WHITECONCEPTS gallery is delighted to present the first solo show of German artist Mike Dargas in Berlin.

The young painter is renowned for his masterly painted realistic works. He dedicates himself to oil painting and creates spectacular large-scale portraits outstanding with their detailed illustration. 

Can art actually make a difference in the lives of the people who look at it? German artist Mike Dargas believes in it. Looking at his fascinating portraits of some of the most beautiful women it is easily understandable how concepts of beauty have changed over time imposed by society. 

Inspired by artists such as Dalí, Caravaggio and H.R.Giger, Mike Dargas studied various techniques and since his youth developed a passion for realism, which he refined over and over. The artist analyses his subjects with such intensity,that each portrait gives witness of increasing intimate closeness. The perfection of his technique serves his goal to understand the nature of a human being and to question our own emotional perception.

The works of Mike Dargas elude a clear temporal distinction. Even if the representations can stand as indications of a contemporary Western zeitgeist, the images lose their temporal determine ability through their static transience and acquire an essence of infinity. The artist plays with the effect on the observer right from the beginning. Although the works appear to be photographs from a distance, on closer observation the large scale of the portrait establishes the microscopically precise observation of the artist and his masterly intercourse with color shading and color shift rich with nuances, that sharpen the view of the picturesque.

Mike Dargas (* 1983 in Cologne/GER) started making paintings with oil paint from a very young age, and exhibited his talent publicly, like drawing old master paintings with pastel and chalk on the pavement in front of the Cologne cathedral. Shortly after he got accepted in an art school, from which he graduated after a year and a half, the only child in a class of adults. There, he learnt different techniques, and received a training that led him to master three dimensional arts, like wooden sculptures. In his early twenties he built himself a solid reputation in the tattoo scene and won numerous prizes and awards.

His works are part of numerous collections around the world. They were exhibited in Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Belgium, Spain, Turkey, and in the USA.

Press:
Azucar Magazine, 23.03.2017

Booth P 21 . The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History . Klauzner Street . Tel Aviv/Israel

Press:

PROGRAM
Opening
13.09.2016, 19:00 - 21:00
Panel discussion 
14.09.2016, 18:30 - 20:30
Long Night of the pictures in Lichtenberg
16.09.2016, 18:00 - 23.00
Ritual Performance ´Requiem´ by Christoph Both-Asmus
17.09.2016,  14.00-18.00

PANEL: 06.08.2016, 14:00 - 18:00 (RSVP)

With the series “power” the artist continues to address the themes of self-similarity, complexity and time. The advent of the Industrial Age saw the realm of towering structures, previously the sole preserve of rulers or religious institutions, taken over by mostly privately funded skyscrapers.
Andy Wengel‘s work focuses on the subjective effect of giant buildings on the ground, detached from pure observation of the architecture. Converging verticals and extreme perspectives reinforce the monumental impact of the buildings and are employed as stylistic devices.
Time and place are nullified by the composition, the dimensions blur. The use of hybrid techniques suspends reality and artificiality for the viewer. It is not about reality, but rather about the representation of an isolated truth, perceptible only through photography. Recurring forms and materials, the absence of people create a mysterious, anonymous impression – the purpose, hidden behind glass. The buildings appear as monuments of power – inaccessible, impregnable, and sterile. The gloomy sky emphasizes this effect. The reduced visual language together with the juxtaposition allow for a concentrated analysis on a detailed and mid level, forming a steel portrait of our time.

OPENING: 17.02.2016, 14:00
LOCATION: Hall 3 . Stand J 33 . Messeallee 1 . 76287 Rheinstetten

curated by PSJM as part of their Berlin Workshop

supported by the Spanish Embassy

with Manzur Kargar (AF-DE), Finn O´Hanlon (AUS), Wanda Stang (DE) 

Building D/Booth P204: Katrin Korfmann, André Wagner
Central and Eastern Europe’s emerging contemporary art fair
LOCATION: Millenaris Park, Budapest/ Hungary

OPENING and PERFORMANCE: 21.05.2014, 7 PM

The young British artist, Finn Lafcadio O’Hanlon, will present his first-ever European exhibition at WHITECONCEPTS gallery in Berlin. The exhibition, titled ´History Puts A Saint in Every Dream´, will feature his intricately drawn works in ink on paper.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, 60 pages, 2014.

