Gregor Graf: hidden town

OPENING: 4 February , 6 - 9 pm

EXHIBITION: How can we read a city without signs? In the work of Gregor Graf, the visual language of advertising, information, and regulation is entirely removed from the familiar architectural structures which create our built environments. Mixing a purist form of medium format photography, with photoshop technologies, Graf painstakingly deletes all traces of language and signage from the cities he photographs. The result is a new form of image where once recognizable towns and cities now appear unreal, culturally interchangeable and strangely silent. Graf’s precise process of de-lettering common urbanscapes such as the iconic shopping streets of London, questions the visual language that fills the space between basic architecture and public space, returning these sites to anonymous (non)places. Alongside these new appropriated images of London which were commissioned by the Visual Arts Platform in 2006, Graf will show new portraits made during a recent residency in Chicago. While his photographs of London present the impact of advertising through its absence, his portraits of typically American business men who advertise their services in local newspapers, conversely present a more cynical view of marketing language in our contemporary Western culture.

EVENT: Dave Beech, an international artist and writer in the art collective Freee, will be in conversation with curators Adriana Marques, Eva Martischnig and artist Gregor Graf at the Austrian Cultural Forum London on Monday 4th February at 6.30pm. The work of Freee explores informal, unofficial and dissenting ways of occupying and transforming our conflictual experience of public spaces. Their next exhibition 'How to be Hospitable' will be at The Collective Gallery, Edinburgh in April 2008.

INFO: Gregor Graf, born 1976 in Vienna, lives and works in Linz, where he studied Space and Design Strategies at the University of Art. Graf has been awarded several residencies and awards including the a.o. residency, Chicago in 2007 and has shown at several exhibitions throughout Austria including Forum Stadtpark, Graz, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg and other institutions. Hidden Town is Graf’s first exhibition in the UK. The Visual Arts Platform is curated by Eva Martischnig and Adriana Marques, who are based in Graz (Austria) and London respectively, and presents emerging artists from or working in Austria. It aims to explore local, regional and global contexts of contemporary art by generating new links between Austria and the UK through exhibitions, residencies and artist's talks. The Visual Arts Platform is hosted by the Austrian Cultural Forum London which facilitates exchange between Austria and the UK in the arts, as well as various academic fields. The Visual Arts Platform began in 2006 and forthcoming exhibitions include Johannes Vogl, Almut Rink and Luisa Kasalicky throughout 2008.

Gregor Graf: hidden town