For Paris Internationale 2023, SOPHIE TAPPEINER presents a dialogue between sculptures by Angelika Loderer (1984) and paintings by Kyle Thurman (1986), offering a journey through the realms of imagination and form.
Loderer’s work delves into the aesthetics of absence, subtly revealing aspects of our experience that often elude conscious thought. The three bronze sculptures from Loderer’s ‘Counterpart’ series appear like strange, armoured shoes. By repeatedly dipping her feet into hot wax, forming incrementally more abstract layers until the outside resembles a shell, she captures the movement of her feet. Casting these wax pieces in solid bronze – as opposed to the standard hollowing process – Loderer was able to preserve the imprint of her foot inside each piece. The once lightweight and ephemeral appearance of movement is impressed into the metal, capturing the fleeting moment that it takes for liquid to turn solid. Placed as pairs of feet on the floor, they suggest a bodily presence.
Alongside Loderer’s sculptures the gallery presents a new painting from Thurman’s ongoing ‘Dream Police’ series. The verbs in this title - to dream, to police - imply a contradiction. The apparent inevitably of conflict and the realities of contradiction are consistent with much of Thurman’s work that is characterized by narrative ambiguity. The works from this series depict the chests of fantastical armoured giants fathomed in large-scale technicolour settings (127 x 188 cm panels). From digitally manipulating information and images to 3D printing firearms, these works echo the continuous personal attempts to transcend lines of power in today’s world by employing technology.
The juxtaposition of Loderer’s and Thurman’s work creates a dialogue between the subconscious and the physical world. The works displayed capture figures in movements and moments that are open ended, offering a myriad of possibilities as to what will happen next.
Kyle Thurman (*1986, lives and works in New York, New York) is an artist and educator working primarily with painting and sculpture. Thurman currently lives and works in Brooklyn. He received BA degrees in both film studies and visual arts from Columbia University, New York (2009) and an MFA in painting from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (2016). From 2011 through 2012, Thurman studied as a guest student at the Kunstakademie, Dusseldorf, in the classes of Christopher Williams and Peter Doig. An installation of drawings from his project ‘Suggested Occupation’ was included in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, curated by Rujeko Hockley and Jane Panetta, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Recent solo shows include ‘Dream Police’ at CFA, Milan in May 2023, ‘Dream Police’ at CENTRAL FINE, Miami Beach, in April 2023, and ‘Parade’ at David Lewis Gallery, New York, in September 2022.
The forthcoming solo show will be held at SOPHIE TAPPEINER, Vienna, in the fall of 2023. Thurman’s ‘Dream Police’ paintings will be the subject of a forthcoming publication and edition produced in collaboration with General Working Group.
Thurman’s work is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, among other institutions.
Emerging from the histories of modernism, Angelika Loderer’s (*1984, lives and works in Vienna) work is also framed by the conditions of the present. On the one hand, she activates the performative power of the informe —agitating the modernist delineation between form and content. On the other hand, she is situated in a contemporary moment characterized by modes of living in which contingency becomes the norm. In this double context, Loderer has developed a body of work that incorporates contingency as a formative condition. Her work makes use of materials, processes, and display mechanisms that constantly perform and expose the object’s internal balancing act in relation to an equally contingent spectator.
Loderer studied at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna (AT), at Wimbledon College of Art, London (UK) as well as at Hendrix College, Arkansas (USA).
Solo exhibitions include: Marshlands at SOPHIE TAPPEINER, Vienna (2022); ‘Night Pieces’ at SOPHIE TAPPEINER, Vienna (2020); ‘Pretend to be Fine’, Kunstfenster Gnas, Gnas (2019); ‘Poems to Gadgets’ at Grazer Kunstverein, Graz (2018); ‘Quiet Fonts’ at SOPHIE TAPPEINER, Vienna (AT); ‘Angelika Loderer’ at Secession, Vienna (2017); ‘Animate’ at Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2016); ‘Coming in Pieces’ at Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund (2015).
Recently, her work has been included in group shows held at Kunsthalle Bratislava, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin (2023), Heidi Horton Collection, Belvedere 21, Neuer Wiener Kunstverein, Vienna, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg (2022), New Museum, New York City (2021).
Loderer will take part in the upcoming group show ‘The Beauty of Diversity’ at the Albertina Modern, Vienna in February 2024.
A forthcoming solo show will be held at Belvedere 21, Vienna in March 2024.
Her work is included in the permanent collections of Albertina, Belvedere 21, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Landesgalerie Linz, Lentos, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Universalmuseum Joanneum and EVN, among others.
Angelika Loderer
Counterpart (9), 2023
patinated bronze
22 x 13 x 27 (left)
21,5 x 13 x 27 cm (right)
Courtesy of the artist and Sophie Tappeiner, Vienna
Angelika Loderer
Counterpart (11), 2023
patinated bronze
19,5 x 12 x 26 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Sophie Tappeiner, Vienna