During the gallery weekend the gallery WHITECONCEPTS shows together with its partner gallery aquabit a selection of its program. The exhibition features sculptures and two-dimensional works by emerging and established contemporary artists based in Berlin.

SPECIAL
27.11.2013, 19:30h
Presentation of the collection book »Dreissig Silberlinge – Kunst und Geld«
In collaboration of Sammlung Haupt and Verlag Edition Braus
VENUE: King Size Bar
ADDRESS: Friedrichstrasse 112b, 10117 Berlin
afterwards: Artist Night Party
Image: Manuel Gras, Geldgaumenfreuden 56, Acryl auf Dollar, 18 x 24 cm, 2013

Press:

On th occassion of the 55th La Biennale di Venezia André Wagner is participating in the group show „Personal Structures“, curated by Francesca Crudo, Sarah Gold, Carol Rolla, Valeria Romagnini.
The exhibition is organized by the Global Art Affairs Foundation.
An exhibition catalogue is accompanying the exhibition.
OPEN DAILY (except Tuesdays) 11.00 - 18.00 h
La Biennale di Venezia - The 55th International Art Exhibition
LOCATION: Palazzo Bembo, Riva del Carbon #4793, 30124 Venezia, Italy

Wanda Stang - solo show 

drawings, paintings and objects

English version below
Im Jahr 2010 schuf der österreichische Multimedia-Künstler Nikolaus Eberstaller (*1968) die großformatige Skulptur Battlefield (s. Abb). Nun wird er erstmalig sein neues Projekt BATTLEFIELD LOVE MEMORIAL Berlin präsentieren.
 
„Es wird schwierig. Gut so. Ich bin zu alt, um bedingungslos ja zu sagen. Und zu jung, um es nicht trotzdem mit Hingabe zu versuchen. Das Signal, das Berlin mit BATTLEFIELD LOVE MEMORIAL in die Außenwelt senden könnte, wäre dieser Stadt und ihrer Geschichte würdig. Die einzige Bedingung, die ich stelle: Keine öffentlichen Gelder.“ Nikolaus Eberstaller
 
„Die Aussagen der Kunstwerke Eberstallers sind bipolar, sie leben aus dem Spannungsfeld der Gegensätze, die nicht unvereinbar sind, sondern deutlich machen, dass jeder Aspekt eine positive und eine negative Seite umfasst ... Das Kunstwerk bringt auf subtile Weise zum Ausdruck, dass scheinbar unauflösbare Gegensätze sich verändern, auseinander hervorgehen können, dass sich aus Liebe ein Schlachtfeld und aus einem Schlachtfeld Liebe entwickeln kann.“ Univ.-Doz. Dr. Achim Gnann, Kunsthistoriker und Kurator der Wiener ALBERTINA über Battlefield.

Parallel dazu zeigen wir MARIE COCHON, Performanceschwein (ein Werk von Nikolaus Eberstaller und Barbara Eberstaller-Wendelin).
Ein mit Geld ausgestopftes Schwein wanderte 2012 durch Wien. Medien aus 13 Ländern berichteten, darunter das Wall Street Journal, Die Zeit und Paris Match. 2013 gewannen Nikolaus Eberstaller und Barbara Eberstaller-Wendelin für Marie Cochon einen LICC-Award in London für die beste Performance.
Marie Cochon protestiert mit ihrer Performancekunst gegen das sozial unverträgliche Übermaß – die Gier auf Kosten anderer. Marie will den Menschen, denen gegenüber sie sich mit ihrer Kritik loyal erweist, auf der Straße begegnen. Deswegen bereist sie die Welt. Während ihrer Stadtwanderungen tauscht sie sich aus, teilt ihr nährstoffloses Futter mit Bedürftigen und erweitert ihr Weltbild. Vor Ort reflektiert sie über Luxus, Exklusivität, Reichtum. Und ob all das zwingend nur mit Geld zu erreichen ist. www.marie-cochon.com
 
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English Version
In 2010 the Austrian multimedia artist Nicholas Eberstaller (* 1968) created the large-scale sculpture Battlefield (see picture above). Now, he presents his new project BATTLEFIELD LOVE MEMORIAL Berlin.
 
