Misunderstood

Curated by: Reply All – Yasmine Datnow and Maïa Morgensztern

Artists: Rina Banerjee, Talia Keinan, Wolfe von Lenkiewicz and Hennessy Youngman

The continuous growth of the technology of information and communication has changed people’s knowledge and understanding of each other; what were once commonly held stereotypes have been fractured by globalised experiences. A proliferation of information creates a reordering of beliefs and

this shift lead to misrepresentation and misunderstandings.

Misrepresentations of normality lead to the Uncanny and the displaced references that occur also blur any sense of self. This brings the potential for a new world order. As a shift takes place, identity issues arise. Communication between individuals becomes skewed, which emerge as duplicitous and enable artists to play with their audience through whimsical interactions. All these events encourage self proclaimed taste-makers to constantly challenge notions of taste.

As a result people learned behaviors are contest by illusory correlation, (the perception of a relationship between two variables when only a minor or absolutely no relationship actually exists). The various ways in which misinterpretation is visually manifested and where a sense of order can be rebuilt beyond this issue are explored through the work of Rina Banerjee, Talia Keinan, Wolfe von Lenkiewicz and Hennessy Youngman calling into question Taste and its connotations. The audience’s dialogue with the work evokes a reassignment of value by an ever-changing, self-elected class able to diffuse and shuffle information at speed.

Brooklyn based artist Rina Banerjee (Born 1963, Kolkota) moved with her family to the UK and then to America. In 1995 she completed an MFA at the Yale University School of Art after abandoning her career as a polymer chemist. She has a love of materials and enjoys theatrically re-staging their inherent meanings in sculptures and drawings, paintings and videos.

Like an alchemist Banerjee draws on her experiences growing up in different places, bringing items that act as cultural signifiers together in curious and enchanting compositions. The works have a magical feel and tell stories; their titles give a mythical introduction to the artist’s thought process. Her watercolor works explore a dream-like world where strange beastly but oddly endearing creatures are suspended in time, surrounded by hybrid flora and fauna. Sometimes a more sinister undercurrent pervades, giving us

a feeling that beneath the glimmer and shine, darker secrets lurk.

The work of Talia Keinan (Born 1978, Israel) is in constant flux. Her use of a variety of media refers to the existing realm that lies between reality and fantasy. The space she creates can be viewed as a world of its own, where sound unveils an obscure memory, and projected video on a drawing generates imaginative places. By navigating the space, the viewer initiates a dialogue between objects to create a private and associative experience. The materials are transformed as a personal narrative unfolds, creating an invented and autonomous world. Within her drawings and collages this alternative world remains for us to explore.

Wolfe von Lenkiewicz’s (Born 1966, Britain) chief artistic concern is the appropriation of language and mythology. He boldly experiments with hybrid visual combinations that straddle the murky borders of the shocking and offensive. His art historical intervention demonstrates our complacency towards imagery, namely those iconic works through art history. Our knowledge of them has become so much second nature that we take them for granted. It is not until they are disturbed that we realize how much confidence we place in them. The history of art can be understood as comprising of changes from one mode of visual representation to another. The difference is the highly contemporary and extreme nature of Lenkiewicz’s subject matter. The works demonstrates that no image is sacred and thus the artist is free to disseminate subject matter as he sees fit.

Hennessy Youngman (Born 1985, the Bronx) is a self taught art historian, who tutored himself about art and the inner-workings of the art world whilst working as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Youngman appears in direct-address to the Internet at large in online episodes of a series titled “Art Thoughtz” which began in early 2010. Most often, Youngman takes on the role of art or cultural critic while speaking about topics concerning art, race, gender, and popular culture. In his video monologues, Youngman becomes a tutor to an audience of hopeful artists in search of success. By explaining traditional art concepts and relating them to pop culture and real world examples, he is able to expose issues and conflicts within contemporary art society. A scheme is perpetuated, through Youngman and the “Art Thoughtz” videos, of following an often sympathetic character, one who is apparently outside the art world, attempting to understand and permeate a seemingly exclusive cultural society.

Curators:

At the beginning of 2012 Yasmine Datnow and Maïa Morgensztern started the company Reply All, having collaborated on projects for the previous 2 years.

Reply All is an agency specializing in curating, teaching, broadcasting and consulting for contemporary art, design and culture. Previous projects include the critically acclaimed group exhibition JaffaCakes TLV, a show in London featuring 7 artists from Tel Aviv. Ongoing projects include the radio show ‘Culture FRL’ for the radio station FRL (French Radio London).

Prior to their collaboration, Yasmine Datnow received a BA in the History of Art and Architecture at the University of East Anglia and an MA in Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute. She became Modern Collections Coordinator at White Cube (2000-2004) and was an Independent Art Consultant and Curator (2004-2012).

