Johannes Kahrs at Luhring Augustine, New York, Oct 11 - Nov 8

Exhibition Description:

Luhring Augustine will be exhibiting new paintings and drawings by Johannes Kahrs. This is the German artist's first solo exhibition at the gallery and his debut in the United States. These recently completed works, continue his interest in rendering images culled from news publications, documentary photography, film stills and his own personal archive.

Kahrs has chosen photography and video as his source material, because it forces the viewer to grapple with the inherent ambiguity of these media that often distort reality and lend false authenticity to the events depicted. The images he has selected feature physically confrontational, highly sexualized, political, and even violent subject matter.

By intentionally removing crucial facts and distinguishing markers, this artist creates a new and suggestive take on the original material that allows him to broach difficult subjects in a detached yet wholly subjective manner.

Rather than exploiting the viewer's immediate emotional reaction to these recorded events and stills, Kahrs explores selective visual nuances of these incidents by blurring, cropping and distorting the source imagery to dissociate it from its original context. The figures depicted become passive subjects and the violence of the original images is channeled through the voyeurism of the viewer's gaze.

Johannes Kahrs (b.1965 in Bremen, Germany) currently lives and works in Berlin. His work is resident in numerous prestigious museums and institutions worldwide. He has had recent solo exhibitions at GAMeC, Bergamo, Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London, and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin and the Painting of Modern Life exhibition curated by Ralph Rugoff for the Hayward Gallery in London.

Description:

Johannes Kahrs
Untitled (three men standing), 2007
Oil on canvas
15 3/8 X 37 1/4 inches
(39.2 X 94.5 cm)

Full Contact Details:

Luhring Augustine
531 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
Tel: 1-212-206-9100
Fax: 1-212-206-9055
info (at) luhringaugustine.com

Gallery Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday, 10am - 6pm
July/August summer hours:
Monday - Friday, 10am - 5:30pm