For Paris Internationale 2023 Schiefe Zähne will present works by Phung-Tien Phan and Matthias Groebel.

Phung-Tien Phan

In her sculptures and videos, Phung-Tien Phan explores the social implications of everyday objects. The paradox she pursues in her multimedia works unfolds somewhere between consumer goods, self-stylization, and projected role models. They contain a sober kind of humor that would normally make you laugh—but, on closer inspection, their uncanny realism makes the laughter stick in your throat. In terms of the not-too-distant past, Phan seems to be carving out a space somewhere between the kind of slacker self-parody championed by the likes of Martin Kippenberger and the politicization of domestic labor, perhaps most poignantly summarized in Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s Manifesto for Maintenance Art, 1969!—between making your life your work and making your work your art.

Phung-Tien Phan at Kunsthalle Basel

Phung-Tien Phan
Kartoffel
August 25 – November 12, 2023
Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Phung-Tien Phan

Born in 1983 in Essen, Germany
Lives and works in Essen, Germany

EDUCATION

2015-2017
Academy of Fine Arts, Düsseldorf, Germany; class of Prof. Christopher Williams

2014
Academy of Fine Arts, Düsseldorf, Germany; class of Keren Cytter & Manuel Graf

2009-2014
BA Photography, Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen, Germany

SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2023
Kartoffel, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
blue, Édouard Montassut, Paris, France

2022
Modernistin, with Niklas Taleb, CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
Found and Lost, with Marina Xenofontos, (curated by Lorenzo Graf), Goethe-Institut Cyprus, Cyprus

2021
Liste Art Fair Basel (with Drei, Cologne), Basel, Switzerland
STOP DREAMING, Schiefe Zähne, Berlin, Germany

2020
Café Chardonnay - alles nehmen, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, Germany

2019
biste links oder frustriert, Drei, Cologne, Germany
Galeria Half Moon, with Whitney Claflin, Drei, Cologne, Germany

2018
Safety First, with Niklas Taleb, Aedt, Düsseldorf, Germany

2016
Peter-Mertes Stipendium, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTED)

2023
Slackers, TONUS, Paris, France
Interests, Schiefe Zähne, Berlin, Germany
Der pinkelnde Tod or what the dead do, Kunstverein Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany
Sneckdown, EACC, Espai d’Art Contemporani de Castelló, Castelló, Spain
Das Lied der Straße, Biennale für Freiburg 2, Freiburg, Germany
What are we in now?, The Wig, Curated by the Wig, Makroscope, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany

2022
Autofiction, curated by Melanie Bühler, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam, Netherlands
How to (not) fit in, Villa Merkel, Esslingen, Germany
M I X E D F E E L I N G S, Sammlung Hildebrand, G2, Leipzig, Germany

2021
Fassaden, Elvira, Frankfurt; Germany
July, August, September, organized by Carla Donauer & Martin Germann, Cologne, Germany
Open Office, Arcadia Missa, London, UK
Chernobyl Papers, organized by New Scenario, Chernobyl, Russia
Sweet Lies - Fiktionen der Zugehörigkeit, Ludwig Forum, Aachen; Germany
Fire demands its Fuel, curated by KM Temporaer, Drei, Cologne & Markus Lüttgen, Mönchengladbach, Germany
Tourism, curated by Luca Beeler, Richard Sides, Judith Welter, Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland
Taking my Thoughts for a Walk, Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund, Germany
All Corner Made to be Leaned, Kunsthaus Rhenania, Cologne, Germany

2020
should we get lunch, I want to burn this place down, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, Germany
Bureau de Change, curated by Raoul de Klooker, Campoli Presti, London, UK
Kasten, curated by Luca Beeler and Cédric Eisenring, Stadtgalerie, Bern, Switzerland

2019
Bandwagon Nr. 1, Pogo Bar, Kunstwerke (KW), Berlin, Germany
This sweet, will one day be yours, Werkhalle, Cologne, Germany

2018
Trust Camp Vision, Essen, Germany
Junge Kunst am Moltkeplatz, Skulpturenpark Moltkeplatz, Essen, Germany
Trust Camp Club, Essen, Germany
I was a teenage medium, Glasgow Project Room, Glasgow, UK
Trust Camp Normal, Essen, Germany
Die Idee der besten schlechten Idee, 8. Salon, Hamburg, Germany
Inaugural Exhibition, Root Canal, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2017
Harmoniemusik und Vogelschießen, Shanaynay, Paris, France
Was kost die Welt, Belle Air, Essen, Germany

2016
Black Dahlia Quest, Roland Garros, Essen, Germany

2015
Landhaus Schwerte Ergste, curated by New Bretagne, Belle Air (Bel Ètage), Essen, Germany
Wasting Time on the Internet, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
What a b what a b what a beauty, Off Raum, Frankfurt, Germany

2014
living stills – Neue bewegte Bilder im Museum Folkwang, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany

CURATORIAL PROJECTS

2020
should we get lunch, i want to burn this place down, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, Germany

2018
Trust Camp, Exhibition Series, Essen

2014- 2017
Co-founder of Belle Air, an artist run space, organized and curated by New Bretagne (Frieder Haller, Anna-Lisa Högler, Phung-Tien Phan,
Alexander Schöpfel and Niklas Taleb), Essen, Germany

AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

2022
Les Furtifs Residency Programme, CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France

2020
Kunststiftung NRW, Project Funding
2018
Kunststiftung NRW, Project Funding (individual projects)

2015
Peter Mertes Scholarship 2015, Bonn, Germany

2012
Studio residency, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
Scholarship, Marianne Ingenwerth Stiftung, Essen, Germany

Matthias Groebel

In the late 1980s, Matthias Groebel developed a machine that allowed him to transfer images from the television onto canvas, a complex process involving multiple stages and applications of paint with an airbrush pistol. Groebel’s production process played on a reciprocal and closely intertwined relationship between artist/painter, technology, and generative form-finding in an era of profound technological change and the digital turn. The paintings are based on what were ubiquitous images in the media of the time – simultaneously generic and highly suggestive – and have, as the artist himself says, “an effect, even when you don’t want them to.”

