MUNICH.- Häusler Contemporary is presenting the third solo exhibition of Alejandra Seeber in Munich. The Argentinean painter, known for her refreshing use of the traditional medium, presents selected works of the past two years and embeds them in a vast, painterly concept that was created especially for the gallery.
In her paintings, artist Alejandra Seeber (*1968, Buenos Aires, AR, lives in New York, US) explores the painterly possibilities between figuration and abstraction in her paintings. Their ambivalent imagery cannot be decoded on a linear path, since in her colorful shining paintings, out of nonrepresentational elements, narrative references suddenly emerge. There are allusions to subjects that dissolve instantly into expressive chromaticity and gestural dynamics. These dichotomies and the encounter of different motives let her works become many-faceted and surprising.
Seeber’s new exhibition at Häusler Contemporary Munich is called »Rather Ripped« and includes works from the past two years. With the title, the artist refers to the overall design concept, which was created especially for our gallery space: rags are ripped off the wallpaper so that flat, pointed reliefs like stalactites remain which will be transformed by the artist into a all connectional wall painting. For the first time Seeber had realized such a wall work with wallpaper scraps in 2003, and it seemed like a hint of fate when the American rock band Sonic Youth published an album shortly afterwards called »Rather Ripped«. The name of her exhibition with us thus also emphasizes this important step in her artistic work.
In this impressive, cave-like setting, Seeber presents among others her latest series of works, »Taxi« and »Knitt«. The paintings in the »Taxi« series are dynamic, colorful and, as is often the case with Seeber, characterized by different pictorial elements. In most of the works from this series a part-brick wall appears, giving support to the otherwise freely floating motifs: water, a hint of sea landscapes, fruits, naked bodies or pink colored, amorphous planes that are readable as a reminiscence of the skin. The artist also interweaves graphic and painterly elements in this series.
In contrast to these expressive compositions, she presents a systematic approach in the »Knitt« series: Selected older works are recycled and become new backgrounds as the artist overlays them with a regular, comprehensive »knitting pattern«. The underlaid motifs made unrecognizable appear here and there between the »knit stitches«, producing hints of narratives - »as if from the unconscious, from the past,« says the artist.
Held together by the landscape-like mural, the exhibition offers a representative overview of Seeber's current work and illustrates the characteristic power, diversity and innovation of her painterly approach.
Alejandra Seeber's work is regularly shown in international solo and group exhibitions. The artist became widely known for her contribution to the Mercosul Biennial in Porto Alegre (BR, 2009) and her participation in the important painting exhibition «Ambigu» of the Kunstmuseum St.Gallen (2010). In 2017 she was prominently represented in the exhibition «Ultramar: Fontana, Kuitca, Seeber, Tessi» of the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza in Madrid. An extensive monograph on her work will be published at Hatje Cantz Publishers in January 2019 and will be presented in the context of our exhibition. Well-known collections such as the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires, the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich, the AlexanderTutsek Stiftung in Munich or the private collection of Eduardo Costantini in Buenos Aires have works by Alejandra Seeber.
