Wild Painting

Somebody shot the exhibition’s text with an arrow. It is now stuck to the wall. This archaic gesture marks the entrance to Grimmuseum’s new show. In fact, the works of the Norwegian artist Ingvild Hovland Kaldal and Städel student Alfred Boman that curator Jonatan Ahlm Brenander has gathered here are quite wild. Kaldal’s pieces and found objects sport a mostly arte povera like look, while Boman’s colourful paintings and installations mix colours and shapes of all kinds. Remains this odd vague feeling of familiarity to resolve. It is part of the concept: The show is entitled »Post-war and Contemporary« and asks itself what art of this era needs to be like. In the curator’s opinion, a “hermaphroditic union” of opposites. The result is a crazy show with archaic and hippie like elements – a real feast for the eyes of those who are fed up with minimalism, impalpable and wild like its thematic focus.

In Grimmuseum, the show has found a perfect host. This turn of the century apartment ensemble is itself a union of just about everything possible in a project space: a non commercial platform for visual, performance and sound art, interdisciplinary, experimental, and run solely by artists parallel to their own artistic production under the direction of Enrico Centonze. Since the beginning of 2010, Grimmuseum has organized interesting events like listening salons, performance dinners, and hosted several “pigs” events (an independent art space guide launched in June 2010 by Grim co initiator Despina Stokou) like speed portfolio viewings and curators’ battles.

This week Grimmuseum hosts FITAX1500, an art tradeshow without the involvement of money in cooperation with the Dutch artist group Tupajumi Foundation. Art pieces with an approximate value of 1500 Euros can be traded this Sunday after prior registration. A perfect opportunity for those looking for “an alternative way of wheeling and dealing art during the artfair week” – or for those who are unhappy with their buys on other fairs.

»Post-war and Contemporary« is on view until September 18th, 2011. FITAX1500 works are on view starting today and will be traded on September 11th. Sign up here: http://www.tupajumi.com/fitaxberlin/


Credit: Ingvild Hovland Kaldal and Alfred Boman, Post-war and Contemporary © Laura Gianetti 2011