© Roe Ethridge

Roe Ethridge, Pigeon, 2001
Chromogenic development print. 30 x 38 in.
Courtesy of Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York


I feel mysterious today

Chiho Aoshima
(Japan), Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt, Slater Bradley, Ernesto Caivano, Abraham Cruzvillegas (Mexico), Roe Ethridge, Gabert Farrar, Rob Fischer, Douglas Gordon (Scotland), Chris Hanson and Hendrika Sonnenberg, Richard Hawkins, Uwe Henneken (Germany), Jesper Just (Denmark), Mike Kelley, Alex Morrison (Canada), Wangechi Mutu, David Noonan (Australia), Robyn O'Neil, Susan Philipsz (Scotland), Lamar Peterson, Mary Redmond (Scotland), Kirstine Roepstorff (Denmark), Diego Singh, Katja Strunz (Germany), Georgina Valverde, Charlie White


The exhibition explores works by more than 25 international emerging and established contemporary artists. Departing from more literal or direct forms of expression, the works in "I feel mysterious today" resist immediate comprehension and engage aspects of alienation, fantasy, and the irrational. Three particular themes loosely structure the exhibition, focusing on current tendencies within contemporary art - the creation of imaginary or fictional scenes; the presentation of unsettling and idiosyncratic occurrences and events; and the transformation of familiar objects into strange and unique new forms.


"I feel mysterious today" both emphasizes and reflects a current sensibility that gives privelage to allusive and subjective modes of expression over the more direct and strident political positioning characteristic of art celebrated in the "globalist" moment of the recent past (embodied most visibly in exhibitions such as Documenta XI and the 2003 Venice Biennale).


This shift is evident, for example, in the exquisite, mythologically-based drawings of the younger artists Ernesto Caivano, New York, or in the technicolor dreamscapes of Chiho Aoshima from Japan, and in the works of other emerging international figures such as Uwe Henneken (Germany), Wangechi Mutu, and Lamar Peterson. The exhibition also presents well established artists who have become iconic figures in contemporary art, such as Mike Kelley, whose conceptually-based work deals with lost or repressed memory, and Douglas Gordon, an artist best-known for video installations and other works that address the subtle and complex relationship between society, popular culture, and the human psyche.


Also included will be a number of international artists such as Mary Redmond (Scotland) and Katja Strunz (Germany) who will present their work for the first time in an American museum, as well as artists such as Diego Singh and Kirstine Roepstorff, who have chosen to create new works inspired by the concepts of the exhibition and on view to audiences for the first time.


Working in a variety of mediums and approaches - from representational painting to abstract sculpture, to video and sound installations - the artists present experiences that capture or embody the riddling and inscrutable aspects of the world around us. "I feel mysterious today" will feature a catalogue with full-color reproductions of works in the exhibition, an interpretive essay by the exhibition's curator, Dominic Molon, and biographical information on the artists.


Exhibition: November 20, 2004 - March 27, 2005
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 12 am - 6 pm, First and Third Fridays, 12 am to 8 pm


The Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art
601 Lake Avenue
USA-Lake Worth, FL 33460
Telephone +1 561 582-0006
Fax +1 561 582-0504
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