Zhivago Duncan: Dick Flash’s Souvenirs of Thought
21 January – 12 March 2011
Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin
ww.cfa-berlin.com

The title for Zhivago Duncan’s first solo exhibition with Contemporary Fine Arts originated from a misunderstanding between us when debating the nature and purpose of art. I said that art is the “souvenir of thought” but he heard “souvenir of God.” We both preferred our versions. The fact that he has graciously acquiesced is only a small reason why I endorse this show – the rest of my enthusiasm generates from Duncan’s grand wit, warm world view and energizing work. The Berlin-based artist’s sculptures, paintings and installations express vast vim, zest and lots of thought.





Harf Zimmermann Curated by Naroska
21 January – 5 March, 2011
Pool Galerie Berlin
pool-gallery.com

Marc Naroska, co-founder of C/O Berlin, curates a collection of images by photographer Harf Zimmermann of specimens from the 4-million strong butterfly collection in the Berlin Museum of Natural History. Zimmermann’s large-format images offer glorious insights into the butterflies themselves and the fascinating culture around their collection and presentation. The creatures’ compelling corpses are full of texture, color and hauntingly false vitality.

Peter K. Koch: The Construction of Destruction
29 January – 5 March 2011
Berlin
kuckei-kuckei.de

Peter K. Koch’s hard-edged, high-gloss abstract paintings and sculptures overlap resemble the “Blam” exclamations in vintage cartoons. His electric color and sharp, distorted, forms are cheerful. “The Construction of Destruction” is an overly intellectual title for the eye-popping art-works, which generate delight outside conceptual foundation.





Cornelia Renz
29 January – 5 March 2011
CREAM Berlin
www.creamcontemporary.com

Bosch, Brueghel, Goya and Max Ernst inspire Cornelia Renz’s cornucopias of color, eroticism, drama and turbulent creatures. The German artist collages rich, unique, mythological scenes and then paints them with acrylics on panels of pressed glass. Renz’s creatures are fraught amalgamations of references. They are mixtures of humans and animals whose vibrant, often violent, scenes symbolize the issues timelessly tormenting and fascinating us.





Mathis Collins: Works with cork
4 February – 16 April 2011
PSM Berlin
www.psm-gallery.com

Cork is rarely a comic or thought-provoking material but Mathis Collins’ performance/sculpture “Cork Head’ was both. The performance last year in Paris involved the young Metz-based artist pushing a cut-out painted head across a gallery floor, as if he were an artist dragging his massively inflated ego around the exhibition space. For his first exhibition at PSM galerie, he will revisit the medium.

Charif Benhelima: Harlem On My Mind
5 February – 5 March 2011
Galerie Michael Janssen Berlin
www.galeriemichaeljanssen.de

Brussels is very far from Harlem in all respects. Yet photographer Charif Benhelima created both series “Welcome to Belgium” and “Harlem On My Mind”. After living in Harlem between 1999-2002, the Belgian artist accumulated a series of images of striking black-and-white documentary images of Harlem’s dynamic and historically loaded inhabitants and atmosphere. The telling imagery reveals Benhelima sense of disorientation and quest for his identity.





Goran Trbuljak: Monochrome & Monogram
5 February – 23 April 2011
Berlin
www.gregorpodnar.com

Goran Trbuljak, the celebrated Croatian cinematographer and graphic artist, will present his second solo exhibition of wry conceptual art at the Berlin-branch of Galerija Gregor Podnar. Although he is a noted success in multiple fields, his art is compellingly self-depricating. A typical title is “The total number of persons who have attended the openings of all my individual exhibitions (those who have attended more than one opening have been counted once).” This sculpture was created in 2004 but a future version will surely have swelled deservingly.





Bridget Riley
2 February – 16 April 2011
Galerie Max Hetzler
Berlin
www.maxhetzler.com

Brigitte Riley’s iconic palette and her leaf-like forms are reminiscent of Henri Matisse’s mature collages. Her iconic Op Art paintings from the early 1960s and recent work series consists of undulating, geometric, solid-colored shapes. Her optical pyrotechnics contact simple and pure colors that convey strong emotions and powerful energy.





Peter Rösel
12 February – 12 March 2011
Loock Galerie
Berlin
www.loock-galerie.de

Peter Rösel breaks ordinary things and uses the shattered remains to create fresh art. The Berlin-based artist’s uncanny sculptures are apparently banal but bright and bizarre. For a past exhibition at Loock Galerie, he stitched police uniforms into potted fabric plants. He recently linked two phonebooks, one from 1941 and another from 1945, and crafted work playfully illustrating the horror of Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation. His current exhibition will sew together new disconnected threads into remarkable patterns.





Peter Piller
18 February – 15 Apr 2011
Barbara Wien Wilma Lukatsch
Berlin
www.barbarawien.de

Peter Piller’s conceptual art juxtaposes images from his ample archive of press clippings and appropriated ephemerae. The German artist’s own photographs are intimate and intriguing. Last year, he presented KRAFT* a slide show of 40 images of the processed food company’s logo taken on Piller’s ride to work in Hamburg. The images offer few insights into the brand but highlight the banality of advertising and how seamlessly corporate images seep into our everyday consciousnesses. His current exhibition will expose similar life luring in our surroundings cracks and crevasses.