Forthcoming Exhibitions in Europe & Asia, Winter 2022 – 2023

Press Release

Günther Förg
Hauser & Wirth London
1 February – 29 April 2023

Günther Förg was a prolific painter, sculptor, graphic designer and photographer whose daring conceptual works incorporate and critique tropes of the sprawling movement known as modernism. This exhibition, across both galleries of the London space, displays Förg’s Spot Paintings, the artist’s final series made between 2007 – 2009 before he stopped painting in 2010 after suffering a stroke. In these works, the brushstroke itself becomes the main protagonist, representing an ultimate return to expressive painting, indicating a completion of sorts – a full-circle arrival at painting as a synthesis of experimentation, rooted in art history. The Spot Paintings were partially influenced by photographs Förg saw of Francis Bacon’s studio, which was covered in colourful blotches of paint created when the artist would wipe his brushes on the walls and door of the studio to remove excess paint. The contrasting colours within a bustling composition reflects the conceptual principles that underpinned Förg’s practice: a formal purism, a sense of the artwork as object and an architectural, analytical interest in space.

Günther Förg is one of the most significant German artists of the postwar generation. In the breadth of his production, from monochrome painting to colour studies, from photography to wall paintings, from bronze reliefs to sculptures, Förg explored what critic Kirsty Bell describes as ‘the visual field,’ swiftly moving between mediums and series with an abruptness that so characteristically defined the artist and his work.

The New Bend
Hauser & Wirth Somerset
28 January – 8 May 2023

Curated by Legacy Russell, Executive Director & Chief Curator of The Kitchen, ‘The New Bend’ travels from the gallery’s Los Angeles location to Somerset in late January. The exhibition brings together 13 contemporary artists working in the raced, classed and gendered traditions of quilting and textile practice – Anthony Akinbola, Eddie R. Aparicio, Dawn Williams Boyd, Myrlande Constant, Ferren Gipson, Tomashi Jackson, Basil Kincaid, Eric N. Mack, Sojourner Truth Parsons, Tuesday Smillie, Rachel Eulena Williams, Qualeasha Wood and Zadie Xa.

Their unique visual vernacular exists in tender dialogue with, and in homage to, the contributions of the Gee’s Bend Alabama quilters – Black American women in collective cooperation and creative economic production – and their enduring legacy as a radical meeting place, a prompt and as intergenerational inspiration. This exhibition acknowledges the work of Gee’s Bend quilters such as Sarah Benning (b. 1933), Missouri Pettway (1902-1981), Lizzie Major (1922-2011), Sally Bennett Jones (1944-1988), Mary Lee Bendolph (b.1935) and so many more, as central to expanded histories of abstraction and modernism.

Coinciding with the traveling exhibition, the gallery presents ‘Community Lab: Threads of Connection’ – an interactive space that fosters social connections through artmaking, evolving from LA to Somerset. Alongside a range of practical workshops, the Community Labs provide opportunities to learn more about the Gee’s Bend quilters through an extensive timeline of the Alabama region and documentary provided by Souls Grown Deep.

Rodney Graham. Getting it Together in the Country
Hauser & Wirth Somerset
28 January – 8 May 2023

Over the course of five decades, Canadian artist Rodney Graham (1949 – 2022) expanded his diverse practice to encompass photography, painting, sculpture, film, video and music. A true polymath, Graham seamlessly inhabited different personae, genres and art forms throughout his unparalleled career. ‘It may be a burden to reinvent oneself every time,’ Graham said, ‘but it makes things more interesting.’ Shifting across mediums, Graham examined the complexities of Western culture with wit and authenticity, revealing a myriad of insights into social and historical structures.

In celebration of Graham’s multifaceted artistic vision, Hauser & Wirth Somerset is honoured to present ‘Rodney Graham. Getting it Together in the Country’. The artist was developing the exhibition prior to his passing in October 2022, with the title also taking its name from Graham’s 2000 LP featuring improvised guitar recordings. Music was a vital and constant theme in Graham’s life, including live performances at many Hauser & Wirth occasions, such as the 2014 inauguration festivities in Somerset. In dialogue with the rural gallery setting, the exhibition will open with Graham’s major late body of work, ‘The Four Seasons’, created between 2011 and 2013. The landmark lightbox series evolved organically and is dedicated to nature’s cycle through meticulously staged mis-en-scènes, reflecting a moment of pause and desire to step out of the daily grind.

In Graham’s photographic work, each image is a fictional self-portrait, with the artist in costume but always recognisable, portraying a vast array of characters. From the props and their placement within the frame to the elaborate costumes and stage sets, each scene – either in his Vancouver studio or in public facilities around the city – is purposefully constructed and executed with an exceptional degree of technical expertise and humour.

