Matt Keegan & Kay Rosen: Eine Wanderausstellung

The Grazer Kunstverein carries on its dedication and investigation into language, exchange and communication by presenting an exhibition by American artists Matt Keegan and Kay Rosen as part of the 30th anniversary program. Following Philippe Van Snick’s post-minimalist approach to painting, this exhibition investigates the physical relation to and translation of language in space, while simultaneously portraying an intimate dialogue between two artists from different generations.

Kay Rosen (1943, US) has been exploring the possibilities of the word-as-image for the past four decades following her early academic studies in languages and linguistics. Her work takes pleasure in the small shifts and the subtle changes in language that subvert meaning and reveal the unexpected. In her paintings, drawings, wall works and collages she uses color, scale, composition, grammatical and typographical strategies, and above all, the structure of language and letterforms to challenge the way people view, read and understand the works presented. In addition to the mailings with Keegan, Rosen will include in Eine Wanderausstellung a three-part site-specific wall painting, Happy Ever After; a new video, Blue Monday; and a small painting, She-Man.

Matt Keegan (1976, US) is an interdisciplinary artist. For Eine Wanderausstellung, he presents a laser-cut steel sculpture, wall painting, video, and collage that highlight his use of idiomatic phrases—for instance, "it goes without saying"—calling attention to the materiality of language and its open-ended possibilities. Like Rosen, Keegan mines the rich terrain of word-as-image, as seen in his video "N" as in Nancy. For this work, the artist’s mother, Nancy, is shown assigning words and phrases to images that she assembled to teach English as a Second Language coursework to high school and adult education classes. Translation of images, material, meaning, color and form are foundational to Keegan’s work.

Keegan and Rosen’s shared interests led to a physical mail exchange started in 2009 and ongoing. Through their correspondence, they have created an archive of images, drawings, collages, and notes that map their thoughts and ideas about current events, their daily lives, pop culture, humor and more.

The exhibition Eine Wanderausstellung will be the first to bring together a selection of their mailings alongside works by each of the artists. The exhibition will take on a new form at the Contemporary Art Museum Houston in October. 

The Members Library* presents

Peter Friedl
The Diaries, 1981–2016

Since his early beginnings, writing and drawing—in the broadest sense—have been core activities of Friedl's artistic practice, in which critical intimacy, displacement, political awareness, conceptual transfers, and new models of narration play an important role. All of the artist's handwritten diaries from 1981 to 2016 will be on view at the Grazer Kunstverein.

More than 300 closed notebooks are displayed in piles within specially-designed museum showcases. As is often the case with Friedl's projects, juxtaposition and overexposure are the exhibition's very dynamics. In fact, The Diaries is an epic staging of real time, memory, volume, and text on paper. Thousands upon thousands of densely filled pages covering a period of over 30 years testify to the impossibility of capturing bare life in words. Like Friedl's other long-term projects such as Playgrounds (since 1995) and Theory of Justice (1992–2010)—both based on documentary photographic images—his diary installation is a study in narration and is open to change

*The Members Library is constructed and designed by the artist Céline Condorelli (b. 1974, France) in collaboration with Harry Thaler as a permanent work entitled Things That Go Without Saying.

On display continuously

The Peacock
February 1, 2013–
A non-stop group show examining the interior of the Grazer Kunstverein by introducing (new) furniture, design, applied and decorative arts that analyze their own functionality.

On display
June 11–August 7, 2016

Julieta Aranda*, Josh Faught, Liam Gillick, Christian Mayer*, Nicolás Paris, Chadwick Rantanen*, Will Stuart
*New additions

Ian Wilson
February 1, 2013–

Save the date!
Grazer kunstverein’s 30th anniversary celebration will take place on July 1 with performances and commissions by Mariana Castillo Debal and Carlos Sandoval, Nils Bech and Dorit Chrysler and Gregor Schmoll.

Locations: Grazer Kunstverein, the innercity of Graz and the Orangerie at the Burggarten

Start: 3pm

Please check our website www.grazerkunstverein.org for regular updates on our program. For further information, please contact office@grazerkunstverein.org.

Press inquiries: Tanja Gurke, tg@grazerkunstverein.org
 

Grazer Kunstverein is structurally supported by the city of Graz, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture, the province of Styria, Legero The Footwear Company and its members.