Purple Art
[October 16 2014]
Private tour of Johann König Gallery hosted by MyBestBrands.de, Berlin
Founded in 2002, Johann König gallery currently represents 27 international, young emerging and established artists. Currently on show are German artists Katharina Grosse and Corinne Wasmuht, British artist Helen Marten, and French artist Camille Henrot.
Katharina Grosse incorporates spray paint largely in her work using swathes of striking hues, from hot pink, deep red-orange, pink, yellow, green, and blue. The kaleidoscopic fusions of color, rhythm and texture hark back to the works by Gerhard Richter who was an early influence on Grosse. Camille Henrot, a winner of the prestigious Silver Lion Award at the Venice Biennale for her film Grosse Fatigue, presents Tropics of Love, 2014, a series of India ink drawings on paper of various figures, hybrids of male and female, human, vegetal and animal, with prominent genitals.
The most intriguing and compelling works to emerge from the show are that of the sculptor and video artist Helen Marten. Her installation room Orchids, or a hemispherical bottom, 2013, showcases her handmade objects of consumer and pop culture from steel cats and mice to coffee and a rolling pin. The center piece of her installation is a surreal animated film where interchangeable, evocative, free-floating objects are accompanied with a voiceover (“exquisite leftovers of mayonnaise … a chubby weave of lace”) that result in odd juxtapositions and takes the viewer on a kind of catastrophe of the 21st Century.
The private tour was organized by MYBESTBRANDS to launch their French shopping platform, representing competitive prices on over 5,000 brands and designer labels. Photo Annabel Fernandes
