Imagine a land full of swamps emitting suffocatingly sweet scents in the heat. The air is thick with poisonous substances left over after the party, which involved snorting and getting high on the lusciousness of the Earth. The intoxicating dance of consuming degenerates into entropy. Rhizomatic connections happen underground, underwater, and in the air. Algorithms mimic natural growth. Cells permutate and exchange. The senses are overloaded with the magical and the exotic, while we wonder about a nature after nature.
‘This jungle was very thick and tall and lived mostly on dead seaweed and rotten fish. It grew as high as possible, and where it stopped it was met by sallow, rowan, and alder branches that bent down as far as they could reach. Walking between them with your arms outstretched was like swimming. Bird-cherry and rowan, especially rowan, smell like cat piss when they’re in bloom.’ – Tove Jansson, The Cave
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* Rowena Harris’ video, After Attenborough, has been commissioned as part of the exhibition Tropical Hangover. For this occasion, the floor of the gallery has been painted ‘chroma-key blue’, and functions as a special effects screen in the film for a digitised, post-produced nature.
Salvatore Arancio (b. 1974 Catania IT), lives and works in London. He received his MA in Fine Art Photography from the Royal College of Art, London in 2005. His works range across various media such as ceramics, sculpture, collage, photography, animation and video. He looks to nature and science for his sources of inspiration, his constructed landscapes contain a sense of both the familiar and the unknown that enhances their symbolic readings and implications.
Selected solo and group exhibitions: Viva Arte Viva, 57th Venice Biennale IT(2017); Evolutionary Travels, Foundación Arte, Buenos Aires AR; Travelling Circular Labyrinths, Museo Civico di Castelbuono, Castelbuono, Palermo IT; Oh Mexico! Kunsthalle Winterthur CH; Teleonomy, Cafe Oto, London UK (all 2016); Fashioned to a Device Behind a Tree, Camden Arts Centre, London UK; The London Open 2015, Whitechapel Gallery, London UK; Une Taxonomie des Sens et des Formes, Centre d’art contemporain La Halle des bouchers, Vienne FR; Project 09: Salvatore Arancio, Contemporary Art Society, London UK; The First Humans, Pump House Gallery, London UK (all 2015); Birds, Cinéphémère, FIAC, Paris FR; The Hidden, Ensapc Ygrec, Paris FR; Cathedral, AV Festival, Northern Gallery For Contemporary Art, Sunderland UK (all 2014); Curiosity: Art & the Pleasure of Knowing, Hayward Touring UK (2013-2014); Cyclorama, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City MX (2013); The Cosmos, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge UK (2012); An Arrangement of the Materials Ejected, Spacex, Exeter UK; Vedere un oggetto, vedere la luce / To See an Object to See a Light, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Guarene d’Alba IT (both 2011); SI Sindrome Italiana, Magasin-Centre National d’Art contemporain de Grenoble FR; Catastrophe? Quelle Catastrophe!, Manif D’Art 5, The Quebec City Biennal, Engramme, Quebec City CA (2010); I Giovani Che Visitano Le Nostre Rovine Non Vi Vedono Che Uno Stile, GAM – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin IT; Sentinel, Kaleidoscope Project Space, Milan IT (both 2009).
Selected residencies include CCA Andratx, Andratx SP (2016); Ceramics Fellowship, Camden Arts Centre, London UK (2014/2015); Résidences Internationales aux Recollets, Paris FR (2013); Art Omi, New York US (2011); EKWC: European Ceramic WorkCentre, SG ‘s-Hertogenbosch NL (2012); Wysing Arts Center, Cambridge UK (2012); Museo Carlo Zauli, Faenza IT (2012), ISCP, New York US (2009). He was awarded The Elephant Trust Grant, London, the Premio ‘New York’ in 2009 and was selected for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2006.
Zuzanna Czebatul (b. 1986 Miedzyrzecz PL) lives and works in Berlin DE. She attended the MFA Hunter College, New York US in 2015, and graduated from Städelschule Frankfurt in 2013. Her practice includes a wide range of media, and is enhanced by the use of space. Her works blur the lines between commercial product, architectural relic and artistic production.
