This new body of work is an exploration of the image of father and child. The image of the mother and Child is one of the most iconic images in the western world. Imagery of father and child is not so enshrined. The corporeal attachment of the mother and her child takes place during gestation, giving birth and in some cases breastfeeding. Her child is marked on her body internally and hormonally and is an inherent part of the bonding process. By piercing his own body with the image of his child, is the father also attempting to internalize as well as externalize his relationship? Are the tattoos signifiers of a sense of loss or belonging? Is it the symbolic creation of some sort of altar within a human temple? The art form of tattooing uses the human body as its canvas. As a system of communication it provides a crucial databank of beliefs, values and history of individuals, groups and cultures. Catalogue available. The Body as Shrine: Mary A. Kelly’s “Father & Child” No single image is so deeply implanted in Western iconography as that of mother and child. Whether nurturing or grieving, the Madonna inspired some of the greatest achievements in the visual arts of the past, while the relationship of father and child has rarely been commemorated. When it does appear in literature or in art, it is typically viewed in terms of conflict, of rivalry in the quest for power or for love. James Joyce’s monumental novel Ulysses comprises a noteworthy exception to the rule. Loosely structured according to the plot of Homer’s Odyssey, which recounts a son’s quest to find for his lost father, Joyce’s variant depicts an idealistic young man, Stephen Dedalus, and the 38-year-old Leopold Bloom, who wander aimlessly through the streets of Dublin on June 16, 1904. Stephen has recently rejected his own alcoholic father, who represents the aspects of family, nation and tradition that retard his intellectual and artistic development. Bloom is the last male descendent of a Jewish family that immigrated to Ireland from Hungary. His father committed suicide, his own infant son died at the age of eleven days Viewed in classical terms, Joyce relates the story of a son’s search for a (surrogate) father, the father’s search for a son. The paths of the two men cross during the day and finally converge in the night, when Bloom “rescues” Stephen from a brothel in the red-light district known as “Nighttown.” If there is no real bonding, there is at least a brief moment of tender empathy between the two, a kind of intuitive and unspoken recognition, before the two men go their separate ways. Why the father-son theme occurs so frequently in Irish literature (as it does in Jewish-American writing, as well) is of no immediate relevance here. Its recurrence, however, helps to contextualize “Father & Child,” the recent series of works by the Dublin-born artist Mary A. Kelly. (The artist also completed a photo and video project entitled “Mother and Child” in 2003.) It was coincidence that first led her to observe that many fathers commemorate their paternal love by having portraits of their children tattooed on their bodies. Kelly has a special sensitivity for the marginalized, the derelict and damaged, and she has repeatedly demonstrated a profound sense for the poetry of the commonplace. In an ongoing series entitled “I believe help my unbelief,” she commemorates the “Angels Plot” at Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery, where 50,000 stillborn (and hence unbaptised) children are buried. Above all, it is the impromptu tributes of toys and plastic flowers and makeshift memorials that have repeatedly caught her eye. The inherent pathos of such a subject is obvious but hardly unique in Kelly’s work. In her low-keyed photographs, even the most mundane subjects are endowed with a touching humanity. For the series entitled “Asylum,” first exhibited along with a video installation in 2005, she documented the traces of frustration and need that mental patients had left behind in an empty hospital building. Graffiti-like messages were scratched and scribbled on doors and pillars, cigarette burns etched into upholstery and linoleum like hieroglyphs of despair. Lifetimes of hope and apathy and waiting seem inscribed here. The artist herself speaks of “honoring that tenacious mark of survival in these images.” Similar reflections resulted from the video course that she offered at Portlaoise, Ireland’s only maximum-security prison. There she discovered improbable evidence of a shared humanity in the narrow prison cells joined by a grillwork landing. Having won the trust and respect of her students, Kelly received permission from many of them to document the nest-like retreats they had created within the grey prison walls. Each cell is photographed in strict frontal symmetry, with the frame of the door revealing (and literally framing) all we are permitted to see of these intimate retreats. Caught between curiosity and voyeurism, the viewer is sensitized to all those details – photos and posters, quilts and pillows, books and curtains and flowers – with which Ireland’s most dangerous criminals seek to individualize their extreme, often