8 times 8, series, systems, stories in mythology & art
University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong
March 20–June 8, 2025
In the exhibition ‘8 times 8. Series, systems, stories in mythology & art’ works from the visual and applied arts contain serial narratives that respond self-reflexively to the artist’s oeuvre. The number 8 plays a crucial role in mythology. In Asian art this can be seen, for example, in the 8 trigrams of the I Ching, the 8 Immortals, the 8 Buddhist symbols and the 8 Auspicious symbols. These interrelated elements are often depicted as a group of 8 in the form of a serial narrative, which are supplemented by motifs of pairs, figures or scenes from stories, landscapes, plants, flowers, animals,
ornaments and symbols.
To illustrate this point, three previously undisplayed objects, each consisting of eight sections, were selected from the UMAG collection. These three collection items, created with a range of techniques, demonstrate the diversity and richness of serial narratives in Chinese art and craftsmanship.
The eight-part panel with silk painting (HKU.W.1996.1084 a-h), consisting of three equal sections, includes eight wellknown landscape scenes from Guangzhou. The centre panel contains pairs of animals, while the upper panel depicts
conversations between a group of literati and their students.
A further eight-part object (HKU.W.2012.1919 a-h) with inlays features still-life-like flower arrangements in the lower picture field and encounters with immortals in the centre field. The immortals can be interpreted as a metaphor for the ancestors, while the inscriptions on the reverse contain sayings related to successful partnerships.
The third object is another screen consisting of eight sections (HKU.W.2004.1495 a-h), each with four image and text fields painted or written on marble panels. Scenes of courtly life appear at the centre and the Eight Immortals are also mentioned.
In addition to the serial narrative, these eight-part objects can also be understood as components of superordinate systems. In the microcosm of their diverse details, they refer to the superordinate macrocosm of mythology. This results in a systemic network of relationships that continuously refer to one another.
These traditional works of applied art are juxtaposed by contemporary artists, so as to show that serial and systemic narratives are still used as artistic strategies. Systemic is used here in the sense that individual artworks are part of a larger overall system of interrelated elements.
YAU Wing Fung 邱榮豐 (*1990 in Hong Kong) repeats the same landscape eight times in different versions as a pictorial motif, connecting the individual fields beneath a tree with claw-like branches. The repetition of the motif creates a series, and the variations heighten the viewer’s attention.
Daphne Alexis HO 何居怡 (*1975 in Hong Kong) uses kintsugi, the traditional Japanese repair method in which ceramic fragments are glued together with powdered gold, to bond her black and white landscape photographs. The sequence of eight images, together with the gold of the kintsugi, references the interplay of the elements.
The South Korean artist YU Hee 유희 (*1967 in Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea) creates a construction kit of eight ink paintings, offering a variety of compositional possibilities. These paintings can either be freely connected using a lined grid or exist independently.
Adrian FALKNER (*1979 in Basel, Switzerland) visualises the process of destruction for the purpose of constructing his atypical paintings. His structures, composed and sewn together from individual patch-like pieces, consist of earlier paintings that reference the past.
Klaus MERKEL (*1953 in Heidelberg, Germany) also references the past in his ever-evolving work, which thereby becomes the present. In Merkel, this process of self-reflection leads to a continuous quotation of his own work, while Falkner destroys what has already been created and then uses this destruction as the basis for something new.
Arvid BOECKER (*1964 Wuppertal, Germany) takes a different approach. His series is based on a continuous system of reworking, allowing each painting to interact with the others, and forming a cohesive whole despite their individual differences. These latter three artists are concerned with questioning the role that painting plays in their works.
Harald Kraemer
Two seven-year cycles
Galerie Max Mayer, Düsseldorf
March 14th - April 26th 2025
Opening reception: March 14th, 4 pm
The last exhibition at Schmela Haus and in Düsseldorf presents a timeline of works pointing to the gallery's relationship to the city and its art scene of the past fourteen years. Sometimes more obvious, sometimes hidden, all works document a special moment in the gallery's history by very different artistic means.
As the fourteen years exactly mark two seven year cycles, the exhibition will present work in a cyclical arrangement pointing towards the assumed infinity structure of Schmela Haus' architecture and the historical non-linear presence that artworks dating back to different pasts can have in the present moment of an exhibition.
Nicolás Guagnini,
Dan Graham,
Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff,
Henning Fehr und Philipp Rühr,
Jef Geys,
Flora Klein,
Flint Jamison,
Klaus Merkel,
J. Parker Valentine,
Stanton Taylor & Tobias Hohn,
Ei Arakawa-Nash,
Eva Barto & Sophie Bonnet-Pourpet,
Maximiliane Baumgartner,
Constantina Zavitsanos,
Steve Paul / Steven Paul,
Jorge Loureiro
Hélène Fauquet.
