PIUS FOX

The sound of screeching seagulls accompanied Pius Fox while he was working on his exhibition - eventhough his studio is located in the middle of Berlin and by no means along the coast. Great herringgulls, known as ›Hemerophile‹ (cultural followers), have been settling in the capital for several years.Far above the visible and audible birds, a diffuse nebula is found in the night sky not far from the starSirius, whose cosmic clouds have a constellation with bird-like outlines and is called the Gull Nebula.On the almost 10-meter-long wall in the back room of the gallery, Fox creates his very own cosmos.Works in a wide variety of formats hang together, sometimes isolated, sometimes in small groups. Theartist plays with analogies and connecting lines that take up color gradients, forms, motifs, or even justdistant associations. The apt title of a small-format work on aluminum is then also »Spur« (trace), on itperhaps a labyrinthine winding path, which the viewer may open up for themselves.

Arranged as if in a frieze, on the opposite wall hang framed drawings with graphic-looking formationssporadically interspersed with portraits. One falls out of line and leans on the windowsill: »Pablo(deconstruction of the Größenselbst)«. Yet the title of Fox’s work makes clear a thoroughly criticalengagement with the universal artist, celebrated as a ›guiding star‹, in whose work countless birds(pigeons) also appear. Fascinated by the versatility and creative power of the artist, who worked as apainter, graphic artist, illustrator, ceramicist, stage designer, draftsman, etcher, and even poet, his selfimageas a male artist can only be disconcerting today, 50 years after his death. Whether, in additionto the portrait, the glass work »Bruchstücke (die gefallene Wolke)« (Fragments (the fallen cloud) alsoarose from the preoccupation with Picasso: a conjecture. What is proven, however, is that Picasso,together with Georges Braque, refuted the illusion of the one stable view of the world through Cubism,and that from then on it was possible to take in all perspectives at once.

This unconditionally open view of the world, paired with curiosity and the joy of experimentation, canalso be felt in the exhibition The Seagull Constellation.