September 22, 2022–January 8, 2023
The exhibition at Kunsthaus Graz charts the evolution of the interfaces between graphic design, media images, and art since 1971 and centers on the explosive phrase “Fake.” It represents both political upheavals and technical advancements and includes pieces by Rosemarie Trockel, Gerwald Rockenschaub, and Signe Pierce, among others. Faking the Real investigates the issue of reality modification and illustrates a development from interventions in public spaces to social media. The exhibition is a component of the expansive special exhibition The Art of Enticement, which explores 100 years of poster and graphic design from various angles.
Graphic designers and artists have employed the themes of selling, manipulating, and celebrating simultaneously, particularly in the previous few decades. They are increasingly obvious influences on one another—not just in appropriation but also in self-assured affirmation. Apart from technology advancements, commercial graphics and art in its mirror are particularly driven by material advancements. The possibilities for surface designs are nearly limitless thanks to digital planning programs. The first image editing programs, which originated in collage, encouraged avant-garde artists like John Baldessari to create fluid image montages. From the 1980s onward, they also encouraged the first generation of digital artists, such as Peter Kogler, Thomas Bayrle, and Sylvia Eckermann, to produce ever-larger graphics that expanded spatially. The analogue and digital worlds are interactively combined by very contemporary art movements, such as Christiane Peschek and Hito Steyerl, who is currently showing a solo exhibition in Space01 at the Kunsthaus. These movements also create the unseen and inseparable union of the two worlds. This is a brand-new way of asking the question of the “applied” as something subtly alluring, distant, calculated, and controlled by an invisible hand.
With works by Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola, John Baldessari, Thomas Bayrle, Lynda Benglis, Gottfried Bechtold, Beni Bischof, Monica Bonvicini, BLESS, Boris Bućan, Daniele Buetti, Chris Burden, Teresa Burga, Judy Chicago, fierce pussy, Sylvie Fleury, Sylvia Eckermann, John Gerrard, Jochen Gerz, Manuel Gorkiewicz, G.R.A.M., Guerrilla Girls, Rachel Harrison, Thomas Hirschhorn, Robert Indiana, Johanna Jaskowska, Šejla Kamerić, Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, Peter Kogler, Isabella Kohlhuber, Brigitte Kowanz, Sonia Leimer, Otto Mittmannsgruber/Martin Strauss, Susan Mogul, Sarah Morris, museum in progress, ORLAN, Julian Opie, Christiane Peschek, Alli Coates und Signe Pierce, Pierre et Gilles, Sophie Reinhold, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Michael Schuster, Elfie Semotan, Cindy Shermann, Katharina Sieverding, Lucie Stahl, Hito Steyerl, Sturtevant, Total Refusal, Jochen Traar, Rosemarie Trockel, Piotr Uklanski, Amalia Ulman, Maja Vukoje, Peter Weibel, Bernhard Wolf, Christopher Wool, Zentrum für Politische Schönheit, Dragana Žarevac, Heimo Zobernig and others, and an overview of 50 years of poster development at steirischer herbst.
In the framework of steirischer herbst ’22.
Kunsthaus Graz
Lendkai 1
8020 Graz
Austria
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