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Charbel Ackermann

 

CHARBEL ACKERMANN
Wood Stage

from 13th June until 8th July, 2007

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Charbel Ackermann

Charbel Ackermann is a Swiss born artist who lives and works in London. His work has recently been shown at the Launch Pad Gallery/Building Centre, London (“Island Block”, solo show, 2007);  L’EST, London (2007); Michael H. Shamberg’s, Turtle Salon at the nüans Ausstellungsraum, Düsseldorf (2007); Irvine Contemporary Arts, Washington DC (two exhibitions 2006); The Gallery at the Warehouse, Washington, DC (“M2, Solo show, 2006); The Drawing Center, New York (2005); I.D.E.A.London at the I.C.A., Institute of Contemporary Arts; London (2005); Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland (two group exhibitions 2003, 2004/05); Pasadena Museum of California Art, Los Angeles (“Topographies” group show with John Baldessari, Allan Kaprow, Ed Ruscha, Charbel Ackermann, Jessica Bronson, Ingrid Calame, Charles La Belle, Rigo 23, Lordy Rodriguez, Shirley Tse, and Tam Van Tran etc, 2004); Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco (2004); and Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford University, Palo Alto (2003). His work has been reviewed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Art Week, and was featured in Blueprint Magazine, Drawing Papers (The Drawing Center, NY), and in Topographies (Fellows of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles).

Charbel Ackermann was educated at Goldsmiths College, London (MA Fine Arts), and at the San Francisco Art Institute (BA Fine Arts). He has participated at panel discussions and symposia at Tate Britain (With A Single Mark, Models and Practice of Drawing, May 2006 at Tate Britain, with Catherine de Zegher, Richard Tuttle, Luis Camnitzer, Avis Newman, Lawrence Rinder, Charbel Ackermann, Michael Newman, Briony Fer, James Elkins, Peter Hallward, Jean Fisher, Jimmie Durham).  He was a Visiting Artist at UCSC, University of California Santa Cruz (2007).

He uses a variety of media, including drawing, installation, sculpture, electronic media and text. His work has investigated architecture, notably the changing images of an urban building over its life time (“Island Block”, 2007), and monumental architecture and memory (“M2”, 2006).  In “The New Geometry” (a series of installations 2003–05) he presented a system of geometry with global scope based on an in-depth exploration of the geographic Axis of Evil.  “Eden au Lac” (2004) is a mural drawing made only with barcode labels stuck on a sheet of plastic. It can be read with a handheld barcode scanner to display text fragments dealing with alpine landscape and animal biographies.

The current exhibition “Wood Stage” at the Galerie Millennium features a series of large format drawings made with graphite on paper, 183x230 cm.  The drawings are for example of a plastic tarpaulin strung up between a set of trees, of a still burning fire, etc. They seemingly bring to light a series of objects and situations recently left behind by an unknown group of inhabitants of the edge of a forest.