Schinkel Pavillon presents from 17 February 2024 the duo exhibition You Me with works by Jill Mulleady (1980 in Montevideo, Uruguay) and Henry Taylor (1958 in Ventura, USA). Regardless of their age difference and different backgrounds, the two artists share a long-standing, close friendship and an absolute dedication to painting. The works also enter into a dialogue with works on paper by Otto Dix, Käthe Kollwitz and Marcel Duchamps.
Image above: Jill Mulleady, Interior, 2023. Courtesy the artist, Gladstone Gallery and Galerie Neu. Photo: Thomas Lanne
The duo exhibition You Me is testimony to a bond between two artists from different generations and backgrounds, in which expressive figurative painting and constant references to art history act as a common denominator. In their pictorial worlds, Mulleady and Taylor reveal ambivalences that inevitably require the viewer to position themselves in relation to painting through the juxtaposition of the private and the public and the representation of bodies. At first glance, the respective artistic approach to the negotiated thematic worlds appears contradictory, but it is precisely these moments of tilt and the continuous challenge to break through and reoccupy common attributions, codes and thought patterns in which their painterly practice comes together. The exhibition You Me examines the relationship between painter and subject, viewer and representation and ultimately between the public and the private.
Jill Mulleady’s new series of seven paintings captures an interior from different perspectives and moments, drawing the viewer into the space in a site-specific intervention. The glass sculpture transforms the octagonal space of the pavilion into a panopticon in which the paintings reflect and absorb depending on one’s position. When entering this one-sided, mirrored spatial intervention, it is possible to observe the viewers almost voyeuristically, protected from outside eyes, as they themselves become witnesses to the scenes being depicted.
Taking traditional spaces as her starting point, Mulleady reflects on the pictorial histories of the female nude in painting and, by developing her own iconoclastic visual language, occupies new spaces that open up to the viewer in her visually captivating paintings. The picture surfaces are broken up by vapour trails, wafts of mist, body fragments and light reflections. Violence bounces off bed sheets, flashing orange-coloured lights disturb the view[i], as do drops of water that reflect the actions and blur the boundaries between subject and surroundings until the forms and bodies merge with the architectural space itself.
Henry Taylor simultaneously affirms and rejects the principles of traditional painting as well as any formal categorisation. With a combination of figurative painting and landscape and history painting, Taylor’s extensive body of work is rooted in the communities closest to him and is often complemented by historical or pop cultural references. Taylor’s practice is influenced by various art historical movements, from the expressive and politically engaged work of German painter Max Beckmann to the visionary and bold figurative works of American artist Bob Thompson. Beyond the confines of the canvas, Taylor also creates assemblage sculptures in which he stacks and assembles disparate objects that reference everyday routines. Taylor describes this intuitive process as “hunting and gathering” and combines historical and contemporary references in it – just as in his painting.
Historical works on paper by Otto Dix, Käthe Kollwitz and Marcel Duchamps enter into conversation with those by Mulleady and Taylor.
[i] Laura McLean Ferris, Mirrorworld, Essay, 2024
Schinkel Pavillon would like to thank Galerie Neu, Gladstone Gallery and Hauser & Wirth for their generous support, as well as the public and private lenders.
Curated by Lina Louisa Krämer
Project assistants: Ella Křivánek & Anaïs Nyffeler
WHEN?
Opening: Friday, 16. February 2024, 6:00 pm
Exhibition period: Saturday, 17. February – Sunday, 19. May 2024
Thu + Frr 2 – 7 pm
Sat + Sun 11 am – 7 pm
WHERE?
Schinkel Pavillon
Oberwallstraße 32
10117 Berlin-Mitte
COSTS?
6 EUR / reduced 4 EUR
only by card