„It will be difficult. Fine. I‘m too old for saying yes unconditionally. And too young to surrender. The signal that Berlin could send to the world with Battlefield Love Memorial would be worthy of this city and its history. The only condition I ask for: No public money.“ Nikolaus Eberstaller about his project.

“Eberstallers artworks are bipolar, they live in an area of conflict filled with extremes, which are not contradicting, but it becomes apparent that every aspect includes a positive and a negative side ... Battlefield expresses subtle, that seemingly unsolvable differences change, that they can emerge from within, that out of love a battlefield can develop and out of a battlefield love.” Dr. Achim Gnann, Art historian and curator at the ALBERTINA (Head of Department Italian Art of the 14th -19th Century) in Vienna about Battlefield.

In parallel we show the work by MARIE COCHON, Performance pig (a project by Nikolaus Eberstaller and Barbara Eberstaller-Wendelin)
A money-stuffed pig wandered through Vienna in 2012. Renowned media reported from over 13 countries, including the Wall Street Journal, Time and Paris Match. Currently Nikolaus Eberstaller and Barbara Eberstaller-Wendelin won a LICC Award in London for the best performance.
Marie Cochon protests with her performance art against the social irreconcilable exorbitance – the greed at the expense of others. Marie wants to meet the human, with against whom she proves her loyalty, on the street. Therefore she travels the world. During her private city tours she compares notes, shares her nutrition-free food with the needy and broadens her view of the world. On location she reflects on luxury, exclusivity, abundance. And if that all is compulsory only achieved by money. At work she has two assistants at her side: Nikolaus and Barbara Eberstaller.
www.marie-cochon.com
 

Sculptures by Sara Berti/IT

The exhibition presents works of the artist from the last two years that refer to popular idyllic visions or the nostalgia for paradise, and introduces some of his latest public art works in Germany, Norway and Poland.

The exhibition was developed for three stations: Started with 54°4min at the Gerisch-Foundation in Neumünster, curated by Dr. Martin Henatsch, now on display 54°24min at the New Łaznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk, curated by Eulalia Domanowska and will be followed by 51°15min at City Gallery in Park Viersen, hosted by Jutta Pitzen.

An extensive catalog sums up twenty years of the artistic career of the artist, containing drawings, installations, video works and his numerous public works as well as unrealized projects for public space:

54°4min - Thorsten Goldberg was published by DISTANZ Verlag Berlin.

Photos by ©Krzysztof Miekus - Laznia CCA

Press: O.pl, 09.02.2013
Obieg, 26.02.2013

OPENING: 30.10.2012, 6PM 
Special event on the occasion of Jimi Hendrix´s 70th birthday: 27.11.2012, 6PM

SPECIAL: round table discussion
11.11.2012, 15:00h
CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY: A PHOTO BECOMES YESTERDAY´S ART PIECE FOR TOMORROW / INSIDE ART 
Speakers: Anna FABRICIUS – artist, Orsolya KŐRÖSI – director of the Hungarian House of Photography, Mihály SURáNYI – director of Nessim Gallery, Dejan SLUGA – director of Photon Gallery, Ljubljana, André WAGNER – photographer, Berlin, Moderator: Zoltán SOMHEGYI art historian

VENUE: Cultural Center Kühlhaus Berlin - Seven Floors of Art
ADDRESS: Luckenwalder Str. 3, 10963 Berlin

What is the state of Video Art in China today? And how do artists reflect their artistry in the present? Where is the art drifting toward? And by what standards do we evaluate art?

Based on two shows entitled "imPOSSIBLE!", that were shown 2009 at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery and MISSION 17, the new show was re-curated by the curatorial team of Nicole Loeser and Irina Ilieva. In the context of the project "Chinese Fall" at the Kühlhaus the curators picked up these questions for their exhibition.

