For Art Basel Hong Kong 2023, Almine Rech is pleased to present a selection of works by established and emerging artists from our program such as: Roby Dwi Antono, Karel Appel, Oliver Beer, Matthias Bitzer, Alexander Calder, Javier Calleja, Brian Calvin, César, Genieve Figgis, Sylvie Fleury, Jameson Green, Madelynn Green, Ha Chong-Hyun, Allen Jones, Michael Kagan, Scott Kahn, Alexandre Lenoir, José Lerma, Li Qing, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Hiba Schahbaz, Kenny Scharf, Vaughn Spann, Tursic & Mille, Brent Wadden, Tom Wesselmann and Zio Ziegler.
We'll present historical artworks by artists such as Dutch avant-garde master Karel Appel, inventor of kinetic sculptures Alexander Calder, notable French sculptor César, renowned British pop artist Allen Jones, and pioneer of the Pop Art movement Tom Wesselmann.
Focusing on international perspectives of our program, such as Indonesian artist Roby Dwi Antono whose works recall the aesthetics of Surrealism; American painter Brian Calvin who developed a figurative, non-narrative, pictorial style; Irish painter Genieve Figgis who draws inspiration from Irish- English literature and art history; and Pakistani painter Hiba Schahbaz who depicts women's bodies often using her own image as inspiration. We seek to examine notions of portraiture and the reimagining of history from these artists that not only come from different backgrounds, but different generations as well.
On the occasion of Art Basel Hong Kong 2023, a series of Kenny Scharf's historical and totemic sculptures, which were presented for the first time in the mid-1980s, will also be on view. With the many layers of paint applied on the surface, they reflect the complexity of human emotion.
Born in 1985, British artist Oliver Beer now lives and works between London and Paris. He studied musical composition at the Academy of Contemporary Music before studying Fine Art at the Ruskin, University of Oxford and film theory at the Sorbonne, Paris. The artist makes sculptures, installations, videos, and immersive live performances that reveal the hidden properties of objects, bodies, and architectural sites. Drawing on his musical training, his social and familial relationships often become the blueprint for multi- disciplinary works that engage with intimate and universal concerns, such as the transmission of musical memories and the personal and cultural meanings invested in the things we possess. In May, 2023, Almine Rech Shanghai will present the artist's solo exhibition in China.
Beer's work has been the subject of many solo and group exhibitions, notably at Met Breuer, Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA PS1, New York; Centre Pompidou, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; and Venice biennales. Beer has also held residencies at the Palais de Tokyo, the Watermill Centre, Sydney Opera House and the Fondation Hermès. His work is in the public collections of Musée national d'arts moderne du Centre Pompidou, Paris; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; National Museum of Art, Osaka; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi; ASE Foundation, China, among others.
Born in 1972 in Dublin, Ireland, Genieve Figgis now lives and works in County Wicklow, Ireland. Her paintings share a similar dramatic bent as some Irish- English literature subjects from Edgar Allan Poe to Oscar Wilde, as well as acknowledged Old Masters such as Goya. Working in oil and acrylic and at small-to mid-scale, Genieve Figgis produces paintings rich in color, texture, humor, and the macabre. Through her work, she explores and sends-up the idealization of luxury and leisure in paintings and photographs throughout art history. Like these historical works, her paintings feature sumptuous domestic interiors and stately country homes, idyllic natural settings, and protagonists dressed in finery and engaged in such activities as feasting, horseback riding, playing piano, or attending a party. Figgis's body of work also includes her take on the tradition of portraiture and the odalisque. In her compositions, however, all is not well. Her figures appear either faceless or as foolishly grinning, ghoul-like creatures, whose loosely rendered forms seem vulnerable and insubstantial as they merge with their lushly painted, semi-abstract surroundings.
The artist's work is included in the public collections of The Bass Museum of Art, Miami, US; Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, USA; X Museum, Beijing, China; Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, China; Consortium Museum, Dijon, France; Arts Council of Ireland, among others.
