Paranoia Strikes Deep

Paranoia Strikes Deep

15.10.2020 – 27.12.2020

Talia Chetrit, Andy Hope 1930, JPW3, Henning Strassburger, Alexandra Sukhareva, Philipp Timischl, Anna Virnich, Jan Zöller

There’s somethin’ happenin’ here/ But what it is ain’t exactly clear/ There’s a man with a gun over there/ A-tellin’ me I got to beware.

To take verses from a song like For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield, one must ask for it’s roots. Musician Stephen Stills was inspired to write the song because of the Sunset Strip curfew riots in November 1966 — a series of early counterculture-era clashes that took place between police and young people on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, California. Music fans felt infringed upon their civil rights, after local residents had become annoyed by crowds of young people and issued a strict curfew on the Strip after 10 p.m. To this day, the song captures the mood of a generation railing against the establishment, last on August 17, 2020, when Billy Porter sang For What It’s Worth for the 2020 Democratic National Convention, a nod to the song’s resurgent use in the George Floyd protests.

I think it’s time we Stopp/ Children, what’s that sound?/ Everybody look what’s going down

The Group Show Paranoia Strikes Deep combines works by artists Talia Chertrit, Andy Hope 1930, JPW3, Henning Strassburger, Alexandra Sukhareva, Philipp Timischl, Anna Virnich and Jan Zoeller, touching upon the awareness of the meaning of for what it’s worth. The main focus lies on the story behind seen images, the unrevealing of a hidden meaning, which subsequently changes the context of the before seen forever. The presented artworks display a concealed but never invisible perspective, questioning contemporary processes of canonization and codification.

These back stories can be seen in most displayed artworks, may it be in painter Jan Zoellers “Are we all going to the same place?”, when burglars seem to have escaped through a window, out of a space that merely resembles a backdrop and not a canvas. Meanwhile, photographer Talia Chertrit took the images for the Murder Picture Series when she wasn’t an artist yet. She staged them as a teenager with her friends, blurring lines between artistic practice and youth games by exhibiting them. Playing with these images of representation, Philipp Timischl dressed up as a drag queen in Downtown Bernis, only to lean against the masculine sculpture of a bear. In spite of Henning Strassburgers paintings being abstract, they carry figurative meaning, as his work “Fun feet” is originated from a series of feet as seen from out of a yoga position, referring to the expectations of painting itself being a relaxing practice.

The exhibition plays with such assumptions of profundity and superimposition: While artist Anna Virnich provides elegant fabric images, she actually pulls them over the frame, making the layers almost appear like human skin during a cosmetic facelift. The reoccurring theme of the surface is also visible in Andy Hope 1930’s Unknown Series, as the canvas itself pretends that there is a big unknown. It points directly at it with the words, possessing a paranoia of its own, whereas in JPW3’s Y.O. Grill, everything on canvas seems blurred in a boiled layer of wax, melting away. Alluding a similar absence while being present, Alexandra Sukhareva’s Tolerance (living room with a view of Berggasse in May 1938) refers to the presence in photographs taken by Edmund Engelman, who took ghostly images of the apartment of one of the most important analysts of the 20th century, Sigmund Freud, in the house at Bergstraße. The artworks’ layered meanings show their narrative structure within the sidelines of their actual picture. In this cycle of artistic practice, meanings upon perspectives develop over and over again, creating an everlasting loop of questioning.

Paranoia strikes deep/ Into your life it will creep/ It starts…

New York based artist Talia Chetrit explores what remains hidden in the practice and mechanisms of photography. Artist Andy Hope 1930 is known for his juxtaposition of art history relationships and images of pop culture, comics or science fiction illustrations. Patrick Walsh, the artist otherwise known as JPW3, enacts alchemical transformations that turn thriftstore finds and common objects into art-making mediums. German painter Henning Strassburger examines the role of painting as a filter for the aesthetics of a mass culture. Russian artist Alexandra Sukhareva is an artist, author of processually oriented works affecting the phenomena of mutual influence of matter and cognitive gestures on each other. Philipp Timischl creates expansive multimedia installations combining personal notes from everyday life with found and self-produced materials to build narrative structures. Anna Virnich’s practice focuses on the elaboration of works that contain found fabrics and new textiles, and that the artist stretches over wooden frames to create organic, almost figurative compositions, between transparency and density. Jan Zoeller plays with the flaws in the system and turns them into the themes, protagonists and showplaces of his paintings.