The artists in “imPOSSIBLE?” engage strategies that include using humor that is slightly dark and often times ironic creating absurd or impossible scenarios, and confront highly exaggerated aesthetic and conceptual sensibilities. In a situation where radical change becomes an everyday experience, the artists found that by engaging these strategies they were able to create works that reconcile the past with the present and highlight the pace of contemporary life in China. At that time, the artists used especially absurd statements questioning the art-making process and the shows were highly recognized. 

Will their works have after three years a similar effect? What was then considered impossibility through the rapid changes in living conditions, through technology and global trade which now seems normal? From the improbability has it become a reality?

With special thanks to Directors Lounge and Ulrich Schäfer.

Press: 
Haudenschildgarage, 02.11.2012
Textblüten, 03.11.2012
Globe M, 09.11.2012
Berlinonline, 02.11.2012
3sat, Kulturzeit, 04.11.2012

fotofever brussels, the first European art fair for contemporary photography and video
After a first acclaimed edition in Paris in November 2011, fotofever followed the European adventure and launched its first edition in Brussels. On this occasion, fotofever takes a stand before the European month of Photography. From Berlin to Madrid, from London to Moscow, the European creation will be in the spotlight.

Berliner Raumpiloten laden ein, neue Räume zu entdecken. Neben dem Betrachten realer Räume, möchten wir dabei auch einer gedanklichen Auseinandersetzung zu neuen Kooperationsmöglichkeiten zwischen Wirtschaft und Kunst Raum geben.

LOCATION: Auguststrasse 35, 10119 Berlin 

WHITECONCEPTS – BERLIN is pleased to present new drawings by Greg Murr. The show’s title, Nature, points not just to the domain of flora and fauna, as conventionally distinguished from humanity. Adorned with material evidence of high society and culture, this collection of drawings addresses a sort of essence or nature typically deemed human, yet fundamentally primal and animal in character. With a keen sense of self-awareness and a nod to good fun, all this is presented in seamless compositions that combine everyday dogs, countless strands of pearls, and other accoutrements leftover from an absent cultural elite.

Watercolors on paper and highly rendered drawings in graphite and acrylic on canvas comprise the approximately fourteen works in the show. All works depict dogs and other various subjects in white spaces. As such, they make reference to incomplete studies in a sketchbook, and likewise remain just vague enough that we can’t definitively pin them to one place, time or context. In one work, a wolf draped in pearls stands before a framework resembling a church’s rosette window or a Buddhist mandala. In another, two dogs wrestle among scattered white flowers. Animated with tangles of pearls, some images might be construed to pose wealth itself as a living entity, growing and unfolding in conjunction with any animal and plant there to bear witness. Together, this selection of finely drawn and surreal works invites us to reevaluate how we define nature with respect to our values and lives today.

German version

WHITECONCEPTS - BERLIN freut sich, zur Ausstellung mit neuen Zeichnungen von Greg Murr einzuladen. Der Titel der Ausstellung „ nature“ verweist nicht nur auf das Gebiet der Flora und Fauna, wie sie üblicherweise der Menschheit gegenübersteht. Ornamentiert mit materiell wertvollen Objekten der Oberschicht, stellt Murrs Sammlung von Zeichnungen eine Art Essenz der Natur des Menschen, mittels verschiedener Aspekte seines Ur- und Tier-Charakters dar. Mit feinem, ironischen Gespür für das menschliche Selbst-Bewusstsein zeigt er nahtlos ineinander übergreifende Kompositionen, die die Alltäglichkeit in Form von Hunden, unzähligen Perlenketten und anderen Requisiten als Überbleibsel einer abwesenden kulturellen Elite kombinieren.

