Heimo Zobernig — Chantal Crousel Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: February 14 → April 11, 2015

From the outset, Heimo Zobernig works with different media and various means of expression such as video, performance, painting, sculpture, installations, architecture, and design.

His two-dimensional work, a mainstay in his production, expresses his interest in the fundamentals of painting as a medium. Heimo Zobernig’s painting reveals his myriad sources of inspiration — from the leading movements and pictorial processes in 20th century art such as abstraction, minimalism, and even conceptual art through forms in his work that we are now familiar with like grids, monochromes, and movement.

The paintings that the artist has produced for this exhibition at the Galerie Chantal Crousel fall within the framework of a compositional evolution that has been part of his work for several years now.

In 2011, while holding his own exhibition in Zurich, Zobernig was fascinated by a Pablo Picasso exhibition, particularly Picasso’s freedom in playing with abstraction, figuration, and gesture. The exhibition had a big impact on him. Even if curves appeared formerly in his work, it was from this moment on that the artist’s paintings began to show heightened expressive complexity.

In this new work, he departs from terse monochromes to looser lines. The previously highly present grid that was a hallmark of much of his painting has nearly disappeared. The composition defined by strips of adhesive tape creating grid lines nearly vanish under a crisscrossing of successive layers of acrylic paint. The usual range of colors on his palette got also enriched by adding metallic tones and fluorescent colors.

Alongside of paintings, a set of works on paper is presented. The oldest are some of the earliest pieces that Zobernig did between 1984 and 1990. These “works of youth”, a period of questioning and research on form and matter around a constantly present abstraction, lean heavily on minimalist vocabulary. Composing with gouache, graphics, or adhesive tape, Heimo Zobernig shows us in this selection of small works on paper the scope of his creative process.

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A key figure of the Austrian art scene and one of the leading artists of his generation, Heimo Zobernig has participated in numerous exhibitions and biennials around the world. Major institutions like Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, Kunsthaus Graz, Mudam Luxembourg, and even Kestnergesellschaft in Hanover have recently hosted some very important shows by the artist. In France in 2009, Zobernig’s exhibitions were featured at CAPC in Bordeaux and at Nouveau Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Heimo Zobernig will represent Austria at the 56th Venice Biennial (2015).