Maïa Morgensztern received a BA, MA and M.Phil in Art History from La Sorbonne, Paris IV. She later became Art and Auction Manager at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Foundation, New York (2005-2008), Manager of the Ikepod by Marc Newson pop-up store at Phillips de Pury, London (2009) and Cultural Editor for French Radio London (2010-current)

Habitat

Participating Artists:

Nino Biniashvili

Talia Keinan

Gosia Machon

Amit Mann

Dragan Prgomelja

“Habitat” – the natural environment in which an organism lives, a geo-physical environment in which each present living organism has its survival needs fulfilled. A habitat is then a designated area: a home, other interior spaces, public territories, gardens, city squares as well as dream rooms. It is a space in which one can grow and potentially develop. Five artists from Germany and Israel aim at exploring their own personal habitats: The project aims to create a visual narrative, developed by the examination of each of the artists’ personal habitat. Their works inspect the personal habitat from its territorial context, how it is observed from afar, and their subjective sensations in it and around it. This exhibition and a book, published by Bookieman, are the outcome of this process. About Bookieman. Bookieman is an independent publishing house, funded by Nino Biniashvili and Omri Grinberg. Bookiemans’ focus is limited editions of artist books, with an emphasis on collaborations between writers, poets, illustrators, photographers and designers. Its focuses are on poetic, critical and thorough content.

Group Exhibition in the Project Room
This project is supported by the Ministry of Culture, City of Hamburg

“Habitat” – the natural environment in which an organism lives, a geo-physical environment in which each present living organism has its survival needs fulfilled. A habitat is then a designated area: a home, other interior spaces, public territories, gardens, city squares as well as dream rooms. It is a space in which one can grow and potentially develop.

Five artists from Germany and Israel aim at exploring their own personal habitats: The project aims to create a visual narrative, developed by the examination of each of the artists’ personal habitat. Their works inspect the personal habitat from its territorial context, how it is observed from afar, and their subjective sensations in it and around it. This exhibition and a book, published by Bookieman, are the outcome of this process.

About Bookieman:

Bookieman is an independent publishing house, funded by Nino Biniashvili and Omri Grinberg. Bookiemans’ focus is limited editions of artist books, with an emphasis on collaborations between writers, poets, illustrators, photographers and designers. Its focuses are on poetic, critical and thorough content.

SOLAR ECLIPSE Group Exhibition

Oren Ben Moreh, Maya Bloch, Marik Lechner, Noga Shatz

The expression Solar Eclipse is comprised of 2 words: Solar – Sun, Eclipse – Disruption. A Solar Eclipse occurs when the Earth, the Moon and the Sun are situated on the same axis; the moon blocks the view of the Sun or part of it. A total Eclipse results in a complete obstruction of sunlight or what is known as Black Sun. Through out history the eclipse was considered to have a supernatural influence as a result of the fear it aroused.

The expression Black Sun is also a metaphorical and refers to one of the most common phenomenon’s of modern life: depression and melancholy. Most of the works in the exhibition possess the occurrence of disruption, a creative distortion of the chaotic world, reckless and mysterious. The exhibition as a whole is immersed in a black darkness, as if covering the works with a thick blanket. The works are compressed with layers upon layers that are created through expressive energy.

The Black, through its density and material quality, takes over everything, the unusual images flicker through, images connected to mythology and architypes, revealing psychological states and consciousness that shifts between reality and illusion, a place and no place. Oren Ben Moreh – Born in Israel 1982, Graduate of the Midrasha, 2004. Maya Bloch – Born in Israel 1978, MA Graduate, History of Art from the Tel Aviv University, 2004. Noga Shatz – Born in Israel 1978, Garduate of the Midrasha, 2007

A summer group exhibition- new works, new faces.

Participating artists:

Lea Avital

Ilit Azoulay

Oren Ben Moreh

Michael Halak

Shahar Yahalom

Porat Salomon

Max Friedmann

Jossef Krispel, Orit Raff

Gili Avissar, Roey Heifetz, Andrey Lev, Sagit Mezamer

‘Hogwarts’ is not a thematic exhibition: the thread connecting the four participating artists- Andrey Lev, Gili Avissar, Sagit Mezamer and Roey Heifetz- is hardly that of theme, technique or medium.

The four are recent graduates of the Bezalel Academy M.F.A and advanced studies program, whose works stood out at ‘Haroshet’ (“industry”), the 2009 graduation show.

In this aspect, ‘Hogwarts’ (named after the school of witchcraft from the ‘Harry Potter’ book series) is a kind of continuum of the ‘continuing studies’, a showcase that preserves something of the interactions and reciprocal influences typical of a framework of joint studies and artistic practice.

However, the grouping of these four artists in a new exhibition less than a year after their graduation show, consists not merely in marking a transitory phase for them, but also gives the opportunity to follow some fascinating artistic trends whilst they are emerging; for in ‘Haroshet’, one couldn’t help but sense a new and spectacular direction: risking a generalization, there appeared to be a turn from the text-image direction, one that is so common and familiar in Israeli art, to a different direction- that of image emerging from matter.

Animated Histories: Qiu Anxiong, Robert Breer, Kota Ezawa, Cristina Lucas, Jenny Perlin, Shahzia Sikander, Kara Walker

Curated by Edna Moshenson

“Animated Histories” features works of contemporary artists using various techniques of animation – classical animation, digital and computerized – as an additional facet of their drawings, paintings and installations.