Selected solo exhibitions include: 38 Pitt Street, New York US; Palace of Modern Art Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw PL (both 2017); Ellipsism, Piktogram, Warsaw PL; A Fruity Mechanical Treat, Schmidt & Handrup Cologne DE (both 2016); A Gentleman’s Insult / A Gentleman’s Apology, Gillmeier Rech, Berlin DE; Songs Of Convenience And Melancholy, Bad Reputation, Los Angeles US and Opus Sectile, MINI/Goethe-Institut, New York US (all 2015); Fab Gath -with Oona von Maydell ,Chez Michel, Berlin DE and Viridescent Nervure, Gillmeier Rech, Berlin DE (both 2013). Selected group exhibitions include: Small, Galerie Sexauer Berlin DE and Picha/Bilder, Collectors Room, Berlin DE (both upcoming 2017); GMT + 1, Platform, Stockholm SE; Nic O Was Bez Naz and Not Fair, Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw, PL; Trans Sculpture, Funkhaus, Berlin DE; The Art of the Matter, Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis US (all 2016); A Perfect Lie, Galerie Jeanroch Dard, Bruxelles BE; Caught In The Act, KRYIA3000, New York US (all 2015); Stoneroses, Center, Berlin DE (2014); Say My Name, Say My Name, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt DE; Influence, 1m3, Lausanne CH; Mille Feuillets III, YGREC, Paris FR (both 2013).
Czebatul was selected for One Fine Day e.V. Artist Project, Nairobi, Kenya 2016; SOMA Scholarship México City MX in 2015; Fulbright Scholarship in 2014; Rundgang Award Frankfurter Rentenbank e.V. Städelschule in 2010, Sculpture Award Grünes Kreuz e.V. Städelmuseum Frankfurt DE in 2009, and Scholarship by Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, 2007-2013.
Rowena Harris (b. 1985, Norfolk UK) lives and works in London. She graduated from the MFA Fine Art course at Goldsmiths College, London UK in 2010 and holds a BA (hons) in Fine Art from University College Falmouth UK since 2008. She uses materiality to instigate an exploration of the relationship between individuals and concrete artefacts, in an increasingly digitised environment.
Solo shows include: The Third Hand Prosthesis, Object A Gallery, Manchester UK; Being both on and within, as I said, The Gallery Apart, Rome IT (2015); P.A.R.T.S, Coleman Project Space, London UK (2013); Believing in Things, Van Horbourg Gallery, Basel CH (2011). Selected group shows are: A Symptom of Objects, Supercollider, Blackpool, UK; Say What?, ASC Gallery, London UK; Left Hand to Back of Head, Object Held Against Right Thigh, The Bluecoat, Liverpool UK (all 2016); The Place of the Scene, Bloc Projects, Sheffield UK; Artissima with The Gallery Apart, Turin IT; Conversation Piece, Part 1, Fondazione Memmo, Rome IT; And so we gape (solo public performance), curated by Nero, Rome IT (all 2015); Chronovisor: Archive, South Kiosk, London UK (2014); The Starseed Transmission, Enclave Projects, London UK; Hack the Barbican, The Barbican, London UK; Open Cube, The White Cube, London UK (all 2013); Cold Compress, Drei Gallery, Cologne DE; Punctuating (duo show), La Scatola Gallery, London UK (both 2012); Site of Flesh and Stone, Çağdaş Galeri, Istanbul TR (2011); To Look is to Labour, Laden Fuer Nichts, Leipzig DE (2010).
Recent residencies and awards include The Sainsbury’s Scholar in Sculpture at The British School at Rome IT in 2014-15; Atelier Salzamt Residency, Linz AT in 2013, and New Contemporaries, UK in 2010.
Laure Prouvost (b. 1978 Lille FR) lives and works in London and Antwerp. She attended an MFA at Goldsmiths College in 2010. Selected awards include: The International Critics’ Prize (FIPRESCI Prize), Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Oberhausen DE in 2016, Turner Prize in 2013, Max Mara Prize for Women in 2011.
