News from the Gallery

Yasuaki Onishi is one of the artists selected for the exhibition Negative Space at ZKM | Karlsruhe. The Japanese artist will present a piece from the Vertical Emptiness series.

The last exhibition, which dealt comprehensively with the question “What is modern sculpture?”, took place in 1986 at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris under the title «Qu’est-ce que la sculpture moderne?». The exhibition “Negative Space” at ZKM | Karlsruhe picks up the spear where the Centre Pompidou dropped it.

Since antiquity, the history of Western sculpture has been closely linked to the idea of the body. Whether carved, modeled or cast, statues have been designed for centuries as solid monoliths – as substantial and self-contained entities, as more or less powerful and weighty positive formations in space.

Our expectations concerning modern or contemporary sculpture are still essentially driven by the concept of body sculpture, which is formally based on the three essential categories of mass, unbroken volume, and gravity. Whether body-related like Auguste Rodin’s or abstract like Richard Serra’s, sculpture is still and foremost mass, volume, and gravity.

The exhibition “Negative Space” endeavors to change the dominating view of modern and contemporary sculpture by telling a different story. It offers a comprehensive overview of the art of sculpture, which – in contrast to the traditional concept – is committed to contour, emptiness, and levitation. Visitors will encounter what is light instead of heavy, what is not full but empty, what is marked open instead of closed, what is not dense but diaphanous, airy, and light.

Opening Reception: Friday, April 5th from 7 pm onwards

Exhibition: 6 April – 11 August 2019

Yasuaki Onishi is currently presenting an installation rom the Reverse of Volume series at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark, in a show called The Moon, From Inner Spaces to Outer World.

From painting to virtual reality, superstition to science, myths to missions, fantasies to space colonies, join Louisiana on a trip to the Moon – into space and into ourselves. ARTnews has already called THE MOON the most intriguing show of the season.

This large-scale exhibition at Louisiana highlights the role, the importance and the fascinating power of the Moon. The exhibition presents more than 200 works and objects—and show how the round white disc is reflected in our art and cultural history. From Galileo’s moon map to Norman Foster’s plans for 3D-printed moon bases.

The exhibition mixes art, film, music, literature, architecture, cultural history, design and natural science into a vibrant and diverse portrait of our closest neighbor in the sky. We encounter the Moon as a fundamental symbol and as a goal of romantic and artistic longings, scientific inquiry, existential issues—and the urge for political expansion.

With this exhibition, Louisiana commemorates the imminent 50th anniversary of man’s first steps on the Moon and also calls attention to a strong and renewed interest in the Moon both in art and as a springboard for a new Space Race with all its strategic and economic implications.

The exhibition is supported by Aage & Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond and is organized by Louisiana in collaboration with Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo.

From September 13th to January 20th, 2019