Born in 1937, Allen Jones is one of Britain's most distinguished artists from the pioneering Pop Movement. In the early 1970s, the artist brought an international sensation with his provocative fiberglass sculptures. According to curator and art historian Sir Norman Rosenthal, "Allen Jones draws his huge knowing aesthetic strength from the classical past while engaging in a critical and celebratory exercise of contemporary human relations between the sexes."
The painting included in this group show, The Studio, is in the same size as Jones's Party sequence of four paintings made as a meditation on Pablo Picasso's Desmoiselles d' Avigno. One painting from this series is currently in the collection of Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris. In the artist's own words, "This painting however has more in common with the spatial games played by Matisse in his large studio interiors rather than the Picasso. Around that time I had drawn a view of the Acropolis from a hotel balcony in Athens and included it in this picture, outside the window, as a reference to the European tradition of perspectival space that was being challenged by Cubism and the new American painting."
His work is in multiple renowned international collections, including Tate Modern and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, Paris Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Museum of 20th- Century Art in Vienna, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
Kenny Scharf (b. 1958, United States) is a renowned artist affiliated with the 1980's East Village Art movement in New York. Scharf developed a distinct and uniquely personal artistic style alongside his mentor Andy Warhol, and contemporaries like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring with whom he pioneered contemporary street art. His multifaceted practice—spanning painting, sculpture, installation work, murals, performance and fashion— reflects his dedication to the creation of dynamic forms of art that deconstruct existing artistic hierarchies, echoing the philosophy of Pop artists. Yet Scharf's artistic significance expands beyond the art historical terrain of Pop Art; the artist instead coined the term "Pop Surrealist" to describe his one-of-a-kind practice. His inclusion in the 1985 Whitney Biennial marked the start of his international phenomenon, a reputation that continues to thrive today.
First presented in the mid-1980s, Scharf's series of sculptural figures, produced in aluminum and painted in acrylics, bear diverse cartoonish expressions. In a humorous fashion, they express both the artist's own quotidian psychology and the complex spectrum of thoughts and emotions experienced by modern individuals.
The artist's work is represented in multiple major public collections, including The Bass Museum of Art, Miami, US; The Broad Foundation, Los Angeles, US; Museum of Modern Art, New York, US; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US; Museo d'Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico; Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany.
Born in 1988 in California, USA, Zio Ziegler paints from a meditative state, drawing from his subconscious a personal interpretation of the world around him. For him, painting is an act of self-exploration and a radical expression of vulnerability. "Painting is my attempt at self-understanding - rather than finding a concept and executing it in a linear fashion, I react to my questions, life, and awareness," he claims. The focus of Ziegler's practice aims to illuminate the process of creating instead of isolating the final result. His images of monumental figures set in motion serve as a portal of sorts for the viewer, inviting them to perceive the work in their own way, and in turn creating an active exchange between the artist and the audience.
Using primarily oil-stick, Ziegler works with textures that fuse the raw oil pigment with external materials such as sand, soil, and pumice. His sources of inspiration, though ever-changing, include early 20th-century abstraction, Italian Futurism, and Cubism, and call to mind the likes of Francis Bacon, Kazimir Malevich, and Constantin Brancusi.
Ziegler studied at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Brown University, receiving his BFA from RISD in 2010. He has been commissioned by the United Nations for a 70th anniversary commemorative mural in Oakland California, and has been teaching at Stanford University since 2019. His work is in the public collections of Rubell Museum, Miami, US; Colleción Solo, Madrid, Spain, among others.
Private View (by invitation only)
Tuesday, March 21, 12 noon to 8pm
Wednesday, March 22, 12 noon to 5pm
Thursday, March 23, 12 noon to 2pm
Friday, March 24, 12 noon to 2pm
Saturday, March 25, 11am to 12 noon
Vernissage
Wednesday, March 22, 5pm to 9pm
Show Hours
Thursday, March 23, 2pm to 8pm
Friday, March 24, 2pm to 8pm
Saturday, March 25, 12 noon to 6pm