Hugo Markl

Hugo Markl (born December 6, 1964 in Pasadena, California) is a contemporary American artist, curator and creative director. He studied Visual communication at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (1985–90) where he graduated with an M.A. in fine arts. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, video, drawing, printmaking, installation art and performance. Markl lives in New York City.

Work

"I imitate popular art that will not become popular art". With these words Hugo Markl has described his art, which feeds on the media imagery of consumer society, newspapers and porn websites, fashion magazines such as Vogue, logos of multinational corporations like FedEx, and even traffic signs, or objects charged with cultural and social connotations, such as the famous Winchester rifle. Markl deconstructs these symbols, or rather the relationship between the images and their referent, through collages, drawings, sculptures and installations that create a typical estrangement effect, creating a vision that looks both familiar and unknown. The artist sometimes combines references to low or vulgar culture with highbrow culture, as in the case of the IQ drawing series (2009), where the sign 'ROCK' is overlaid on the naked body of a woman, as a homage to conceptual artist Dan Graham-or the sign 'IKEA' is silhouetted against the reproduction of a famous edition of Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment, the Bible for critics of consumer society and mass culture.[1]

His work was widely reviewed by major international press outlets such as Art in America or the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. In his exhibition "Peter Builts" in 1997 at Galerie Walcheturm in Zurich he explored thoroughly and precisely the different facets of audio-visual impulses and how they influence contemporary body and mind. His work was compared to Richard Serra's minimal opulence as well as to Richard Prince's aesthetics, which cross the visual signs of everyday life with the insignia of art.[2] This intersection of everyday life, pop culture, criticism and art is the base of his continuous exploration of aesthetic experience and the meaning of artistic creation nowadays.

In principle, he does not participate in-group exhibitions. However, Markl’s works are shown in-group exhibitions. For example, private art collectors lend their art to famous curators to organize public group exhibitions.

Exhibitions

Markl's installations and sculptures have been exhibited in some solo exhibitions and some group exhibitions worldwide.

Selected exhibitions and projects:

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

2012

Un‘espressione geografica, Curated by Francesco Bonami, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy

2010 | 2011

PLUS ULTRA, Works from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection. Curator Francesco Bonami, MACRO Testaccio, Museo D'Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy

2010

Haus für Kunst Uri, Edition 5, Erstfeld, Switzerland

2009

Hamburger Bahnhof + Flick Collection, DIE KUNST IST SUPER!, Berlin
Galerie Patrick Seguin invites Galerie Eva Presenhuber, We Are Sun-kissed and Snow-blind, Paris
Burger Collection, CONFLICTING TALES, Berlin

2008

Gladstone Gallery, No Information Available, curated by Francesco Bonami, Brussels
Porta di Sant' Agostino, Stultifera Navis, curated by A. Bruciati and M. Tagliafierro, Bergamo, Italy

2007

Yvon Lambert Gallery, Mario Testino‚ At Home, a selection of works chosen and installed by Mario Testino', New York
House Eva Presenhuber, Jubilee Exhibition, Vnà, Switzerland
Palais de Tokyo, The Third Mind, curated by Ugo Rondinone, Paris

2005

Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, INTERSTATE, (curator Adam McEwen), New York

2004

Gruppe Öesterreichische Guggenheim, Kunstverein, ALICE LAENG ZBINDEN und MAX MUSCHER-FÜR GELD MACHEN SIE ALLES, Vienna

2003

Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck
Galerie Hauser & Wirth & Presenhuber, BREATHING THE WATER, (curator Ugo Rondinone), Zurich
Gruppe Öesterreichische Guggenheim, Kunstverein, GLÜHWEIN + KESCHTN – Lavuapappn, Vienna

2000

Sammlung Hauser und Wirth, The Oldest Possible Memory, Lokremise, St. Gallen

1998

Museum Moderner Kunst, Stiftung Ludwig, 20 Haus, Die Sammlung, Vienna

1996

Artothek im Parlamentsgebäude, Ausstellung 96, (curator Notburga Coronabless), Vienna
Kunsthaus Zürich, Wunderkammer Öesterreich, (curator Harald Szeemann), Zurich
MAK – Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Austria im Rosennetz, (curator Harald Szeemann), Vienna
Museum Moderner Kunst, Stiftung Ludwig, Coming up, Vienna
Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck

1995

Fondazione Querini, Lokalzeit – Wiener Material im Spiegel des Unbehagens, (curator Peter Weibel), Venice
Karin Kilimnik, Galerie Walcheturm, window display by Hugo Markl, no face entertainment row, Zurich
ACME studios for the artists, superapologize 60 min., (major support by the Austrian institute, London), London

1994

Galerie Walcheturm, Eine Galerie stellt sich vor, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck
Museum und Galerie Moderner Kunst Laibach, Lokalzeit – Wiener Material im Spiegel des Unbehagens, (curator Peter Weibel), Laibach / SLO
Kunstraum Strohal, Lokalzeit – Wiener Material im Spiegel des Unbehagens, (curator Peter Weibel), Vienna
Galerie im Taxispalais, Art Tirol, (curator Magdalena Hörmann), Innsbruck
Galerie Walcheturm, Passing Through, group show, (curator Ugo Rondinone), Zurich

1993

Centre d' Art Contemporain Martigny, (curator Stefano Germini), Martigny

1991

Shedhalle, Manum de tabula, Zurich
Men, Group Show, Galerie Walcheturm, Zurich
Shedhalle, STILLSTAND switches, Zurich

1990

Group Show, Galerie Walcheturm, Zurich
Galerie Zeitkunst, Aus der Nähe. Aus der Ferne., Innsbruck

1989

Secession, Junge Szene Wien, Vienna
Öesterreichisches Museum des 21. Jahrhunderts, (curator Oswald Oberhuber), Vienna

1988

Galerie Grita Insam, Akte der Beschreibung, (curator Helmut Draxler), Vienna
Galerie Zeitkunst, Innsbruck
Galerie Knoll, Drucke, Vienna

Art market

Markl was represented by Galerie Walcheturm, Zurich; Galerie Hauser & Wirth & Presenhuber, Zurich; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich; Galleria Raucci/Santamaria, Naples; André Schlechtriem Contemporary, New York; AMP Gallery, Athens. He's currently represented by DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM, Berlin.

References and further reading

  1. Bonami, Francesco (2010). Plus Ultra. Venezia: Marsilio. p. 157. ISBN 9788831708890.
  2. Juri Steiner (February 3, 1997), Idée fixe im Rosennetz, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
  3. "DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM, SSSSS". Retrieved 2013-04-10.
  4. "Galerie Eva Presenhuber". Retrieved 2013-04-07.

External links