News

On the occasion of the current exhibition at Mitte Museum „Wer wir sind und was wir tun – mitten im Museum“ Seiichi Furuya will be joining us for a conversation with art critic and editor of art magazine „von hundert“ Barbara Buchmaier and curator Susanne Weiss. The conversation will focus on the period when Seiichi Furuya lived in the GDR and the role that photography plays in visualizing and organizing memory. The talk will be held in German. Further information.

Tuesday, 17 December 2019, 6pm
Mitte Museum
Pankstraße 47, 13357 Berlin

Currently the Van Abbemuseum is presenting a small retrospective exhibition of the work of artist and writer Brian O’Doherty, also known under the pseudonym Patrick Ireland. The exhibition shows artworks and publications, attesting to his coherent, yet multi-disciplinary practice. The exhibition is curated by Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes, who recently edited the book „Brian O’Doherty/Patrick Ireland: Word, Image and Institutional Critique“. The exhibition is on view until 2 February 2020. Further information.

We cordially invite you to the second edition of Good To Talk.

Find the full program here.

Good To Talk is a talk-festival about art – in the form of lectures, panel discussions, monologues, debates, spoken or sung, informative or performative. The festival offers a platform for communicating art outside established structures and focuses on the question of the future of art mediation. Furthermore, Good To Talk also allows people – whether they are familiar with the Berlin art scene or not – to gain first-hand insights into the art world from gallery owners, artists and others.

Seiichi Furuya has been awarded the Austrian State Prize for Artistic Photography. The award, which has been given at irregular intervals since 1991, includes a monetary prize of 25,000 euros and is presented to an artist for an especially outstanding life’s work of national and international importance.
The three-member jury — Monika Faber, Walter Moser and Urs Stahel — explains: „Seiichi Furuya is one of a generation of Austrian auteur photographers that beginning in the 1970s developed impulses for the development of photography that had an impact domestically and beyond the country’s borders. In his frequent travels in Europe and Japan, Furuya created photographs that combine documentary strategies with autobiographical subjects in a unique way.” Read more.

New Book out now!

Astrid Mania and Thomas Fischer are happy to announce the book launch for „A Mental Masquerade“. Please join us to celebrate on 8 July at Café Bravo.

Monday, 8 July 2019, 7-9 pm
Café Bravo
KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Auguststraße 69
10117 Berlin

„A Mental Masquerade“ gathers work by art critic Mary Josephson, most of it written between 1971 and 1973.

Mary Josephson does not exist. She is one of the many alter egos of notorious artist and theorist Brian O’Doherty, looking to liberate himself from the intellectual constraints of malehood and the social constraints of the art world. Josephson was a brilliant observer, a witty and fearless writer. Her reviews shed a light on New York’s art scene in 1970s.

Brian O’Doherty: „Mary’s birth was a matter of utmost seriousness for me, and not a game or mere playfulness. Impersonations have an urgency and an esthetic, which brings one into issues of masking and the mask. I want to avoid pretentiousness here; the motive force is ultimately the familiar oddity of oneself as „the other“, a stage which I believe is very common in any reasonably sensitive person’s life. Astrid Mania shows amazing insight into the implications – gender and otherwise – of Mary’s strange but quite convincing presence. Mary still has a role in my inner life, fidgeting around restlessly in a remote zone where one’s gender is more or less fluid, a sweet trace of one’s uncertain adolescent self.“

A Mental Masquerade
When Brian O’Doherty was a female art critic: Mary Josephson’s collected writings
Edited by Thomas Fischer & Astrid Mania
Published by Spector Books
Designer: Saira Hussain, Julia Guther, Studio Workshop

This publication was made possible with the support of the Schuermann Foundation.

You can order the book here.

The exhibition “Stance & Fall. A Wavering World” at Marta Herford features works
by Sebastian Stumpf. The exhibition can be seen until 6 October 2019. Further information.

Museum Villa Stuck will be presenting an installation with slide projections by Seiichi Furuya including works from his series „Mémoires“ in the exhibition „Von Ferne. Bilder zur DDR“.
The exhibition can be seen until 15 September 2019. Further information.