life-long isolation. In its forensic objectivity, “The Landing” (2003) sometimes recalls Lucinda Devlin’s “Omega Suites,” yet the images shun polemics and politics in favor of a lyric recognition of shared needs. The use of ambient light produces a subdued, sepia-toned effect that reinforces this dimension. “When I walked through the landing, it was very dark,” the artist has written, “and the cells were open. And the side lights were all on in the cells themselves. And it was almost like a block of flats, like a whole community on a street.” Domestic ritual, reinforced by her own mothering of three children, also plays a recurrent role in Mary Kelly’s works: the laying of a tea table, preparing a leg of lamb, feeding a child. In an earlier video installation entitled “Baby Blue (1998),” the crying of a newborn baby is looped into a continuous sequence, becoming a primal record of helplessness and unfulfilled need. Many of these themes of nurture and ritual coalesce in an ongoing project entitled “Through the Looking Glass”. It was during her work in adult education that Mary Kelly chanced upon the phenomenon that would lead to the series entitled “Father & Child.” The knowledge that one of her students was having a portrait of his estranged son tattooed on his chest led her to reflect on the place of father-child relationships in art and in contemporary ritual. In particular, she was intrigued by the notion of using the human body as a “canvas” for projecting needs and yearnings that find far less frequent expression than the ancient and complex iconography of mother and child. Kelly documented the results of her first encounter in “Kevin” (2008/12), where the son’s portrait appears beneath the motto “Life is pain.” As she pursued the topic, with one subject introducing her to others, Mary Kelly also developed a sharpened appreciation for the craft of tattooing. If some of her subjects come from marginalized groups, the images inscribed in their skins are anything but the crude depictions once associated with sailors, bikers and criminals. The image of a child’s head in “Robert” (2010/12), for example, reveals delicately nuanced shadings reminiscent of a watercolor technique. Despite the recurrence of images like an angel’s wing, roses or a crucifix, tattoos are varied by the signature styles of the craftsmen who take pride in producing them. “Ink,” “Gun” and “Parlour” (2010/12) underscore the fact that tattooing has long since shed much of its unsavory air and entered the mainstream. Spying out celebrity tattoos and deciphering their significance has even become something of a sport among their fans. In addition to a virtual encyclopedia of signs, pledges and memorials, soccer hero David Beckham “sports” the names of his four children on his body: Brooklyn (1999), Romeo (2002), Cruz (2005) and his daughter Harper (2011). When he was playing for Real Madrid, the midfielder flew Louis Malloy, London’s most celebrated inker, to Spain for a special commission. But the latest addition to his mobile picture gallery (at least at the time of this writing) was produced by the Los Angeles virtuoso Mark Mahoney. It shows Beckham as Jesus, being lifted from the tomb by cherubs who wear the faces of his three sons. Yet the classic mother-child relationship is oddly here: not far away from the cherubic trio, Beckham’s wife Victoria strikes a Brigitte Bardot pose. Less celebrated fathers frequently honor the Madonna, as we see in Mary Kelly’s “Isaac 2” (2010/12). In “Arthur” (2010) the motif is that of a child’s handprint. In another touching variation on the theme, “Isaac” (2010/12) and “Dad” (2011/12) memorialize a dead father. (In the era when a tattoo marked the end of a sailor’s basic training, the most common design – often inscribed across the shape of a heart - spelled “Mother.”) As we move through Kelly’s images, a kind of glossary of colors, signs, symbolic combinations and anatomical placement begins to emerge. Where a tattoo is situated on the body, whether it is exposed to view or normally concealed, has much to do with the message it is intended to convey. While the placement varies so widely from back to shoulder to wrist, chest, forearm or back, Mary Kelly’s compositions vary accordingly. Rather than the tight frontal framing of the “Landing” series, in “Father & Child” each image adapts to the size and placement of the name or image of a child. Whatever the angle from which a photograph is made, the face of the father is never entirely revealed. Only in the mesmerizing 13-minute video entitled “David” (2011/12) do we see the father as a person in his own right, in tender play with his infant son. In the photographs themselves, we may well see only an outstretched arm, as in “Ian” and “Sammy” (2010/12). Both images are oddly reminiscent of the crucifixion, while the bright graffiti background emphatically contemporizes the moment. The pose also extends the cultural context of “making marks,” whereby man measures, highlights, individualizes or ornaments the world around him – including his own body, which becomes a living shrine. (In this context, one might also think of the elaborate patterns of cigarette “marks” left behind in the linoleum and upholstery of the “Asylum” series.) Mary Kelly’s oeuvre can be seen in a tradition of social anthropology, but also as part of an ongoing exploration of the comédie humaine, rendered in images of haunting if sometimes disturbing beauty. David Galloway