Groebel’s paintings offer a precise portrait of the televisual landscape of the 1990s and its specific mixture of voyeurism, reality TV, permanent self-staging, and surveillance. They convey a feeling for analog television’s hypnotic spaces of experience – its flickering, backlit, and low-resolution images, its abundance of talking heads and close-ups of bodies and body parts, and its transgressive intimacy. Where the Hollywood star on celluloid seemed unreachable, television projected a sense of familiarity and openness – a sort of seeing, speaking surface that looked out at us from within the device. His images have a mysterious physical presence and convey a powerful sense of psychological latency, bringing out the subtle tensions and power structures inherent within a gesture, a gaze, or the biting of nails, often contrary to the intrinsic and profit-driven agendas of the entertainment industry. (Kathrin Bentele)

Matthias Groebel at Kunstverein Düsseldorf

Mattias Groebel
A Change in Weather (Broadcast Material 1989-2001)
Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany
December 10, 2022 – February 26, 2023

Matthias Groebel

Born in 1958, Aachen
Lives and works in Cologne

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023
Ulrik, New York, USA

2022
A Change in Weather (Broadcast Material 1989-2001), Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf
The Rhythms of Reception, Schiefe Zähne, Berlin
Satellites Cast No Shadow (curated by Andreas Selg), Drei, Cologne

2021
Avid Signals (Broadcast Material 1989 - 2001) (curated by Andreas Selg), Galerie Bernhard, Zurich

2009
Embedded Painting, Praxis Staat, Cologne

2007
Save from Demons, Livingroom, Cologne

2003
Collective Memories, Universal Concepts Unlimited, New York

2002
Vanishing Points, Universal Concepts Unlimited, New York

2000
Fishing For Compliments, Galerie Berndt, Cologne

1997
Das neutrale Netz (with Joseph Nechvatal), Galerie Karin Sachs, Munich
new.clear_wave, Galerie Berndt, Cologne

1996
alt.sex (with Joseph Nachvatal), In Situ, Aalst, Belgium

1995
Matthias Groebel, Galerie Berndt, Cologne

1993
18+(5)+13, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein (Kabinett), Aachen, Germany

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023
Interests, Schiefe Zähne, Berlin, Germany
Dowsing, curated by Nick Irvin, Layr, Vienna, Austria
Gruppenausstellung mit Claudia Schiffer, WAF Galerie, Vienna, Austria
Under a Machine Thing, Francis.Irv, New York
unto dust, Fitzpatrick Gallery, Paris, France

2022
The Wig, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn
Mit Parallelität von Widersprüchen wird Komplexes missverständlicher, Schiefe Zähne, Berlin
2016
Tele-Gen, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz

2015
Tele-Gen, Kunstmuseum, Bonn

2012
Human Frames, Werkstatt der Kulturen, Berlin

2011
Human Frames, The Substation, Singapore
Human Frames, KIT Kunst im Tunnel, Düsseldorf

2010
Keine Clowns, nur harte Typen, The Forgotten Bar, Berlin

2008
Soul Stripper, Project Midi, Brussels

2005
Vital Signs, Maya Stendhal Gallery, New York
Museum del Arte Moderno, Medellin, Colombia & Portobello Film Festival, London
Closed Circuit International Film Festival, Rotterdam

2004
self-ish, scicult, London
Rheinschau, Art Cologne Projects, Cologne

2003
One Day Preview, art2b, Cologne
T.O.S.C., Universal Concepts Unlimited, New York

2002
Reality Revisited (conceived by Matthias Groebel), In Situ, Aalst
Reality Revisited (conceived by Matthias Groebel), Galerie Martin Kudlek, Cologne

2001
Swiss Embassy, Berlin

2000
R.E.D. (Remote Experience Dependency), Universal Concepts Unlimited, New York
Videotheque, Kunst Zürich 2000, Zurich

1999
Untitled Exhibition, de Willem3, Vlissingen
Reflex, Galerie Berndt, Cologne
Links, Provinciehuis, Maastricht

1997
Robot Paintings & Sound Installations, In Situ, Aalst

1996
In Situ te Gast, Watertoren, Vlissingen

1995
…wie gemalt, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen
Redefining Convention, Haines Gallery, San Francisco
Ana’Logos, Stockholm Art Fair, Stockholm

1993
Ideen, Skizzen, Gedanken, Galerie Karin Sachs, Munich
Compkuenstlerg, Künstlerwerkstatt Lothringer Straße, Munich

PUBLICATIONS

2022
Matthias Groebel - The Image-Sweep, Monograph, Edition Patrick Frey, 2022

2015
TELEGEN, exhibition catalogue, pp. 266-270, Hirmer Publishers

2014
Ted Serios - A book of spells, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein

2009
Frank Popper, From Technological to Virtual Art, pp. 95-99, The MIT Press

1997
new.clear_wave, exhibition catalogue, Galerie Berndt

Public Collections: Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz