Galerie Max Hetzler is pleased to announce Salon, a special temporary exhibition in Athens, Greece presenting work by Günther Förg (1952–2013) and Grace Weaver (b. 1989).
Organised by Sarah Horner, Senior Director at Galerie Max Hetzler, Salon is hosted by Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery in a landmark Grade I Historic building at Tositsa 3, just steps away from the Archaeological and Epigraphic Museums of Athens.
With over 50 years’ history, Galerie Max Hetzler is a global contemporary art gallery with spaces in Berlin, Paris, London and Marfa, Texas. In response to the magnificent surroundings of the heritage building in Athens, the works by Günther Förg and Grace Weaver reflect the gallery’s story by pairing two artists that chart its very beginning and current day roster. Presented across three interconnected rooms, the exhibition positions works by each artist in dialogue with one another.
Günther Förg’s intuitive approach to colour and composition is captured in Untitled, 2002, a significant painting from his ‘Grid Paintings’ (c. 1992–2009), as well as a multi-panel grid of watercolours on paper from the same series. Drawing inspiration from Edvard Munch’s The Death of Marat, 1907, and its colourful crosshatching, Förg focused on Munch’s use of non-figurative elements and colour fields.
The ‘Grid Paintings’ are characterised by layered lines of similar colours and the unorthodox way in which the distinction between negative and positive space threatens to dissolve. Captured in the title of the series is an inherent reference to the rationalist grid found in Modernism. The dominant themes of architecture and windows in Förg’s works are also highlighted through the repetition of rhythm and structure in the 16-part grid of works on paper. Juxtaposed with these two-dimensional works, a bronze torso sculpture by the artist anchors the space, providing a corporeal counterweight, and revealing the artist’s manipulation and expressive gestures of his hand-sculpted lines.
Grace Weaver’s work abounds with art historical and literary references. Across various mediums, Weaver explores quotidian moments of modernity, often with a focus on the feminine experience.
Her compositions are made with a consciousness for the procedure of painting itself: whether in watercolour, oil or acrylic, she develops a unique choreography of chroma and brushwork, resulting in works that disclose an all-over, wet-into-wet, coming together of image and surface.
Presenting Weaver’s paintings for the first time in Greece, Salon features bodies of work centred on the figure, a vehicle through which the artist explores nuances of form and shifting mood. In the intimately scaled Nudes with Grid, Weaver engages with a classical genre within the framework of a grid, nodding to Günther Förg’s ‘Grid Paintings’ in her approach to both colour and layering. Additionally, in her series of paintings with brown lines and black grids, Weaver cites linework in Mycenaean terracotta as an influence. Just as Förg drew inspiration from the Modern Masters, Weaver too is deeply interested in her fellow artists’ thinking and working.
The exhibition also highlights a new series in which Weaver turns from contemporary scenes of 21st century life to universal motifs. Here, she draws inspiration from archaic Greek depictions of mourning women, as well as a Boeotian statuette of a mother and child. Weaver’s wet-into-wet painting method lends her work a watercolour-like freshness. Layering semi-translucent acrylic paint over a base of black in wide rhythmic brushstrokes, the wet background becomes a responsive surface for Weaver’s painted line. The immediacy of the artist’s drawing practice is brought to the fore in the succinct line and lively drips that spot the surface.
Posing in gestures that are at once pensive and performative, the Untitled (Mourners) propose the act of painting as one of both performance and introspection. In these works, Weaver considers the specificity of outward ritual gesture whilst also suggesting the universality of the interior emotion of mourning across centuries.
Galerie Max Hetzler | Salon runs concurrently to the artists’ exhibitions in Berlin: Hans Josephsohn and Günther Förg – A Dialogue, (5 September – 25 October); and Grace Weaver, Mothers (11 September – 29 November).
During Salon, Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery will present two installations by pioneer Greek artist Rena Papaspyrou (b. 1938) and Greek artist David Sampethai (b. 1989).
Galerie Max Hetzler is a global contemporary art gallery representing over sixty artists across five spaces in Berlin, Paris and London, with an exhibition space and artist residency in Marfa. Established in Stuttgart in 1974, in its early years the gallery championed a generation of influential German artists emerging at the time including Albert Oehlen, Günther Förg and Martin Kippenberger, and their international counterparts Christopher Wool, Jeff Koons, Robert Gober and Cady Noland, among others. Over several decades, Galerie Max Hetzler has expanded, having worked with nearly 175 artists and representing a strong core of leading international artists and supporting the legacy of several estates. The gallery’s programme is conceived as a fruitful dialogue between established artists and younger generations, representing a constantly evolving discourse.
Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery was established in Athens in 2013 and represents the work of fifteen artists. In addition to solo exhibitions, the gallery focuses on historical shows, most recently presenting ‘RE(A)DUCHAMP’, the first exhibition of works by Marcel Duchamp ever to be shown in Greece, and ‘Andreas Embiricos Photographs Never Shown Before’, the inaugural exhibition at the gallery’s second location in Athens at Tositsa 3. Another series of exhibitions organised every year aims at exploring the various media involved in artistic production. ‘The Library Project’ that took place recently in Milan followed ‘The Library Show’ in which the gallery in Athens was turned into a reading space solely dedicated to artists’ books. Other editions in the same series include ‘Ceramics’ and ‘The Video Project’.
Artist Biographies:
Günther Förg (1952–2013) was born in Füssen and died in Freiburg, having lived and worked in Areuse, Switzerland. His work has been shown in numerous solo exhibitions at international institutions, including Fondation Le Corbusier, Paris; CAC Málaga (both 2024); Long Museum, Shanghai (2023); Palazzo Contarini Polignac, Venice (2019); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Dallas Museum of Art (both 2018); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2015); Fundación Luis Seoane, A Coruña; Museum Brandhorst, Munich (both 2014); Museo Carlo Bilotti, Rome (2013); Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg (2008); Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art; Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris (both 1991); and Secession, Vienna (1990), among others.
Förg’s works are included in major public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago; The Broad, Los Angeles; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Fondation Beyeler, Basel; Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; Kunsthaus Zürich; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Museum Brandhorst, Munich; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; mumok, Vienna; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Saint Louis Art Museum; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate, London; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, to name but a few.
Grace Weaver (b. 1989, Vermont) lives and works between New York and Berlin. Solo exhibitions of the artist’s work have been held in international institutions including Yuz Museum, Shanghai; Neues Museum, Nuremberg (both 2023); Oldenburger Kunstverein; Kunstpalais Erlangen (both 2019); Kunstverein Reutlingen (2017); and Dakshina Chitra, Chennai (2012).
Weaver’s work has also been exhibited in group exhibitions including Braunsfelder, Cologne; Wilhelm Hallen, Berlin; Miettinen Collection, Berlin; Neue Galerie, Gladbeck; Villa Merkel, Esslingen (all 2022); Kunstmuseum Ravensburg (2021); Galerie Wedding, Berlin (2018); ARoS Aarhus Art Museum (2016); University of Georgia (2015); Burlington City Arts (2013); Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington (2012); Colburn Gallery, University of Vermont, Burlington (2011); and Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne (2010). Weaver’s works are in the collections of ARoS Aarhus Art Museum; FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf; Pizzuti Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art; Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf; and Yuz Foundation.
Press contact:
Galerie Max Hetzler
Honor Westmacott
honor@maxhetzler.com
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