Text: Marlene A. Schenk

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Talia Chetrit (b. 1982 in Washington DC). She now lives and works in New York.

Talia Chetrit (b. 1982, Washington DC) lives and works in New York. Her career has been an ongoing research of what remains hidden in the practice and mechanisms of photography. In works artist frequently uses isolation, obscuration, and distortion as instruments, such that subjects become abstracted and not instantly recognisable. She also experiments with conventions of positive and negative space, horizontal and vertical orientation; and the extreme effects result are not the outcome of post-production processes, but are actually the product of a technical skill and deep understanding of the medium. There is often an underlying psychological or intimate narrative underpinning the works. Chetrit’s recent solo exhibitions include ‘Amateur’ at Maxxi museum, Rome (2018), ‘Poser’ at Sies + Hoke, Dusseldorf, Germany (2017); ‘Parents’ at Off Vendome, New York, NY (2015); ‘I’m Selecting’ at Sies + Hoke, Dusseldorf, Germany (2015).

Andy Hope 1930 (b. 1963, Munich, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. Andreas Hofer also known as Andy Hope 1930 is a German artist, he takes an inspiration from imagery from comic books, film noir, and forms of early minimalism and uses them to make works that shift from the grotesque to the intimate and restrained. His flat works are often constructed on supports that he buys at various markets, while his sculptures often enlarge childish toys—rockets or action figures, for example – to fantastical sizes. He frequently references art history, as in his series of meticulous reproductions of works by Kasimir Malevich. The artist’s recent solo exhibitions include ‘HEEDRAHTROPHIA’ at Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin (2019), ‘Where did it come from!’ at Rat Hole Gallery, Tokyo (2018), ‘#believe’ at Lomex Gallery, New York (2017); among recent group exhibitions are ‘Dark Matter’ at Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin (2020), ‘Mountain Energei’ at Gallery HAR-EL, Jaffa, Israel (2019), ‘Becoming Animal’ at Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen (2018)

JPW3 (b. 1981, Tallahassee, Florida) lives and works in Los Angeles. J. Patrick Walsh otherwise known as JPW3, enacts conversions that turn common objects into art-making mediums. Using wax for much of his work, he makes sculptures from melted candles, and also makes transfer prints from newsprint onto canvas. That approach and wax usage has formal and conceptual resonance. Known for its plasticity – the substance molds to temperature as definitely as sound defines itself against ambient noise – and as recording medium, the material out of which early vinyl records were pressed. According to the artist: “My materials are an excess of fuel…yet from these materials new meanings form as I use them in experiments continuously relating found, fabricated, and raw elements.” He has had solo exhibitions at Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Martos Gallery, New York; Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin; Michael Jon Gallery, Miami. He has also been included in group exhibitions at the De La Cruz Collection, Miami; the Pit, Los Angeles; Robert Blumenthal, New York; Luce Gallery, Turin, Italy; and Kavi Gupta Gallery, Berlin. His work has been covered by The New York Times, Artforum, and Art-Agenda, among other publications.

Henning Strassburger (b. 1983) He lives and works in Berlin.
 Artist investigates the role and production of painting against an increasingly digital and image-saturated culture. Painting to him is just another part of the contemporary visual continuum, mediated through screen and print, and this affects the way he produces his work. His paintings take inspiration from advertising colour schemes or draw on commercial imagery, reflecting on painting’s displacement as a dominant force of visual culture over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Has had solo exhibitions at Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin; Kunstverein Heppenheim, Heppenheim; Blain|Southern, London; Hofstra University Gallery, New York; Osnova Gallery, Moscow; Neue Galerie, Gladbeck; Nuno Centeno, Porto; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Kunstverein Reutlingen and Oldenburger Kunstverein, Oldenburg.

