Berlinde De Bruyckere / John Currin
June 30, 2011 — November 13, 2011
Exhibition
DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art presents two solo exhibitions
BERLINDE DE BRUYCKERE / JOHN CURRIN
Curators: Phoebe Greenberg and John Zeppetelli
DHC/ART is delighted to present two concurrent solo exhibitions by acclaimed Belgian sculptor Berlinde De Bruyckere and American painter John Currin - two leading international figurative artists working in a virtuosic, old masterly tradition yet testing and expanding the parameters of their respective disciplines.
Berlinde De Bruyckere came to international prominence in 2003 at the Venice Biennale where she exhibited The Black Horse – a monumental, abjectly deformed figure covered in glossy horse hide. Before the exposure in Venice, she exhibited five life-size casts of dead horses, In Flanders Fields, a poignant commentary on World War I at the In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres (2000). She specialises in sculpture in various media including wax, wood, wool, horse skin and hair. Her nightmarish sculptural displacements, be they human or equine, speak of suffering and vulnerability, love and brutality. De Bruyckere’s painstakingly rendered wax and epoxy forms – mainly human but also animal and vegetal – dramatize the traumatic and painful scars of existence and the struggles of life and death. Her presentation at DHC/ART will consist of horse figures on scaffolding, a large vitrine and two wax figures.
One of the most provocative and successful artists of his generation, John Currin makes delightfully bad, perverse paintings which enchant and repel in equal measure. His art, which constantly evades categorization, pinpoints the moment where sublime beauty and the grotesque are held in productive tension. An irreverent mannerist who brings a satirical savvy to contemporary portraiture, Currin has been confounding and seducing critics and audiences for over two decades. His work is characterized by a meticulous, masterly technique and an unfashionable investment in classical painting traditions commingling with other representational languages drawn from popular culture, including movies, pinups and 70’s Scandinavian porn.
WARNING: Works on the fourth floor are for an adult audience. Viewer discretion is advised.
Biography
Berlinde De Bruyckere (b. 1964, Ghent, Belgium) has participated in numerous international surveys including the Berlin Biennale (2006) and After Nature at the New Museum in New York (2008). She is the subject of a major exhibition called Mysterium Leib: Berlinde De Bruyckere in Dialogue with Cranach and Pasolini at the Moritzburg Foundation in Halle, Germany (2011). She has had several exhibitions at her gallery Hauser and Wirth in Zurich, London and New York.
John Currin(b. 1962, Boulder, Colorado) obtained an MFA from Yale in 1986. Major institutional exhibitions have included John Currin: Works on Paper at the Des Moines Art Center (2003); John Currin MOCA Chicago, Serpentine Gallery, London and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He is represented in major museum collections including MoMA, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Tate Collection, London; and Centre Pompidou, Paris. John Currin lives and works in New York. He is represented by Gagosian Gallery where he has had several exhibitions.
Images
Learning
Events
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Happening
November 03, 2011 -
Open House Workshop
October 22, 2011 — October 22, 2011 -
Journées de la culture 2011 / Special activities
September 30, 2011 — October 02, 2011 -
Alfredo Jaar: Screening and lecture
September 29, 2011 -
Open House Workshop
August 06, 2011 — August 06, 2011 -
John Currin: Artist Talk
June 28, 2011
