29 February – 3 May, 2008
Exhibition
Opening Friday, February 29th, 6-8pm
Spencer Brownstone Gallery is proud to present a solo exhibition of new work by Munich based sculptor Martin Wöhrl, the artist’s first exhibition in the United States.
Wöhrl’s wide-ranging practice routinely incorporates reinterpreted motifs and strategies drawn from the history of art, architecture, and design, and is characterized by an elliptical skirting of the borders between form and function. Often using found objects or materials sourced form budget DIY and hardware stores, the artist has crafted elevated minimalist platforms that can be enjoyed as sculpture - or used as stages or seating. He has produced a series of fish tanks modeled on utopian modernist housing, and standing lamps from recycled junk. His ongoing ‘Gloriole’ decorative wall works fashion baroque radiating halos from discarded shards of wood left on his workshop floor.
For his exhibition at Spencer Brownstone Gallery, Wöhrl presents several new ‘Gloriole’ pieces alongside works specially created in-situ at the gallery. Springing from the art historical concept of ‘Kontrapost’, the works are orchestrated as a series of unfolding dialectical ‘conversations’. The exhibition’s centerpieces will be architectural structures in the form of columns, and two major new pieces constructed from old wooden doors that have been carved, using power tools, into a large heraldic wall work, and a freestanding 'billboard' featuring disassembled brand lettering.
The handcrafted detailing and sensitivity to color and patina sets the artist’s work apart from much contemporary critical discourse on the relationship between art and design. Wöhrl’s work ultimately offers a more rich, inclusive traversal of our shifting definitions of the aesthetic and the functional.
Artist Bio
Martin Wöhrl was born in Munich, Germany, in 1974 and studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in the city before completing his studies at Glasgow School of Art through a DAAD Fellowship in 2002. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘New Works’ at Villa Concordia, Bamberg, and ‘Papa Bifi’ at Atelier Wilhelmstraße 16 e.V., Stuttgart, as well as several solo exhibitions at Sprüth/Magers Projekte, Munich. The artist has participated in group exhibitions at venues internationally, including Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico-City; 4th Berlin Biennial; W139, Amsterdam; and Lenbachhaus, Munich.