Berlinische Galerie will be presenting three video projections by Sebastian Stumpf in IBB Videoraum from 6 February to 4 March 2019. Further information.

The Fort Worth Modern Art Museum will be presenting Dirk Braeckman in a solo exhibition from 26 January to 17 March 2019. Further information.

The exhibition „Shifting Perspectives“ at the Center for Art and Urban Space Schloss Biesdorf features works by Seiichi Furuya. The show can be seen from 21 October 2017 to 8 April 2018. The opening reception will be held on Friday, 20 October 2017, 7 pm. Further information.

The „Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie“ features works by Dirk Braeckman and Sebastian Stumpf. Entitled „Farewell Photography“, several exhibitions in Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg will address the major upheavals and changes in contemporary image culture. Further information.

Kantine am Berghain, 8-10 September 2017

– Review the program here –

“Good to talk – 46 hours in conversation” is a program of talks and other word-based formats on art. For 46 hours non-stop, “Good to talk” will explore the spoken word in a variety of modes of expression, soliloquy or argument, spoken or sung, informative or performative. Talks, lectures, and panel discussions will be complemented by performances, musical acts, and the occasional dance or audience participation session. 
Initiated by a group of Berlin-based galleries, the program will address current issues in art and bring together international art-world dwellers with politicians, scientists, and art-world outsiders to facilitate unusual encounters, surprising perspectives, and fresh food for thought. The nonstop and varied program agenda invites visitors to come and go at any given time and stay as long as they please. Further information.

The exhibition „Ungestalt“ at Kunsthalle Basel features works by Joachim Bandau from the 1960s and 1970s. The show can be seen from 19 May to 13 August 2017. Further information.

Dirk Braeckman’s exhibition for the Belgian Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale can be seen from 13 May to 11 November 2017. Further information.

Sebastian Stumpf photographed the Thomas Mann House following his fellowship at Villa Aurora, Pacific Palisades, California. The house was designed for Thomas Mann by Julius Ralph Davidson in 1941. He lived there with his family during his American exile from 1942 to 1952. The pictures were taken in January 2017, a few weeks after the purchase of the property by the Federal Republic of Germany.

The portfolio „Seven Palms“ contains 12 photographs and a reproduction of a text from the estate of the architect Julius Ralph Davidson.

Seiichi Furuya’s Dresden photographs from 1984 are a most unlikely document — a view of daily life in the latter days of the GDR recorded by a Japanese photographer. Furuya came to Dresden as an interpreter for a Japanese construction company. His pictures are private – a young family in an intimate setting, their deep-seated anxieties and moments of happiness — and it is more in passing that he records everyday life and society. His view from the outside, a stranger’s way of seeing things, has no equivalent in the art photography of the GDR. In 2015 an exhibition project brought Furuya back to Dresden, where he took a series of new pictures: photographs of familiar places, onto which capitalist life has now inscribed itself, thirty years on, and of the Pegida demonstrations that have completely transformed the image of the city.

„Why Dresden“ was designed by Helmut Völter and published by Spector Books, Leipzig, with a text by Manfred Wiemer. The book has been reviewed by Silke Hohmann for Monopol magazine (02/2017). Read more.

A book presentation will be held on 12 April 2017 at Kunsthaus Dresden at 7pm. Seiichi Furuya will be present. Further information.

Margrét H. Blöndal’s work is on view until 7 May 2017 in the exhibition „Entangled: Threads & Making“ at the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate. Further information.

The Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Foundation has chosen Sebastian Stumpf as the 2016 recipient of its renowned prize for Contemporary German Photography 2016. Further information.

Next year, Dirk Braeckman will represent Flanders at the 57th Venice Biennial. The exhibition in the pavilion will be curated by Eva Wittocx, General Coordinator of M-Museum Leuven. Further information.

The exhibition „Forty“ at PS1 features one of Brian O’Doherty’s early rope drawings from 1976. The show can be seen through 29 August 2016. Further information.