Berlinde De Bruyckere
Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse
26 January – 13 May 2022

Layering spiritual iconography and ancient mythology with narratives of transience, carnality and sensuality, Berlinde De Bruyckere surpasses religious connotations and transfers them to the realm of the universal and profane. Presenting a powerful meditation upon the fundamental human search for transformation, transcendence and reconciliation in the light of mortality, De Bruyckere’s upcoming exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse will feature new bronze and lead sculptures from the Arcangelo series. Alongside these, a selection of monumental framed relief works and paper collages from the artist’s It almost seemed a lily series will be shown. Spanning both painting and sculpture, De Bruyckere works with wax, animal skins, paper, textiles, metal and wood to create hybrid forms with human, animal and plant features.

Placed high on plinths, De Bruyckere’s Arcangeli cast in bronze and lead offer protection, in spite of the heavy burden they seem to carry; captured in a dynamic moment of imbalance, tilting slightly forward, they are at once about to rise up, yet are weighed down. Hovering between divine supremacy and human fragility, these mysterious, hybrid figures merge distinct human figuration with animal hides, revealing pointed protrusions at the shoulders that reinforce the suggestion of wings. These beings appear to carry a dark secret under their cloak of fluidly-draped skins and conjure an image as consoling and inviting as it is unnerving. A larger version of the Arcangelo sculptures is on view at the newly reopened Diözesanmuseum Freising in Germany, responding to the museum’s collection of late Gothic sculptures.

Following her recent critically-acclaimed exhibitions at MO.CO. Montpellier Contemporain, France and the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck in Remagen, Germany, the artist will also present works from her It almost seemed a lily series. Inspired by the richly decorated Enclosed Gardens from Mechelen, Belgium, De Bruyckere realized her own large scale versions of these 16th-century private altars for worship and meditation. Dominated by the figure of the withering flower, her wall sculptures show the intertwining of nature and history and offer an overriding sense of fragility in the way they are assembled and layered. Permeated with their own history, found wallpaper and blankets provide the backdrop to the enlarged flowers and petals, framed by oak planking from the 18th Century. ‘I connect the petals of the lilies to images of skin, of flesh; their fragrance to lust and pleasure; their unsavoury smell while wilting to ephemerality and pain,’ the artist explains. This sense of frailty is also explored in the artist’s new collages of the same name, composed using abstract petals cut from found tracing papers embossed with flower patterns for needlework and sutured together. Above all, De Bruyckere’s work is based upon the dialectic experienced between images of current affairs and the breath of universal and timeless parables.

David Smith. Four Sculptures
Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Bahnhofstrasse 1
9 December 2022 – 6 April 2023

One of the foremost artists of the 20th Century and the sculptor most closely associated with the abstract expressionist movement, David Smith (1906 – 1965) is celebrated for his use of industrial materials and processes, and the integration of open space into sculpture. This December, Hauser & Wirth will present a group of major sculptures from the early 1960s in ‘David Smith. Four Sculptures’ at Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Bahnhofstrasse 1.

Representing the Gondola, Primo Piano and Zig series, all made between 1961 and 1964, these large, painted steel sculptures are extraordinary examples of the culmination of Smith’s long exploration of colour and form. By the early 1960s, he was at the height of his creative power, making nearly one-third of his entire sculptural output in the last five years of his life. Smith considered his distinct bodies of work not as variations on a theme, but as part of a continuous flow of creativity—often working on multiple series at the same time.

Born in 1906 in Decatur, Indiana, David Smith worked as an automobile welder and riveter before moving to New York City, where he would study painting at the Art Students League. Smith’s metalworking skills greatly influenced his decision to begin making sculpture. He became renowned for his mastery of steel. Eschewing the conventional sculptural methods of casting and carving, Smith is widely acknowledged to have created the first welded metal sculpture in the United States. Though his life was cut short when he died in a car accident on 23 May 1965, Smith greatly broadened the notion of what sculpture could be over a 33-year career, both questioning and advancing its relationship with nature. Smith’s inimitable mix of pure abstraction and poetic figuration produced a humanist vision that has inspired generations of sculptors.

ROTH BAR
Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz
9 December 2022 – 9 September 2023

Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz will present a fully-functional, specially-crafted bar designed by Björn, Oddur and Einar Roth, son and grandsons of German-born Swiss artist Dieter Roth (1930 – 1998). This exhibition will activate the gallery’s ground floor space as a hub for social interaction, music, readings and talks.

First conceived by Dieter Roth in the early 1980s, ‘the bar’ is a dynamic and changing installation and is a continuing element in the Roths’ cross-generational practice. As a condition for him to exhibit with Hauser & Wirth, Dieter Roth insisted that a bar form part of his first show in 1997. Along with his son Björn, Dieter Roth installed the functional ‘Bar 2’ (1983 – 1997) around the corner from the gallery in Fabrikstrasse in Zurich. Every beer bottle served became a part of the bar installation and visitors’ conversations were recorded and archived. 25 years after this event, another bar – entitled ‘Roth Bar’ – will now inhabit the gallery.

The bar, comprised of scavenged materials, embodies a central motif found throughout Dieter Roth’s work. ‘Roth Bar’ (2004 – 2013) was first unveiled in the exhibition ‘Dieter Roth: Lest / Train’ at Reykjavik Art Museum in 2005, before continuing on to ‘Dieter Roth, Martin Kippenberger’ at Hauser & Wirth Coppermill and part of ‘Dieter Roth Björn Roth. Islands’ (HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy, 2013). The bar has gradually evolved during this period as, for each exhibition, site-specific materials have been incorporated into the installation. Both bar and studio were central concepts and locales for the work of Dieter Roth.

