Gabriel Orozco (b. 1962)

CONTEMPORARY ART AT THE TURN OF THE MILLENNIUM: A SELECTION OF WORKS FROM A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION

A collection of contemporary art exploring contemporary horizons of painting, photography, and the intersections between the two. From the poetic Abstract Expressionist inheritance of Jimmie Durham and Bjarne Melgaard to the cool architectural eye of Candida Höfer, the collection bears witness to a carefully curated spectrum of international postmodern imagery. The conceptual camerawork of Thomas Demand sits potently alongside photography translated to painting in the work of Koen van den Broek; the philosophical poise of acclaimed Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco offsets Kyle Thurman’s joyful alchemy of flower pigments. Highlighting the collection’s technological edge, Michael Riedel’s serigraphy investigates the inner workings of a Powerpoint slideshow, capturing the essence of the moment between clicks, while Darren Almond tracks time and space through a photographic performance piece. Similarly process-oriented is the tight sequential minimalism of Nathan Hylden, following strict cinematographic codes. The vibrant worlds of modern image production and reproduction are appraised in vivid variety, unified by a keen sense of pictorial power.

Widely considered the single most influential Mexican artist of his generation, it was in 1995 that Gabriel Orozco was invited by Hans Ulricht Olbrist and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville of Paris to take part in Migrateurs. For this exhibition Orozco filled two mateless socks with papier-mâché to create deceptively organic forms. This strategy would be used later on when working on his series Galaxy Pots (2002) and Spumes (2003). It is this technique that Orozco uses for the object juxtaposed with the statue’s foot in this first edition cibachrome image Socks I. The two share a closer relationship than might first appear; with the foot easily mistaken for a vegetable, Orozco plays visual tricks on the viewer by disrupting and dislocating the perceived connection been signified and signifier. He treats the statue as a readymade, photographing it with the papier-mâché sock to create a humorous chance encounter between the two forms.