You don’t bring me flowers ( + Mistress Project ) – Groupshow
Tom Anholt, Kevin Baker, Donald Baechler, Amy Bessone, Maya Bloch, Matt Bollinger, Ann Craven, Jared Deery, Baris Gokturk, MacGregor Harp, Vera Iliatova, Max Janson, Egill Kalevi, Doron Langberg, Alissa McKendrick, Aliza Nisenbaum, Giacinto Occhionero, Nadia Haji Omar, Jennifer Packer, Jennifer Steinkamp etc.
68projects opens our third exhibition in frigid, wintry temperatures with three interlinked exhibitions devoted to flowers and love.
Exhibition 1: Much like still life paintings or individual portraits, flowers might appear too antique as a possible subject for art, especially during a period when art is generated from any idea or the absence of an idea.
Exhibition 2: The Garden of Eden represents innocence, a time before our existence and is lodged deep into the western cultural consciousness. It is also a confusing, mythical place.
Exhibition 3: A mistress is a complicated figure. At first glimpse, she seems pathetic or delusional with the constant longing, undying patience and commitment to an unavailable man who schedules and habitually cancels visits. Society is too quick to judge a mistress, and it is easy to take a high moral stance regarding other people’s affairs.
Exhibition 1
Much like still-life paintings or individual portraits, flowers may seem too antique as a subject for contemporary art—particularly in a period when art can be generated from any idea, or even from the absence of an idea. Yet more than 20 artists affirm the enduring possibilities of the flower and demonstrate how one of the most academic assignments can remain engaging and relevant.
Through paintings of a single stem, mixed bouquets and arrangements destined for special occasions, Exhibition 1 reminds us how deeply we love flowers—and flower paintings—for their energy, emotion, communicative power, memory and sensual awakening of the senses.
Participating artists:
Tom Anholt, Kevin Baker, Donald Baechler, Amy Bessone, Maya Bloch, Matt Bollinger, Ann Craven, Jared Deery, Baris Gokturk, MacGregor Harp, Vera Iliatova, Max Janson, Egill Kalevi, Doron Langberg, Alissa McKendrick, Aliza Nisenbaum, Giacinto Occhionero, Nadia Haji Omar, Jennifer Packer, Jennifer Steinkamp, and others.
Exhibition 2
The Garden of Eden represents innocence—a time before our existence—and is deeply embedded in Western cultural consciousness. It is also an elusive and contradictory mythical place. Did Eve bite into an apple or a quince? Apples would not have been in season—so why is Eden so lush and verdant in our collective imagination?
This imagined paradise exists in a web of details, theological debates, the Book of Genesis, John Milton, and even random references on shampoo bottles and fragrant soaps in supermarket aisles. Enter Thomas Greb, an internationally renowned and award-winning floral artist and innovator of interiors. Living in a cabin in the woods an hour from Berlin, Greb engages in a project of reinvention, repurposing found objects and assigning them new meanings.
Artistic director Quang Bao hands over one of the exhibition spaces entirely to Greb for an installation responding to a single prompt: What does the Garden of Eden look like to you?
Exhibition 3
A mistress is a complex and often misunderstood figure. At first glance, she may seem delusional or pitiful—defined by longing, patience and devotion to an unavailable partner who schedules and cancels visits with habitual indifference. Society is quick to judge, taking a moral high ground regarding other people’s affairs.
While it may appear well-intentioned to warn her of the emotional imbalance, the mistress is often left with no acceptable alternative for love. Exhibition 3 pays homage to the woman who rises each day filled with hope that a bouquet of flowers will arrive at her doorstep, accompanied by a note promising a happy-ever-after.
This interdisciplinary mixed-media exhibition includes artist-designed T-shirts by Alberto Fregenal, sculpture by Esmeralda Kosmatopoulos with real-time confessions streamed through 68projects’ website, three broken-hearted abstract paintings by Márton Nemes, and text-based artworks including “dicKtionary – because men suck.”