The gallery will present works by Joachim Bandau, Margrét H. Blöndal and Marcel Frey at Art Brussels.
Brussels, 21 – 24 April 2016
Further information.

Regionale 16 features works by Marcel Frey at the Kunstverein Freiburg and the Projektraum M54 in Basel.

The exhibition „Disegno – The art of drawing for the 21st century“, curated by Michael Hering, at the Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden features Brian O’Doherty’s work „Duchamp Boxed“. The exhibition can be seen through 29 March 2016. Further information.
At the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin „A Few Free Years: From Absalon to Zobernig“ features two pieces from the same body of work. Further information.

Through 11 October 2015 works by Brian O’Doherty can be seen at S.M.A.K. in Ghent. S.M.A.K. selected several works form the 1960s and 70s of Brian O’Doherty for a cabinet exhibition. Further information.

The exhibition „Werkbetrachtung“ at the Kunstverein Gera features works by Sebastian Stumpf, VALIE EXPORT, Bruce Nauman and Florian Slotawa. The exhibition can be seen from 26 June to 29 August 2015. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, 25 June 2015, 7.30pm. Further information.

Bruch & Dallas presents a solo exhibition of Marcel Frey in Cologne. The exhibition can be seen from 20 June to 18 July 2015. The opening reception will be held on Friday, 19 June 2015 at 7pm. Further information.

Cyrill Lachauer is currently a fellow at Villa Aurora in Los Angeles. Further information.

The gallery shows works by Joachim Bandau, Laetitia Gendre and Sebastian Stumpf at Art Brussels, Booth 3A-21.
Brussels, 25 – 27 April 2015.
Further information.

Kunsthaus Dresden (Was wir sehen. Dresden 1984-1985), Technische Sammlungen Dresden (Gravitation) and GfZK Leipzig (Erinnerung-Kontrolle) present three solo exhibitions of Seiichi Furuya opening on 1 April and 10 April 2015. Please click on the venues for more information.

Cyrill Lachauer’s new book „Full Service“ documents his most recent work, in which he examines myths of the American West, Las Vegas and its promise of wealth and the Native American Ghost Dance movement.
Please join us to have a look at the book and to enjoy Cyrill’s Old Fashioned drink on Friday 13 March, 19h, at Galerie Thomas Fischer.

Cyrill Lachauer is a new artist in the gallery’s program.
Born in 1979 he studied film at HFF Munich and cultural anthropology before studying at UDK Berlin with Lothar Baumgarten. Further information.
Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, now presents Cyrill Lachauer’s first museum’s exhibition, entitled „Full Service“. The opening reception will be held on Wednesday, 14 January 2015, 7pm. Further information.

The current magazine of the Federal Cultural Foundation features drawings by Laetitia Gendre. Each issue is dedicated to one artist’s work. Further information.

The exhibition „Puddle, pothole, portal“ at the Sculpture Center, New York features works by Joachim Bandau. The exhibition can be seen through 5 January 2015. Further information.

Le Bal presents the first major solo exhibition of Dirk Braeckman in France. The exhibition can be seen from 7 November 2014 to 4 January 2015. Further information.

Friedemann Heckel is part of a group of artists, architects, designers and filmmakers who some years ago came upon the idiosyncratic idea of building a chapel. In Fall 2014 the chapel will be completed and opened with a festival service. Further information.

Heidelberger Kunstverein presents the solo exhibition „Wo die Wahrheit liegt“ by Seiichi Furuya. The exhibition can be seen from 30 August to 2 November 2014. Along with the exhibition the book „Staatsgrenze“ has been published by Spector Books. Further information.

Between 1981 and 1983, the Japanese photographer Seiichi Furuya, based in Graz, took photographs at the Austrian border towards the former Eastern block nations. In contrast to the media attention devoted to the inner German border and the division of Berlin, Furuya was searching for images in the inconspicuous and at times even idyllic border territories to Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. His associations of places and stories form a valuable historical document, shaped by the interplay between the private and the political, between personal view and documentary distance. On occasion of his solo show at the Heidelberger Kunstverein in September 2014 this work will be published — 30 years after its creation — in the form of a book.