Seine vierzehn Werke, die in der Ausstellung präsentiert werden, umfassen Aquarelle auf Papier und filigrane Zeichnungen in Graphit und Acryl. Alle Arbeiten zeigen bereits zitierte Hunde und verschiedene andere Sujets auf weißem Grund. Damit nehmen sie Bezug auf unvollständige Studien in einem Skizzenbuch und bleiben vage genug, um sie nicht endgültig an einen Ort, eine Zeit oder einen Kontext festzuschreiben. So begegnet uns auf einem Blatt ein Wolf mit Perlen drapiert vor einem Rahmen, der sowohl einem Kirchenrosettenfenster als auch einem buddhistischen Mandala ähnelt. Auf einem anderen ringen zwei Hunde in einem Meer aus verstreuten, weißen Blüten. Dass sich Reichtum als eine lebendige Einheit darstellen lässt, zeigt uns Murr durch die Darstellung von haufenartigen Formen von Perlen. In Verbindung mit vielgestaltigen Tier-und Pflanzenarten lässt er sie auf dem Papier wachsen und sich entfalten. Greg Murrs surreale Werken laden uns zu einer Neubewertung der Definition von Natur ein, vor allem in Bezug auf unsere derzeit gelebten Werte.

The project is curated by Nicole Loeser, Ruth Martius and Katharina Buncke  

08.03.2012 - 11.03.2012

OPENING: 21.01.2012, 19 h

WHITECONCEPTS is proud to present a selection of the Berlin-based Spanish duo’s works under the title, Red Concepts for Right Collectors, a solo exhibition which combines powerful theoretical content with careful formal execution, leading the audience towards social reflection. In many cases, PSJM’s ironic and aesthetic objects belong to larger projects, but now they are presented alone, demonstrating their autonomy as independent artworks and preserving the strength of their meaning. For example, their wallpaper titled, Marx®, refers to a project in which the artists registered a particular wallpaper design as a brand and displayed a full selection of comparably branded products. Likewise, the light-boxes of the censured Project Asia and Made by Kids for Kids series each question the corporate underlying practice of exploiting workers and children in developing nations, and the drawings from a series titled, Struggle, depicts citizens as insignificant individuals fighting against powerful trademarks. You are a commodity, the outcome of a PSJM public intervention in Berlin (2010) will also be shown on the gallery’s wall.
Recently, PSJM was included among the ‘100 Most Represented International Political Artists’ in the book, Art & Agenda / Political Art and Activism  (published by Gestalten, Berlin 2011).
Review By Zitty Magazine, Berlin,  11.01.2012 
Politkunst : Red Concepts For Right Collectors by Michael Nungesser
Review by Neues Deutschland, Berlin, 23.02.2012
Mit den eigenen Waffen by Anouk Meyer

OPENING: 08.09.2011, 6pm
LOCATION: Airport Berlin Tempelhof/Hangar 2/Booth 59, Columbiadamm 10 - 12101 Berlin

Bankrupt states, extreme weather patterns, nuclear accidents, polar ice melt - everything seems to suggest an imminent crash, and one of our own manufacture. Are we too passive in simply putting together economic and aid packages, or can we overcome the apparently vicious cycle? And can art itself serve to form a new position and even create a new vision? Or is art relegated to the confines of commercial enterprise, to the creation of products by which individuals are exalted for a market-savvy one-upmanship?
The End of the Dream features over 30 internationally renowned artists and three co-curators, invited by curator, Nicole Loeser. From 31/08/2011 to 03/09/2011 their work will be installed in a former safe factory in Wedding. In addition to an exhibition of paintings, videos and installations, the program will include performances, artist talks and lectures. 
Realizing the dream of an independent experiment, the goal of the Mica Moca Project-Berlin and now Nicole Loeser is to create a place for utopian dreams and alternate worlds. Wedding is currently in transition; with respect to other parts of Berlin, this ungentrified area with vast offerings of open space is now being bought up and commercialized more and more - plastered figuratively as much as literally. In the end of September the site of this exhibition will also be converted into lofts and offices. Following a sort of rude awakening from the dream of capitalism and the recent months’ market economy, will it be possible for us to dream a new dream?

