Ashley Hans Scheirl — Petrol M*other Paris — Loevenbruck Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

In 6 days: October 23 → December 5, 2026

Performing trans*operations has always been central in the work of Ashley Hans Scheirl who started in the late 70ies with drawing, painting, super-8 filmmaking, performance, installation and sound work. A 20 years long period of filmmaking (over 50 films) was followed by three decades of painting, mainly acylic on canvas. This year, having celebrated their 70ies birthday, Scheirl, yet again, has developed a new technique adjusting to a self that is under constant construction.

Under the title “Petrol M*other Paris” Scheirl astonishes us with an even greater variety of materials and techniques: pencil, pastel, crayons, oil stick, ballpointpen, charcoal, watercolour, acrylic on collage of printed paper. Prints of stock market data from the “Financial Times”, technical drawings from “Bildwörterbuch” (Picture Dictionary) and print-outs from details of own drawings.

Central is the shift from canvas to wood. It was long planned, but the spark into action was brought about in a conversation between Scheirl and Paul B. Preciado, as they together realized that Scheirl has been using painting as gender performance (“Hans” the painter/le peintre), even though it is actually textile art.¹

Wood is ideal for collaging. As it is a hard surface² objects can be fastened, paper layers can be cut with a knife. By making the paper damp the cut-out can be easily removed: cut & paste made physical. With this new body of work AH Scheirl is (re)discovering the erotics of scribbling with a sharpened colour pencil, placing line next to line — like hair — onto a thin or thick layer of paper glued to the fibruous surface with wallpaper glue. It is of 100% cellulose which is — like paper — made out of wood. It liquifies when dampened. Its slimy consistency evokes the idea of bodily fluids and — in the process — ambivalent emotions between disgust, joy and arousal.

In putting drawing and painting into a dynamic, using numbers and text fragments Scheirl is citing Cy Twombly’s work which shows the vulnerability of sign and meaning in the moment they slide into nothingness, dirt and obscene graffiti. Leaving the sealed and sanitary surface of hardened acrylic for charcoal and pastels easily blown or wiped away, cut paper-bits taped into a precarious form sticking out of the surface or untreated wood details that might tinge, the artist points to mortality and the fragility of being in these times of doom and accelerated transformation.

“…. your paintings honor the flaws of the gesture, allowing us to see the life of the nonnormative and the unformed. Only then can dissident trans* beauty emerge. Your work shows the liveliness of the gesture but also stages and makes fun of the act of containment that comes after it. And therefore we see the struggle and the violence of this act of restrain and control. In your exhibitions, there is always something excremental, something exceeding that restriction. This is why your exhibitions breathe, burst, spill, drip, drool, pour, vibrate, sperm, pump, shit, leak, limp, merge, bend, melt, upbeat, absorb, fall, shine—because they dare to show incompleteness, vulnerability…”³

¹ Paul B. Preciado « A Painter* of Modern Life », cat. exp., « In & Out of Painting* », Ashley Hans Scheirl au Belvedere 21, Vienne, 2026

² Even as the wooden panels are of leightweight thin wood the surface is stabilzed by a solid wooden framework in the back

³ Paul B. Preciado « A Painter* of Modern Life », cat. exp., « In & Out of Painting* », Ashley Hans Scheirl au Belvedere 21, Vienne, 2026