Alexander Brener and Barbara Schurz

Conspiracy of the Cephalopods

21.09.2019-19.01.2020


Opening: 20.09.2019, 7pm

A project by BRUSEUM, in cooperation with steirischer herbst ’19

Curated by: Roman Grabner

About the exhibition

Alexander Brener belongs to the generation of Russian performance artists who were active during the last years of the Soviet Union and engaged with public space. He gained international notoriety in 1997 when he painted a green dollar sign on Kasimir Malevich’s white painting Suprematism 1920–1927 at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. This protest against the corruption and commercialization of the art market ended in a prison sentence, despite his assertion that the act was an artistic performance.

Together with his Austrian partner Barbara Schurz he has continued to address power strategies and mechanisms of exclusion in society and the art market since the 1990s. They also produce drawings that extend their programmatic critique of capitalism, referencing both Outsider Art and the tradition of the Russian popular print, or lubok, which traditionally contained satirical, informative, patriotic messages as well as social critique. In addition, Brener and Schurz have long been publishing brilliant literary works and theoretically oriented illustrated books in a samizdatinspired format. For the exhibition Conspiracy of the Cephalopods they have drawn their own retrospective.

 

Gallery

Neue Galerie Graz

Joanneumsviertel
8010 Graz, Österreich
T +43-316/8017-9100
joanneumsviertel@museum-joanneum.at

 

Opening Hours


Tues-Sun, public holidays 10am - 6pm

On October 10th and 11th, 2023, the Neue Galerie Graz will be closed due to renovation works. The studio exhibition (Ebru Kurbak), the exhibitione in the foyer (Alek Kawka), and the Natural History Museum (Walter Köstenbauer) will still be open for visitors.

Guided tours: 
Please visit our calendar.
Guided tours on advance notice

Library Opening Hours
Open by prior appointment:
+43-699/1334-6801 or bibliothek@museum-joanneum.at

 

 

 

10th/11th October 2023
24th/25th December 2023