Selected recent solo exhibitions include: Para/Fictions, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam NL (upcoming 2017); AND SHE WILL SAY: HI HER, AILLEURS, TO HIGHER GROUNDS…, Kunstmuseum Luzern CH; GDM-Grandad Visitor Center, Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan IT; ALL BEHIND, WE’LL GO DEEPER, DEEP DOWN AND SHE WILL SAY:, MMK, Frankfurt DE; DROPPED HERE AND THEN, TO LIVE, LEAVE IT ALL BEHIND, FRAC / Consortium Dijon FR; Into all is here, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing CN; C’est l’est not ouest, State of Concept, Athens GR; A Way To Leak, Lick, Leek, Fahrenheit, Los Angeles US (all 2016); We would be floating away from the dirty past, DER ÖFFENTLICHKEIT: Laure Prouvost, Haus Der Kunst, Munich DE; Dear dirty dark drink drift down deep droll (in der dole), carlier | gebauer, Berlin DE; Laure Prouvost: It, Heat, Hit, e-flux, New York US; Burrow Me, Rupert, Vilnius LT (all 2015); Laure Prouvost, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin DE; While You Weren’t Looking, Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico City, MX; The Meeting, MOT International, Brussels BE; Polpomotorino, Morra Greco Foundation, Naples IT; For Forgetting, New Museum, New York US (all 2014); Max Mara Art Prize for Women, Whitechapel Gallery, London UK and Reggio Emilia IT; Laure Prouvost / Adam Chodzko, Tate Britain, London UK; Display: Laure Prouvost, Contemporary Art Society, London UK (all 2013). Selected group exhibitions include: The Mexican Time – Slip, Museo Espacio, Aguascalientes MX; Art Night London, London UK; The People’s Cinema, Salzburger Kunstverein Salzberg AU; National Gallery Prague, Prague CZ; Practising habits of the day, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore SG; FOUND, Foundling Museum, London UK (all 2016); Spirit Your Mind, Chalet Society, Free Spirit Sport Bar, Miami US; The British Art Show, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds UK (and touring); Hybridize or Disappear, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Lisbon PT; Rituels, répétitions, contraintes, tentations, Musee Regional d’Art Contemporain, Languedoc-Roussillon FR (all 2015); 58th BFI London Film Festival, London UK; The Influence of Furniture on Love, Wysing Arts Center, Cambridge UK; Mirrorcity, Hayward Gallery, London UK; The Great Acceleration, Taipei Biennial, TW; More Real Than Reality Itself, Contemporary Art Museum Houston, US; Art Basel Unlimited, Basel CH; Attention Economy, Kunsthalle Wien AU; Resonance(s), Maison Particulière, Brussels BE (all 2014).
Suzanne Treister (b.1958 London UK) studied at St Martin’s School of Art, London (1978-1981) and Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (1981-1982) based in London having lived in Australia, New York and Berlin. Initially recognized in the 1980s as a painter, she became a pioneer in the digital/new media/web based field from the beginning of the 1990s, making work about emerging technologies, developing fictional worlds and international collaborative organisations.
Recent solo exhibitions and events include: HFT The Gardener, P.P.O.W., New York US; HFT The Gardener, Annely Juda Fine Art, London UK; HFT The Gardener, Exhibition Research Lab (ERL)/Liverpool Biennial 2016, Liverpool UK (all 2016); HEXEN 2.0, Fig-2, ICA, London UK; Post-Surveillance Art, Acting Out festival, Primary, Nottingham UK; Rosalind Brodsky’s Electronic Time Travelling Costumes, Schaufenster am Hofgarten, Kunstverein München Munich DE; HEXEN 2.0, Aksioma Project Space, Ljubljana SL (all 2015); Event: Post-Surveillance Art, Chisenhale Gallery, London UK; Post-Surveillance Art, Maggs Bookshop, London UK; Supper for Snowden, Supper Club, Die AU café/restaurant, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna AT (all 2014); In The Name of Art and Other Works , Annely Juda Fine Art, London UK; HEXEN 2.0, Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA), Cleveland, Ohio UK; HEXEN 2.0, P.P.O.W, New York US; Grimoir du Futur, Espace Multimédia Gantner, Bourogne RF (all 2013); THE REAL TRUTH A WORLD’S FAIR, Raven Row, London UK; HEXEN 2.0, D21 Kunstraum, Leipzig DE; HEXEN 2.0, Hartware MedienKunstverein, Dortmund DE; HEXEN 2.0, Science Museum, London UK(all 2012). Selected group shows are: The World Without Us, Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV), Dortmund DE; The Museum of Rhythm, Muzeum Sztuki ms1, Lodz PL; You Say You Want a Revolution: Records & Rebels 1966-70, Victoria and Albert Museum, London UK; Hailweed, Auto Italia, London UK (all 2016); Espace 315, Centre Pompidou, Paris FR; Infosphere, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe DE; De Dingen en De Materialen/Things and Materials: Glass, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam NL; RARE EARTH, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary-Augarten, Vienna AT (all 2015); Social Factory: 10th Shanghai Biennale CH; L’avenir (looking forward), 8th Biennale de Montréal CA (both 2014).