The internationally acclaimed artists participating in this exhibition are:

The Afro-American artist Kara Walker, born in 1969 in USA, Shahzia Sikander, born in 1969 in Lahor, Pakistan, lives and works for over twenty years in NY, Qiu Anxiong, born in 1972 in the Sichuan county in China, studied in Kassel in Germany, lives and works in Shanghai, Cristina Lucas, born in 1973 in Spain, lives and works in Madrid and Amsterdam, Kota Ezawa of Japanese-German parentage, born in 1969, lives and works in San Francisco since 1994, Jenny Perlin, born in 1970 in USA, and Robert Breer, one of the founders of experimental cinema, born in 1926 in USA.

The use of animation in the exhibited works is a natural and fundamental development evolving from the artists’ previous works in other media. Many contemporary artists, particularly those participating in the exhibition, use this medium in a subversive way. Relying on the features we attribute to animation – magic, fun, temptation, playfulness, humor, and poeticism – they use it as an instrument of presenting alternative historical narratives and as a channel for sharp social and political criticism.

The “Animated Histories” exhibition focuses on artists that combine in their works history and myth, reality and imagination; they animate, enliven and reconstruct repressed historical periods, traumatic historical and political events and complex social situations referring simultaneously to contemporary reality.

Kara Walker’s works contemplate the history of the American South during the period prior to the civil war and the struggle to emancipate the slaves. Shahzia Sikander looks into questions of cultural uniqueness in the post-colonial and multi-cultural society, and questions of feminine identity in a post-feminist society. Qiu Anxiong explores in his animation films the changes in the landscape of his country – rural and urban as well as social and political, the transfer from traditional to modern China, the Cultural Revolution and the post-communist era. Cristina Lucas shows in a colorful animation the changes in the map of the World from 500 BC till today caused by invasions, political alliances, explorations and wars. Kota Ezawa’s works focus on how the media influence the way latest historical events are etched in the collective memory. Jenny Perlin deals in her works with American paranoia and national traumas stemming from espionage and terrorism.

In the exhibited films the artists also refer to the history of cinematography and art, to Renaissance, to return and preservation of pre-cinematic techniques. At the same time, they use traditional techniques – paper cutouts and shadow theatre (Kara Walker), Indian-Persian miniatures (Shahzia Sikander), Chinese ink and wash drawings (Qiu Anxiong), abstract painting (Cristina Lucas), pop art (Kota Ezawa), and techniques of early experimental cinema (Jenny Perlin and Robert Breer) – in conjunction with digital techniques and newest animation and drawing software.

The animation films in the show maintain links between different media, between historical periods and cultural spaces distanced in time and place. They bear a fascination with the new technologies along with a romantic elegy to obsolete techniques and ways of expression, and an attempt to animate, enliven and preserve by digital means art forms threatened by the digital revolution.

All the works included in the exhibition were exhibited in a number of solo and group exhibitions during the past few years. Kara Walker’s films are also exhibited now in her solo exhibition in the Whitney Museum in NY and in the Venice Biennial. Cristina Lucas is participating in the Istanbul Biennial. Shahzia Sikander’s films were exhibited in the Venice and Istanbul Biennials. Kota Ezawa’s film was purchased by the NY MOMA and is exhibited there. Qiu Anxiong exhibited in the Shanghai Biennial.

The works are exhibited courtesy of the artists and their galleries: Kara Walker and Shahzia Sikander, Sikkema Jenkins &Co., New York; Cristina Lucas, Galeria Juana de Aizpuru, Madrid; Qiu Anxiong, Grace Li Gallery, Zurich; Kota Ezawa, Haines Gallery, San Francisco; Jenny Perlin, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam

Lea Avital
Dror Daum
Nicole Eisenman
Nogah Engler
Max Friedmann
Eti Jacobi
Talia Keinan
Efrat Klipshtein
Elisheva Levi
Orly Maiberg
Rami Maymon
Tal Mazliah
Liav Mizrahi
Galia Pasternak
Yehudith Sasportas
Nati Shamia-Opher
Esther Shneider
Ralf Ziervogel
Alexandra Zuckerman

Landscape – Place, Non Place.

Participants:

Ori Gersht
Roi Kuper
Gilad Efrat
Mosh Kashi
Orly Maiberg
Maya Schindler
Smadar Eliasaf
Hila lulu Lin

The term of “Place” contains an ambiguity. It refers both to the perception of the place and to a representation of it. This can be an actual place or a non-place The works all confront questions of the gaze, the language. It includes painting, photography, and video. The artists carry on a complex mutual relationship with the geographical, cultural, and ideological surroundings.

Touching on local myths, history, and culture, they discuss questions of land and territory, growth and stillness, nature without humankind. At times the gaze examines the surface from close-up, or takes a view from far away, as in aerial photography. At times it is the seemingly simple gaze of direct photography, touching the banal or imagined to describe the obvious, at others, the artists define visual and mental dialectic images from within the layered thought processes that provide a wide range of conceptual meanings.