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Jurriaan Molenaar | BAUHAUS + GRAUHAUS Apr 20, 2024 - May 25, 2024 |
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Michael Tolloy | ANDROS + GYNE Feb 17, 2024 - Apr 06, 2024 |
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Idowu Oluwaseun | PEDESTAL Dec 09, 2023 - Feb 10, 2024 |
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SELECTION 2023 Nov 10, 2023 - Dec 02, 2023 |
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Harding Meyer | Audience Aug 26, 2023 - Nov 04, 2023 |
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Summer Break Jul 11, 2023 - Aug 22, 2023 |
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Flávia Junqueira | Symphony of Illusions Jun 10, 2023 - Jul 08, 2023 |
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Fransix Tenda Lomba | Historical Shock Apr 22, 2023 - Jun 03, 2023 |
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Till Freiwald | Echo Jan 28, 2023 - Mar 31, 2023 |
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SELECTION | Part 2 Dec 16, 2022 - Jan 21, 2023 |
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Daniel Heil | Wheel of Dharma Nov 05, 2022 - Dec 03, 2022 |
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Claudia Rogge | WARP and WEFT Aug 27, 2022 - Oct 29, 2022 |
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Éder Oliveira | Oposición Jun 24, 2022 - Jul 30, 2022 |
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Fábio Baroli | Where the wind turns May 06, 2022 - Jun 18, 2022 |
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Frank Bauer | Bilder vom Verschwinden Mar 12, 2022 - Apr 30, 2022 |
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Selection Feb 08, 2022 - Mar 05, 2022 |
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Harding Meyer | known unknowns Oct 29, 2021 - Dec 18, 2021 |
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Kate Waters | It takes one to know one Aug 27, 2021 - Oct 23, 2021 |
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Giacomo Costa | Atmospheres May 28, 2021 - Jul 03, 2021 |
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Idowu Oluwaseun | REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE: a synthesis of time and sound Oct 30, 2020 - Dec 12, 2020 |
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Peter Uka | Inner Frame Aug 28, 2020 - Oct 24, 2020 |
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Harding Meyer | new works Jun 05, 2020 - Jul 15, 2020 |
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Mary A. Kelly | Chair Mar 14, 2020 - May 30, 2020 |
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Michael Tolloy | Solid Solidarity Jan 17, 2020 - Feb 29, 2020 |
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Kate Waters | Love Shacks and other Hideouts Oct 18, 2019 - Jan 09, 2020 |
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Frank Bauer | Paths of Inaccuracy Aug 30, 2019 - Oct 12, 2019 |
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Christian Bazant-Hegemark | Kindness of Strangers Jun 07, 2019 - Jul 13, 2019 |
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Sandra Ackermann | Escape into your Reality May 03, 2019 - Jun 01, 2019 |
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Kay Kaul | Cloudbusting Mar 08, 2019 - Apr 27, 2019 |
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Jurriaan Molenaar | Fermate Jan 18, 2019 - Mar 02, 2019 |
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Harding Meyer / Humanize Oct 19, 2018 - Jan 12, 2019 |
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Mihoko Ogaki / Soft Landing Aug 31, 2018 - Oct 13, 2018 |
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Peter Uka / Fragment of the Present Passed Apr 13, 2018 - May 26, 2018 |
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Daniel Heil / Monologues Mar 09, 2018 - Apr 07, 2018 |
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Düsseldorf Photo Weekend 2018 Feb 16, 2018 - Feb 18, 2018 |
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Sandra Senn / Zwischen Zwei Meeren Jan 26, 2018 - Mar 03, 2018 |
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Frank Bauer / Die Gelassenheit der Dinge Nov 17, 2017 - Jan 20, 2018 |
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Kate Waters / Whistling In The Dark Sepr 01, 2017 - Nov 11, 2017 |
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Untitled Jul 12, 2017 - Aug 02, 2017 |
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Davide La Rocca / 13K ( Part 1 ) May 12, 2017 - Jun 27, 2017 |
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Sandra Ackermann / Lost in Nothingness Mar 24, 2017 - May 06, 2017 |
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Claudia Rogge / CONCENTRATION Jan 27, 2017 - Mar 18, 2017 |
