meditation and bodily expression.
Jackson Slattery
> untiteled, 2012
water colour
58 x 38,5 cm
_
born 1983 in Melbourne, Australia, lives in Montreal, Canada
Jackson Slattery‘s technically accomplished works, which he regards as drawings with paint, are based
on photographs which are either personal or sourced from magazines such as National Geographic
or online photo-sharing platforms. His meticulously executed water-colors transcend hyper realism:
stereotyped symbols are depicted together with personal narratives which enable to overshadow the
limits of representation.
Jannis Varelas
> untitled, 2012
pencil/collage on paper
40 x 29,5 cm
_
born 1977 in Athens, lives in Athens and Vienna
In his artistic practice Varelas alternates between drawing, collage, video and sculpture. His monumental
drawings in collage technique feature hybrid figures which challenge the social norms that classify
human beings and divide them into categories. Varelas’ own characters are paradoxical and impossible
to define, revealing what it is like to be a humanoid presence who cannot fit into the mould for gender,
sexuality, race, ethnicity or religion.
Lutz Braun
Eva Kotatkova
Michael Part
1 > untitled, 2010
8 > from the series parallel
14 > untitled, 2011
indian ink on paper
biography, 2012
silver on brass
29,7 x 21 cm
wooden boards painted,
100 x 67 cm
2 > untitled, 2010
indian ink on paper
29,7 x 21 cm
Hugo Canoilas
3 > Void, 2010
oil on MDF
190 x 160 x 160 cm
Svenja Deininger
4 > untitled, 2010
oil on canvas
65 x 50 cm
paper-drawings, collages
70 x 400 cm
Kalin Lindena
15 > untitled, 2011
silver on brass
(zementation)
100 x 67 cm
9 > Statist: Reifentanz, 2011
hula hoop, wood,
Amalia Pica
cardboard, car mirror
16 > Dialogue (Paper and
200 x 80 x 89 cm
mahony
Mountain), 2010
image composed with A3
photocopies (small), 1/3
10 > Bir Tawil, 2010
gouache on paper
Arnulf Rainer
100 x 130 x 20 cm
17 > untitled, 1995
lithography, 33/35
Stano Filko
5 > Kosmologia –
Heliocentrizsmus von
Farbach 7 Akrier,
ca. 1978 - 84
acryl on paper
70 x 50 cm
Carsten Fock
6 > untitled, 2011
mixed media on cotton
145 x 115 cm
Nick Goss
7 > Beacon, 2011
oil on paper
153 x 122 cm
Keegan McHargue
11 > untitled, 2011
indian ink on paper
42 x 30 cm
Oswald Oberhuber
12 > Komposition mit Pferd,
1994
drawing
44 x 56 cm
Nick Oberthaler
13 > untitled, 2012
indian ink gouache pastel
on paper
48 x 36 cm
63 x 49 cm
Jackson Slattery
18 > untiteled, 2012
water colour
52,5 x 34 cm,
58 x 38,5 cm
Jannis Varelas
19 > untitled, 2012
pencil/collage on paper
40 x 29,5 cm
Alexander D. Martinz
20 > henry sam ocean, 2009
Video, Dauer 4:47
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