Isa Genzken. Inside and Out
Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz
9 December 2022 – 4 February 2023

This curated presentation brings together Isa Genzken’s early exposed concrete sculptures, social facades and later wall-works. Together, these works highlight the artist’s continued interest in the structure, relevance and social aspect of modernist architecture. Genzken’s early exposed concrete sculptures, such as ‘Saal (Room)’ (1989) evidence how she laid bare the core elements of modern architecture. Emphasizing the rawness and naturalness that characterize concrete, Genzken revealed the inherent rough beauty of the material, thus contradicting the machine aesthetics of minimalism. With her Social Façades, such as ‘Untitled’ (2017), the artist made the relationship between inside and out the crux of the matter. Creating impressions of high-rise facades by means of metal foil and adhesive tape, Genzken brings the impression of the skyline down to our level, enabling direct interaction with the aesthetics of a fluctuating urban fabric. Additional wall-works on view further demonstrate how Genzken has, in recent years, allowed more and more traces of her own life into her works. Inserting autobiographical encodings such as her self-portrait into her works has nothing to do with expressionist notions of authorship. Instead, it underlines the continued social and personal element of Genzken’s work.

William Kentridge. Singer Solo
Tarmak22, Gstaad and Gstaad Palace
17 December 2022 – 5 February 2023

This winter season, Hauser & Wirth brings the work of internationally renowned Johannesburg-based artist William Kentridge to Gstaad with a presentation across two locations, titled ‘Singer Solo’. Launching 17 December, the gallery has collaborated with the Gstaad Palace to present two large-scale sculptures by Kentridge, titled ‘Her’ (2022) and ‘Cape Silver’ (2018), which will be in dialogue with one another in the gardens, marking the first time that the artist has shown outdoor sculpture in Switzerland. These works are larger versions of sculptures from Kentridge’s Glyph series, which will be on view as part of a presentation at Tarmak22, alongside a new sound installation work, collage and tapestry. Organized closely with Goodman Gallery, this is Kentridge’s second project with Hauser & Wirth, following his solo show in Hong Kong earlier this year. The presentation in Gstaad follows a major solo show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the biggest exhibition of the artist’s work in the UK to date.

Amy Sherald
Hauser & Wirth Monaco
25 January – 15 April 2023

Travelling from the artist’s major solo exhibition at Hauser & Wirth in London, a selection of new works by Amy Sherald, one of the defining contemporary portraitists in the United States, will be on display at the gallery in Monaco. Sherald is acclaimed for her paintings of Black Americans that have become landmarks in the grand tradition of social portraiture – a tradition that for too long excluded the Black men, women, families and artists whose lives have been inextricable from public and politicised narratives. As Sherald says, ‘sharing these paintings in Europe is an opportunity for me to reflect on how the tradition of portraiture finds continuity as one of several lineages alive in my work.’ Sherald humanises the Black experience by depicting her subjects in both historically recognisable and everyday settings, immortalising them within the art historical canon.

Mike Kelley. Subharmonic Tangerine Abyss
27 October 2022 – 25 February 2023
Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong

Widely considered one of the most ambitious and influential artists of our time, Mike Kelley often drew from a wide spectrum of high and low culture, mining the banal objects of everyday life to question and dismantle Western conceptions of contemporary art and culture. Beginning 27 October 2022, Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong is proud to present the late Los Angeles-based artist’s first solo exhibition in Greater China: ‘Mike Kelley. Subharmonic Tangerine Abyss.’ Organized in collaboration with the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, the exhibition focuses on one of Kelley’s most significant later series, Kandors. Initiated by Kelley in 1999, the Kandors series comprises numerous representations of Superman’s birthplace, the city of Kandor. Kandor served as Kelley’s inspiration for a twelve-year long project and meditation on themes of cultural memory, passing time and visions of utopia. In addition to the visually opulent and technically ambitious sculptures and lenticulars that Kelley’s Kandors series is known for, this exhibition will feature three distinct kinds of videos that Kelley included in his original Kandors show at Jablonka Gallery in 2010.

Press Contacts:

Alice Haguenauer, Hauser & Wirth London / Hauser & Wirth Monaco alicehaguenauer@hauserwirth.com

Laura Cook, Hauser & Wirth Somerset lauracook@hauserwirth.com

Anna-Maria Pfab, Hauser & Wirth Zurich / Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz / Hauser & Wirth Gstaad annamariapfab@hauserwirth.com

Maddy Martin, Hauser & Wirth Zurich / Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz / Hauser & Wirth Gstaad maddymartin@hauserwirth.com

Tara Liang, Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong tara@hauserwirth.com

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Forthcoming Exhibitions in Europe & Asia, Winter 2022 – 2023

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Forthcoming Exhibitions in Europe & Asia, Winter 2022 – 2023

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