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Christian Bazant - Hegemark / The Rise and Fall of Transformative Hopes and Expectations Nov 11, 2016 - Jan 21, 2017 |
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Harding Meyer / The Others Aug 26, 2016 - Nov 05, 2016 |
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Crossing Borders Jun 03, 2016 - Jul 15, 2016 |
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Sandra Senn / Flüchtiges Getriebe Apr 08, 2016 - May 21, 2016 |
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Corrado Zeni / Éloge de la fuite Nov 27, 2015 - Jan 09, 2016 |
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Claudia Rogge / PerSe Oct 16, 2015 - Nov 21, 2015 |
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Kate Waters // Tell it like it is Aug 28, 2015 - Oct 10, 2015 |
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Visions Of Sensory Space ( by Weightless Artists Association - SPARTNIC ) May 15, 2015 - Jul 04, 2015 |
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Sandra Ackermann / Wasteland Mar 13, 2015 - May 02, 2015 |
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Lost Scapes Jan 30, 2015 - Mar 07, 2015 |
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Christian Bazant-Hegemark / Calibrating Aesthetics Nov 14, 2014 - Jan 17, 2015 |
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Frank Bauer / Back to Basics Aug 29, 2014 - Nov 08, 2014 |
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Harding Meyer // recent paintings May 23, 2014 - Aug 23, 2014 |
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Till Freiwald - memoria Apr 11, 2014 - May 17, 2014 |
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Quadriennale Düsseldorf 2014 / Gallery Evening Apr 05, 2014 - Apr 05, 2014 |
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Giacomo Costa // Traces Nov 22, 2013 - Jan 11, 2013 |
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DC-Open Galleries: Matthias Danberg - Inventory by Appropriation Sepr 06, 2013 - Nov 16, 2013 |
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Christian Bazant-Hegemark // VOW OF SILENCE May 24, 2013 - Aug 20, 2013 |
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Corrado Zeni // Generation Why Apr 12, 2013 - May 18, 2013 |
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behind the Non-Colours Mar 22, 2013 - Apr 06, 2013 |
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Sandra Ackermann // Running to stand still Feb 15, 2013 - Mar 16, 2013 |
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Düsseldorf Photo Weekend 2013 Feb 01, 2013 - Feb 09, 2013 |
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Mihoko Ogaki // Star Tales - White Floating Nov 30, 2012 - Jan 31, 2013 |
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Claudia Rogge / Lost in Paradise Oct 12, 2012 - Nov 24, 2012 |
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Harding Meyer // features Sepr 07, 2012 - Oct 06, 2012 |
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Summer 2012 - Part 2 Aug 10, 2012 - Sepr 01, 2012 |
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Summer 2012 Jul 06, 2012 - Sepr 01, 2012 |
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Maria Friberg // The Painting Series May 11, 2012 - Jun 23, 2012 |
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Mary A. Kelly // Father & Child Mar 30, 2012 - May 06, 2012 |
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Maia Naveriani // Future Wolves and Chicks so far Feb 10, 2012 - Mar 24, 2012 |
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Düsseldorf Photo Weekend 2012 Feb 04, 2012 - Feb 08, 2012 |
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Kate Waters // The Air that I breathe Dec 09, 2011 - Jan 28, 2012 |
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Frank Bauer / ...den Wald vor lauter Bäumen.... Nov 04, 2011 - Dec 03, 2011 |
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Claudia Rogge // Final Friday Sepr 09, 2011 - Oct 29, 2011 |
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Davide La Rocca - STILLS May 27, 2011 - Jul 16, 2011 |
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Giacomo Costa // Post Natural Apr 01, 2011 - May 21, 2011 |
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Harding Meyer - to be a real vision Feb 18, 2011 - Mar 26, 2011 |
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Shannon Rankin - Disperse / Displace Dec 03, 2010 - Feb 12, 2011 |
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Sandra Ackermann // I look inside you Oct 15, 2010 - Nov 27, 2010 |
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Amparo Sard / AT THE IMPASSE Sepr 03, 2010 - Oct 09, 2010 |
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Kate Waters // The Land of Kubla Khan Jun 11, 2010 - Jul 17, 2010 |
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Jurriaan Molenaar // Lessness Apr 30, 2010 - Jun 05, 2010 |
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Claudia Rogge // The Paradise of the Onlooker Mar 05, 2010 - Apr 24, 2010 |
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Ivonne Thein // incredible me Jan 22, 2010 - Feb 27, 2010 |
