Michael Werner Gallery is pleased to present BLACK SWAN, an exhibition of sculpture organized by Los Angeles-based artists Aaron Curry and Thomas Houseago. The exhibition includes major sculptures by Joseph Beuys, Frederick Kiesler, Antonius Höckelmann, Jörg Immendorff, Markus Lüpertz, Per Kirkeby and A.R. Penck, as well as new works created by the curators specifically for BLACK SWAN.
BLACK SWAN is a purely visual exploration of the unexpected and often subtle relationships that can arise between young artists and their historic antecedents. For BLACK SWAN, Aaron Curry and Thomas Houseago selected works by a number of their artistic heroes and created works of their own in response to these selections. The result is a playful juxtaposition of sculpture celebrating the ways artists engage in dialogue across generations and cultures. BLACK SWAN heightens the interrelation of past and present and renders meaningless the tired distinctions between 'old'and 'new' The received language of irony and of all that is 'hip'in the art of today is discarded in favor of a new approach to art steeped in visual and tactile experience. BLACK SWAN emphatically demonstrates the notion that the 'white cube'is merely a pedestal to place something on.
Aaron Curry was born in San Antonio in 1972. He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Art Center College of Design, Pasadena. Recent solo exhibitions include Another Language at Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Berlin and Bank Robber at David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles. Last fall Aaron Curry debuted a new body of work at Michael Werner Gallery's London project space. His first solo museum exhibition opens later this month at the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, CA. Thomas Houseago was born in Leeds in 1972. He studied at St. Martin's School of Art, London, and De Ateliers, Amsterdam. Recent solo exhibitions include Bastards at Herald St., London, and A Million Miles Away at The Modern Institute, Glasgow. Thomas Houseago. I Am Here, a survey of his sculptures from 1995-2003, was presented in 2003 at S.M.A.K., Gent, Belgium.
BLACK SWAN is Michael Werner Gallery's fourth exhibition in its temporary London space, located in an historic Robert Adam house in the city's West End. BLACK SWAN is open by appointment. For more information please contact Jason Duval at +1 212 988 1623 or jason@michaelwerner.com.