The exhibition „Buildering: Misbehaving the City“ curated by Steven Matijcio can be seen from 28 February until 18 August 2014 at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio. More information.

P! and Simone Subal Gallery present a two-venue solo exhibition by Brian O’Doherty. Featuring a range of historical and contemporary work – from early text pieces, semantic sculptures, figurative and conceptual portraits, a new “rope drawing” installation, chess works, and a site-specific, live-streamed performance piece – the exhibition probes the dualisms, linguistic games, and relational approaches that have characterized O’Doherty’s work since the late 1950s. „Connecting the …“ explores the tension between the visceral, the sensual, and the bodily in relation to their ongoing transformation into abstract form.
The exhibition can be seen from 2 March to 20 April 2014 at P! and Simone Subal Gallery, New York City. Further information.

The exhibition „A class of its own: photography as action space“ presents a group of younger photographers that has formed around Timm Rautert. His groups of works are compared with pieces by his ex-students, among others Claudia Angelmaier, Viktoria Binschtok, Bernhard Fuchs, Sven Johne, Ricarda Roggan, Adrian Sauer, Sebastian Stumpf, Anett Stuth and Tobias Zielony. It can be seen from 1 February through 18 May 2014 in the Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden. Further information.

In the winter 2013 issue of Aperture, titled „Photography as you don’t know it“, David Strettell introduces Japanese photographer Seiichi Furuya’s portraits of Christine. Further information.

The gallery participates in Artissima – Back to the Future with a solo presentation by Brian O’Doherty. Further information.

Artissima
8-10 November 2013
Torino

The exhibition „The End of the 20th Century. The best is yet to come“, curated by Eugen Blume and Catherine Nichols is a dialogue with the Marx Collection and features the work „Silbernes Monstrum“ (1970-71) by Joachim Bandau. The exhibition can be seen from 14 September 2013 to 27 April 2014. Further information.

Friedemann Heckel is shortlisted for the Berlin Art Prize 2013. On 22 June 2013 the prize will be awarded for the first time. The exhibition will take place in a former waterworks in Kreuzberg, Aqua Carre, Lobeckstrasse 30-35. Further information.

The exhibition „1.pers.sing – The artist´s body between self-portrait and performance“ features work of Sebastian Stumpf from 26 May to 22 September 2013 at art and design center b-05, Montabaur. Further information.

Brian O’Doherty created a site-specific rope drawing for Daimler Contemporary’s new exhibition „Conceptual Tendencies II“. The piece, „Equator“, is number 118 of a series of rope drawings that O’Doherty first began in 1973 in New York. The show can be seen until 22 September 2013.
Further information.

The gallery shows works by Laetitia Gendre, Brian O’Doherty and Sebastian Stumpf at Art Brussels, First Call.
Booth 3C-06. 
Brussels, 18 – 21 April 2013.
For the fair Brian O’Doherty created a site-specific rope drawing.
Further information.

The exhibition „Ages – Porträts vom Älterwerden“ features work of Seiichi Furuya from 22 March to 28 July 2013 at SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne. Further information.

Sebastian Stumpf’s site-specific video projection „Sleep #3“ is now on permanent display at the new offices of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes in Halle (Saale).

Frieze Art Fair London will present a talk with Brian O’Doherty on Thursday, 11 October 2012 at 5pm.
Further information.

Sebastian Stumpf’s video projection „Bridges“ can be seen from 22 September 2012 to 6 January 2013 at Wilhelm-Hack-Museum in Ludwigshafen. Further information.

The gallery participates in abc – art berlin contemporary 2012 with a presentation of works by
Marcel Frey.
13 – 16 September 2012
.
Further information.

The autumn issue of Frieze d/e features an essay on the photographer Seiichi Furuya by the critic and curator Thibaut de Ruyter. Read more here

Seiichi Furuya’s solo exhibition „Hätte Wenn Warum“ can be seen from 15 June to 19 August 2012 at Museum für Photographie Braunschweig. 
The opening reception will be held on Thursday, 14 June at 7pm. Further information.