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Frank Bauer // Jet Set Nov 27, 2009 - Jan 15, 2010 |
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Michael Koch // forever more Oct 23, 2009 - Nov 21, 2009 |
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Masaharu Sato // SIGNS Sepr 04, 2009 - Oct 17, 2009 |
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Harding Meyer // blind date Jun 19, 2009 - Aug 22, 2009 |
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Maria Friberg // way ahead Apr 24, 2009 - Jun 13, 2009 |
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Claudia Rogge // Isolation ( aus: Segment 8 - die Blasen der Gesellschaft) Mar 06, 2009 - Apr 18, 2009 |
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Claudia Rogge - The Opening Mar 06, 2009 - Apr 18, 2009 |
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JoJo Tillmann // What you see is what you get Jan 30, 2009 - Feb 28, 2009 |
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Sandra Ackermann // Die Wirklichkeit ist nicht die Wahrheit Nov 21, 2008 - Jan 24, 2009 |
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Kate Waters - Getting used to the 21st Century Oct 10, 2008 - Nov 15, 2008 |
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Mihoko Ogaki - Milky Ways Sepr 04, 2008 - Oct 04, 2008 |
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Summer 2008 // Painting Aug 12, 2008 - Aug 30, 2008 |
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Silke Rehberg: Stationen 1,4,6,7,11,12,13,14 Jun 13, 2008 - Jul 12, 2008 |
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Maia Naveriani: At home with good ideas May 09, 2008 - Jun 07, 2008 |
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Justin Richel: Rise and Fall Apr 04, 2008 - May 03, 2008 |
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Davide La Rocca - Strange Object Feb 08, 2008 - Mar 28, 2008 |
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Frank Bauer: AkikoAlinaAlinkaAndrew.... Nov 30, 2007 - Feb 02, 2008 |
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Maria Friberg: Fallout Oct 12, 2007 - Nov 24, 2007 |
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Harding Meyer / in sight Sepr 06, 2007 - Oct 11, 2007 |
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SUMMER '07 Jul 17, 2007 - Sepr 01, 2007 |
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Kay Kaul - Wasserfarben Jun 15, 2007 - Jul 14, 2007 |
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Sandra Ackermann - Point Blank Mar 02, 2007 - Apr 28, 2007 |
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Tamara K.E.: pioneers -none of us and somewhere else Jan 19, 2007 - Feb 24, 2007 |
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Till Freiwald Nov 17, 2006 - Jan 13, 2007 |
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Claudia Rogge: U N I F O R M Sepr 01, 2006 - Nov 11, 2006 |
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Kate Waters: Killing Time May 05, 2006 - Jun 17, 2006 |
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Katia Bourdarel: The Flesh of Fairy Tales Mar 31, 2006 - Apr 29, 2006 |
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Mihoko Ogaki Feb 10, 2006 - Mar 18, 2006 |
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Silke Rehberg: RICOMINCIARE DAL CORPO Jan 27, 2006 - Feb 26, 2006 |
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Sandra Ackermann Dec 08, 2005 - Jan 15, 2006 |
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Corrado Zeni Dec 04, 2005 - Jan 11, 2006 |
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Frank Bauer Nov 18, 2005 - Jan 15, 2006 |
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Harding Meyer Oct 07, 2005 - Nov 12, 2005 |
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AUFTAKT Sepr 02, 2005 - Oct 01, 2005 |
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Claudia Rogge: Rapport Jun 17, 2005 - Jul 20, 2005 |
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May 13, 2005 - Jun 11, 2005 |
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Kate Waters: Solo-Exhibition in the Gallery Thomas Cohn, Sao Paulo Apr 16, 2005 - May 20, 2005 |
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Vittorio Gui: FROZEN MOMENTS Apr 08, 2005 - May 07, 2005 |
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Kay Kaul - ARTSCAPES Apr 03, 2005 - May 29, 2005 |
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SEO Geheimnisvoller Blick Mar 04, 2005 - Apr 02, 2005 |
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Claudia van Koolwijk at Museum Bochum Feb 26, 2005 - Apr 17, 2005 |
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Corrado Zeni - Six Degrees of Separation Nov 26, 2004 - Jan 15, 2005 |
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Maia Naveriani: What' s the difference between ME and YOU? Oct 15, 2004 - Nov 20, 2004 |
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Tamara K.E.: MAD DONNA AND DONNA CORLEONE Sepr 03, 2004 - Oct 09, 2004 |
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Davide La Rocca: Real Vision Reflex Jun 12, 2004 - Jul 17, 2004 |
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Kay Kaul COLLECTORSCAPES Apr 23, 2004 - Jun 05, 2004 |