Città irreale — Buchmann Box Group Show

The Buchmann Galerie is pleased to announce the group exhibition Città irreale in the Buchmann Box on the occasion of Gallery Weekend Berlin.

Every city is a mixture of an imaginary place, its mystery, the images it produces and its real materiality. The artists in the exhibition each occupy an aspect of this Città irreale. 

Bettina Pousttchi (b. 1971 in Mainz, lives in Berlin) is well known for her sculptures and installations that challenge perceptions of architecture and the city. Her work from the “Vertical Highways” series, Vertical Highways A29, 2023, consist of crash barriers that are deformed under great force and erected vertically to form a dynamic sculpture. The artist plays with the idea of movement and dynamics by arranging the crash barriers in organic or flowing forms that give the impression of movement, even if they are static.

Two of the five artists are making their first appearance at the Buchmann Galerie. The two US-American artists, Gajin Fujita and Greg Bogin, will be showing solo exhibitions at the Buchmann Galerie over the course of the year. 

Gajin Fujita’s (b. 1972, Los Angeles, lives in Los Angeles) works are characterized by their bold mix of classical Japanese painting techniques such as ukiyo-e and the dynamic aesthetics of graffiti. A variety of visual elements are also a signature of the works. The artist combines traditional Japanese motifs or mythological figures with symbols of hip-hop iconography, graffiti lettering and elements of street culture. The tension between tradition and the present, between East Asian aesthetics and Western painting, is also supported by using gold grounds, which originate from medieval panel painting, where, iconographically, they separated sacred space from profane space. The work on display, titled The Saints, is dominated by lettering borrowed from graffiti and thus refers to the city as a constantly overwritten one.

Greg Bogin’s (b. 1965 in New York, lives in New York) works intelligently rethink the history of minimalism. The shaped canvases, with their reduced forms, are brought to life by an intense colour palette that ranges from bright primary colours to soft pastel shades. The play with the surface of his paintings is a characteristic feature of Bogin’s work, ranging from high gloss, almost polished, to dull matte. Always flawless, this surface reinforces the intention of clarity and precision in his works and emphasizes the graphic quality of his compositions. At the same time, a play with form, with the symbolic, is essential in his works. The work on display, Tangerine, from 2019, with its bright signal orange, round shape and oval internal structure, can be interpreted as a peculiar sign in a citta irreale.

Jason Martin’s (b. 1970 in Jersey, lives in London and Melides, Portugal) works are characterized by their expressive and tactile qualities. In his abstract painting, an intense visual experience is produced through the reduced and precise use of colour, texture and movement. The artist uses a variety of media and techniques, including oil, acrylic, pigment and various mixed media, to create a rich, textured surface. In the work El Capitàn III, the painting ground is velvet, a new aspect of the work of the British artist. The contrast between the soft materiality of the velvet and the seemingly frozen three-dimensional body of colour defines this work. The colour application is reminiscent of tar on a road, an image that complements the citta irreale.

The Buchmann Box houses large parts of the drawing archive of the British sculptor Tony Cragg (b. 1949 in Liverpool, lives in Wuppertal). In his drawings, prints and watercolours, the artist explores fundamental questions of form and space. The two sculptures on display bear witness to the breadth of his oeuvre. A key aspect of Cragg’s sculptural work is his interest in the relationship between the human form and the urban environment. He explores the interactions between nature and technology, the organic and the artificial. Through his sculptural work, Tony Cragg expands our view of the city as a living space characterized by human creativity and creation. 

The città irreale is a phantasmatic city. A city as an image as well as a structure. The selected works of the artists show an expanded image of this phantasmatic city.

For further information and images, please do not hesitate to contact the gallery.