Alexandra Sukhareva (b. 1983) is an artist, author of processually oriented works affecting the phenomena of mutual influence of matter and cognitive gestures on each other.

Participant of such exhibitions as “Things, words and consequences” – MMOMA, Moscow (2012), dOCUMENTA(13) – Kassel (2012), “Human Commonalities” – Vadim Sidur Museum (2016), Time, Forward! – V-A-C, Palazzo Zattere, Venice (2019), “We Treasure Our Lucid Dreams.” The Other East and Esoteric Knowledge in Russian Art 1905–1969 Garage Museum, Moscow (2020), Upcoming Gwangju Biennale (2021) The works are in the collections of Castello di Rivoli Museum (Turin), Tate Modern (London), as well as in private collections in Mexico, Italy, Great Britain and Russia.

Philipp Timischl (b. 1989, Graz, Austria) lives and works in Vienna, Austria. The artist predominantly works in the field of painting, photography, installation and video. Philipp Timischl creates expansive multimedia installations combining personal notes from everyday life with found and self-produced materials to build narrative structures. Balancing between documentation and fiction, between the private and public spheres, they play with intimacy and self-reference. Major themes in his art include the lasting influence of our roots, exclusion, and queerness in relation to social classes as well as the power dynamics between art, artist, and audience. Recent institutional solo exhibitions include: Secession, Vienna (2018, Autria), Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg (2016, Germany), Künstlerhaus, Graz (2014, Austria), Emanuel Layr Gallery, Vienna and Rome (2019, Austria and Italy), Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt (2018, Germany), Vilma Gold, London (2017, England). His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Belvedere, Vienna (2018, Austria), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2015, Italy), KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2016, Germany), Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2015, Sweden).

Anna Virnich (b. 1984, Berlin) lives and works in Berlin. Her artistic practice is focused on the elaboration of works that incorporate found fabrics and new textiles, and that the artist extends on wooden frames to create organic, almost pictorial compositions that oscillate between transparency and density, the first and the second plane. Working with different textiles and textures, Virnich emphasizes previous traces of use – stains of time, dirt, human sweat – and adds her own manipulations: holes, defects, stitching, and sometimes fragrances. The aspect of the corporeal and the physical in his work is crucial, as well as the element of the fetish. Virnich’s tableaus reveals the constant flow between addition and subtraction, appearance and concealment. Graduated in 2013 from HfBK Braunschweig, Germany. Recent solo exhibitions took place at Arratia Beer, Berlin; Galerie Nathalie Halgand, Vienna, Art-O-Rama, Marseille (all 2017); Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City (2016). The artist furthermore recently contributed to group exhibitions at Hunt Kastner, Prague (2018), Centre d’Art Contemporaine Chanot, Clamart, France; Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City (both 2017). During 2019 the artist’s solo exhibitions at Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City (April) and Schering Stiftung, Berlin (September) took place.

Jan Zöller (b. 1992, Haslach i. Kinzigtal, Germany) lives and works in Karlsruhe. The artist plays with the flaws in the system and turns them into the themes, protagonists and showplaces of his paintings. The cycles are dysfunctional, the figures broken or even injured, houses and entire towns are ablaze, the fountains become human and spew out urine instead of water. Painting as a form of expression also contains a certain openness with Zöller – there is an emptiness between his dense repertoire of motives and figures. When painting is deemed unable to express something symbolically in the exhibition, Jan Zöller complements it using performance, video and sculpture. Leaving the canvas behind, he still employs familiar motives but presents them in other mediums within the exhibition space: legs, crows, the wooden house. In the form of video, sculpture and performance, they make up a new infrastructure in the realm of reality that acts as a symbol for the next damaged basin which, true the cycle of the fountain, will allow components to flow back into the world of painting.