WHITECONCEPTS is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Chinese artist Michael Zheng in Berlin. From 24 June - 19 August 2011 new photographic works and sculptures next to videos will be exposed in the exhibition "I LOOK TO THE SKY AND MISS THE CEILING".
The performance and conceptual artist studied first computer science at Tsinghua University in China, then moved to San Francisco, where he worked more than 10 years as a software designer in Bay Area / Silicon Valley. After that he decided to study at the San Francisco Art Institute with Paul Kos, Tony Labat and John Roloff. He also studied with Nari Ward and Patty Chang at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.  
His work shows traces of interventionist thinking studying cultural and social dependence on institutional and existential levels. With his conceptual approach, which is steeped in sincerity, absurdity and humor, he creates situations, questioning the established positions so that new perspectives can be experienced. His works are characterized by a performative character and are often shown in the form of photographs, video and sculptural installations.
Exhibitions led the artist already all over the world. In 2010 he had an exhibition at the Marina Abramovic Institute in San Francisco, which is dedicated to profiling and documentation of performance art. In 2009 Michael Zheng was a participant in the Vancouver Biennale in Canada.

LOCATION: Booth H4-L 08, Messeallee 1, 76287 Rheinstetten 

The exhibition explores artistic ideas about the self and strange observation, which has changed enormously with the available digital media.
Questions about the nature of reality are raised and studied in detail, subjective and objective reality.
Are perception and reality actually congruent? Information can hardly even concentrate. Illusion, reality and fiction mingle. How we use reality today?
Targeted monitoring as the surveillance by cameras are received with mixed feelings, what do they really record and who evaluates the data? Is Orwell´s idea of 1984 "big brother is watching you" realized here?
On one hand, private should remain private when it comes not on Google Street View to land. On the other hand, the company secures copyrights. Where we lay a contradiction, and whose data we just delete? In relation to the Internet platform Wikileaks, the question is precisely of what information we need today, and how the collective consciousness form. How can we control our thoughts to hold the actual course of things, if we do not want to subject a permanent illusion? Monitoring as a self-defense or to protect others? The ridge is very narrow.
With electronic media, it is now possible to make data available, thus raising questions for which the international community must find an answer. Because even today, can be manipulated with all available technical achievements opinions and relationships covered up in the small and large scale. The exhibition questions our relationship to it.

LOCATION: Invalidenstraße 42, 10115 Berlin

In cooperation with Gallery Kai Hilgemann, Berlin/DE

Artist Statement

In 2005 I began making pictures using recombined satellite photos. I had been living in New York City for several years and took periodic trips along the Hudson River to points north. In hopes of connecting with the outside world while carrying forward my interest in dynamics, I chose water as my principal building material and subject. I parsed a satellite image of the Hudson into twenty-six pieces and reconfigured its segments, transcribing these individual shapes in pencil onto watercolor paper. The initial result was a vaguely suggestive plant form, every reach of the river overlapping another and growing upward into the white of the page.

The project has expanded to include other rivers, lakes and contours where water meets land. Pictures meant to transform the cartographic into the botanical, and to distill the hydrographic into an essence of dynamism, now unfold into something else. While they retain elements of their origins, these compositions quietly shift, heave and migrate into new territory. It doesn’t so much matter what they do—although any given body of water, when explored through sequential variations, reveals particular tendencies and thus its own identity—but what matters is that the drawings are doing, that they are pictorially active and changing. Through their vitality, these pictures illustrate the otherwise imperceptible flux beneath and around us, be that our changing climate or a slow geological / cosmological evolution whose time-scale is hard to grasp at best. These drawings both record their source and present themselves as meditations on dynamism. They intend to remind us that change is endless and everywhere, and that it doesn’t stop at the limits of our perception.

Cities of flux are places of infinite possibilities. They begin as infinite chaos. They occur at the birth of a nation: post war Tokyo or New York, during 1860, during the steam boat era or present day Beijing are examples. In these cities we can test philosophy and reality. Here, when we make an intervention the stakes are higher than in a stable city, the repercussions greater. Within these cities of flux, we find rapidly changing social structures and built environments with no clear direction. And, in them it is not enough tomerely describe and document, but rather it is important to find tools for acting in them. Ideas from Europe and America which have been for a long time useful in the city, no longer fit comfortably with the reality of Asia´s mega cities. By testing it and by intervening into it, what might we learn from the city of flux? By living in it.

08.04.2010 - 05.06.2010

TimeZones
Edward Mapplethorpe (USA)
18.10.2008 – 10.11.2008
In cooperation with Ketterer Kunst Berlin