TWODO Collection: 2000-2024
Neuer Aachener Kunstverein
16. März — 27. April 2025
On March 15, 2025, the exhibition TWODO Collection: 2000-2024 will open at NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein. This marks the conclusion of the TWODO project after 24 years and in the retrospective we take a look back at the outstanding projects and exhibitions by various artists.
About TWODO
Twodo Collection was founded in 1998 to support NAK´s annual production budgets, but it is also an unusual way of collecting, since Twodo also intends to create a collection of contemporary art that is exclusively held by private individuals, ideally 24 (Twodo = two dozen). Twodo as collective form of private sponsoring is an internationally unique model. The annual donation of every Twodo member has a fixed amount and every member is obligated to donate money for at least three years. Each year the members of Twodo invite an artist to realize a project, this invitation is not necessary linked to NAK´s programme.
Characteristics of Twodo are the idea of acquiring contemporary art on a regular basis by individuals as well as taking artist´s ideas of larger scale into account which are in this case expressed within a group of works and which imply forms of participation on both – the artist’s and the collectors’ – sides. Hence every decision for an artist´s project to be realized in the frame of Twodo considers aspects of communication and inter-activity.
Moreover it is essential that the works to be acquired take a form that does not only allow the collector to possess single objects the “usual” way but is also part of a “larger” complex of work.
Fareed Armaly, Nina Canell, Mel Chin / GALA Committee, Kate Davis, Simon Dybbroe Moller, Manuel Graf, Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven, Arthur Löwen, Lone Haugaard Madsen, Klaus Merkel, Jonathan Monk, Craig Mulholland, Markus Saile, Michael E. Smith, Kathrin Sonntag, Michael Stevenson, Jan Timme, Hiroki Tsukuda, Nora Turato, Daniel Roth, Johannes Wohnseifer
Blind leading the Blind / Editionsangebot aus dem Atelier Klaus Merkel für die Finanzierung einer Monografie mit dem Autor Hans Jürgen Hafner
Klaus Merkel
23.03.23 Blind leading the Blind, original gemalte Version
30 x 24 cm
Ölfarbe auf acrylgrundierter Leinwand
2023
490.- Euro (inklusive Versand)
Diese Edition 23..03.23 # 1 - 38 - ist als Crowdfunding-Modell entwickelt - für die Finanzierung meiner Monografie, die Ende 2024 fertig gestellt sein wird.
Der Erlös aus dem Verkauf dient der Finanzierung des monografischen Buchprojekts
„Klaus Merkel - Malerei und Oeuvre. 1980 - 2023“ des Autors und Ausstellungsmachers Hans-Jürgen Hafner, das einen umfassenden Blick auf die Arbeit von Klaus Merkel von den frühen 1980er-Jahren bis heute liefern wird und auch seine künstlerische Praxis als Maler vor dem Hintergrund der künstlerischen und kunstbetrieblichen Entwicklungen der vergangenen 40 Jahre zur Darstellung bringt.
Bei Bestellung bitte ich um direkte kurze verbildliche Zusage per mail, unbedingt mit der Post/Lieferadresse der Bestellerin, des Bestellers.
Der Name der Besteller*in wird auf Wunsch neben den anderen Geldgeber*innen, im Buch aufgeführt.
Das Bild „23.03.23 Blind leading the Blind“ (mit entsprechender Werknummer) wird nach Zahlung auf unten angeführtes Konto unverzüglich auf dem versicherten Postweg an die Besteller*in professionell verpackt und mit einliegender Rechnung übersandt.
Es werden lediglich 38 limitierte Bilder zum Verkauf zum Spezialpreis á 490.- Euro angeboten und entsprechend der eingehenden Zahlungen nummeriert und verschickt.
Kunstmuseum Reutlingen, Fabian Ginsberg und Ina Dinter / Distanz Verlag
Das Buch dokumentiert und erweitert die Ausstellung „Die Bewertung der Kunst“, die vier künstlerische Werke zusammenbringt, die in je unterschiedlicher Weise die Krise der Repräsentation reflektieren. In ihrem Vergleich entwickelt der Autor eine Geschichtlichkeit der Repräsentationskritik, die gegenüber der zentralen Ausstellung „Pictures“ im Artist‘s Space in New York 1977 Vorläufer und alternative Begriffsbildungen aufzeigt.
Werke von Jack Goldstein, Ketty La Rocca, Josef Kramhöller und Klaus Merkel stehen für verschiedene Stadien zwischen 1970 und 2000, in denen der Zusammenhang zwischen Repräsentation, Bildern und Wirklichkeit sich löst und neu verknüpft wird. Die Werke stammen aus der Kienzle Art Foundation, die sich in Ausstellungen und Publikationen seit Jahren der Neuvermessung und -bewertung kunstgeschichtlicher Theoriebildung verpflichtet fühlt. Fabian Ginsberg ist Künstler und Autor.
