EXHIBITION OPENING | GABRIELE EDLBAUER: HOW MUCH IS THE FISH?
6-7 PM │Artist Talk: Gabriele Edlbauer in conversation with Nathaniel Hitchcock
7-8 PM │Reception
This summer, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York is pleased to present a site-specific art installation by Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Art Award 2019 recipient Gabriele Edlbauer. On display from June 28 to September 8, How much is the fish? investigates brotherhood in the era of late capitalism through an anthropomorphic lens.
In Gabriele Edlbauer’s sculptures, strangely indeterminate animal heads grow out of bodies marked as male. It is unclear if the life-sized figures are humans half-transformed into animals or animals with human properties – they are put into a metonymic tension where it is no longer certain who represents whom or what. By looking at the group of sculptures, it becomes clear that these figures show an unlikely gathering of brothers, connected through a mutual activity: fishing. An idyllic bro scene is created whose brotherhood no longer has anything to do with the political virtue of fraternity but rather exudes a “living apart together” in the age of ubiquitous and limitless capitalism. The scene is completed by plastic wading pools full of modeled fish and a mural featuring Charging Bull, Wolf of Wall Street, Mr. Met, and Sparky the Dragon in the same anthropomorphic fashion.
The artist sees these hybrids as an invitation to engage with complicated feelings in a complicated present, a study in political zoology. Cute, zany, and deeply uncanny at the same time, the figures seem much too familiar in this era of political unrest. In their tameness, the sculptures only appear more threatening.
This exhibition is a collaboration with studio das weisse haus and the sponsoring program of Erste Bank as part of the Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Art Award 2019. For the opening, Gabriele Edlbauer will discuss her installation and art practice with Nathaniel Hitchcock, independent curator and researcher currently in residence at Liberal Arts Roxbury, Roxbury, NY.
ABOUT
Gabriele Edlbauer (*1988 in Linz/Austria) received her BFA at the Royal Institute of Art Stockholm in 2011 and her MFA at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 2012. She is currently teaching at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Edlbauer has participated in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally including the Luleå Biennial in Sweden, Belvedere 21 in Vienna, Offenes Kulturhaus in Linz, Contemporary Istanbul in Turkey, and Luckman Gallery in Los Angeles. Residencies include, amongst others, Red Gate Residency in Beijing/China, Black Sea Calling in Krasnodar/Russia, and Spread Art in Detroit/US. Edlbauer lives and works in Vienna.
Nathaniel Hitchcock is an independent curator and researcher currently based in the United States. He holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with an emphasis in Art History, Theory, and Criticism, and studied in the MediaArtHistories International Masters Program at Donau-Universität Krems, Krems, AT. In 2012, he co-founded the project space East Hampton Shed, East Hampton, NY. He was the 2013-2014 Curatorial Fellow at Rhizome at the New Museum. He has organized numerous exhibitions at galleries, museums and project spaces, including solo presentations by Chelsea Culprit, Stephanie Hier, Brian Kokoska, Marisa Olson, Angel Otero, Rafaël Rozendaal, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Rebecca Ward, and Quay Quinn Wolf. His research focuses on the intersection of art and technology in relation to forms of interface, immersion, and the image. Currently, he is Curator in Residence at Liberal Arts Roxbury, Roxbury, NY. www.nathanielhitchcock.info
ABOUT THE ExtraVALUE ART AWARD
A collaboration between the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, studio das weisse haus, and Erste Bank, the Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Art Award was initiated in 2016 and enables one emerging artist per year to exhibit their work in New York as part of a one-month residency at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. Artists whose work has previously been presented in das weisse haus or who have participated in the studio and residency program of studio das weisse haus are eligible to submit entries for the New York residency and exhibition at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. Previous recipients include Marit Wolters (2018), Karl Salzmann (2017), and Ulrike Königshofer (2016).
Image Credit: Gabriele Edlbauer, study for Bromance Is A Ticket To Paradise II, 2019 (including Charging Bull, Wolf of Wall Street, Mr. Met, and Sparky the Dragon)