UNLEASHED SPEED UNLEASHED SPEECH (MISFITS) a group exhibition curated by London and Mexico City-based contemporary artist Stefan Brüggemann will open on September 5, 2020, and will continue on view through October 10 at KOTARO NUKAGA Tokyo
Brüggemann has been exhibiting his work globally, recognized as one of the most thriving and anticipated contemporary artists of today. His first solo show in Japan in the autumn of 2018 at KOTARO NUKAGA marked the gallery’s inaugural exhibition; the series of work reflecting the modern-day digital culture attracted much attention from the Japanese contemporary art world.
In this exhibition curated by Brüggemann, he will be presenting his work along with three other internationally-respected artists: Oriol Vilanova, Jay Rechsteiner, and Gardar Eide Einarsson. While the artists have a diverse background and artistic style, they observe the ever-accelerating, information-overloading state of the modern world in an incisive manner and reflect their unique perspective in their work. The unrestrained acceleration of social change keeps escalating without any sign of slowing down, and the ability to see through the surface of the constant flood of information with keen insight is in question. The exhibition will highlight insightful perspectives on human behaviors from the “misfits’” standpoint as we face accelerated, extreme changes throughout the world.
UNLEASHED SPEED UNLEASHED SPEECH (MISFITS) Featuring Oriol Vilanova, Jay Rechsteiner, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Stefan Brüggemann Curated by Stefan Brüggemann September 5th – October 10th, 2020 KOTARO NUKAGA TERRADA Art Complex 3F, 1-33-10 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, 140-0002, Japan kotaronukaga.com
About the Artists
Stefan Brüggemann (1975, Mexico City, Mexico) develops a conceptual approach to the artistic process, which he explores with a critical and often provocative and ironic attitude, questioning its inner activity and contemporary societies. He works with a wide range of media, creating large installations, neon works, paintings, and photographs. Brüggemann’s work is a unique combination between theoretical concepts (mainly grounded on poststructuralism and deconstructionism) and pop imagery, inspired nihilism (anti-conformism, provocation, and cynicism), which are often expressed through tautological premises, not only within themselves but also in relation to the context in which they are conceived and inserted. His primary strategy is to insert a certain pop sensibility into conceptual practices. Brüggemann has exhibited extensively throughout Europe and America. In 2017, his work was exhibited in THE ART SHOW: Millennium Art in Taguchi Art Collection by the Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan. In September 2019, his large-scale installation Headlines & Last Lines in the Movies (Guernica) was exhibited at Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Oriol Vilanova (1980, Manresa, Spain) is based in Brussels. His works have been exhibited individually at several institutions as MAC’s, Grand-Hornu (Belgium); Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (U.S.); Nouveau Musée National de Monaco (Monaco); Musée d’Ixelles, Brussels (Belgium); M – Museum Leuven (Belgium); L’appartement 22, Rabat (Morocco); Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (Spain). Group shows in Palais de Tokyo, Paris (France); Kunsthal Extracity, Antwerpen (Belgium); Les Abattoirs, Toulousse (2019); Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Tel Aviv (Israel); Les Rencontres de la photographie, Arles (France); FUTURA Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague (Czechoslovakia); MACBA, Barcelona (Spain), among others. By rummaging through flea markets, his favourite places for research, he built up a collection of postcards to create a “thinking machine” that provides the conceptual foundations for his plays, installations and performances.
Jay Rechsteiner (1971, Basel, Switzerland) is based in Margate on the South East coast of England. He was trained in Switzerland and in the UK. In the 1990s he moved to Japan where he spent 6 years painting. In 2001 he returned to Europe. Rechsteiner exhibited internationally, including the Venice Biennale, Fukuoka Art Museum, the Whitechapel Gallery and Tate Liverpool. From In 2007 Rechsteiner formed half of the artist duo Sardine & Tobleroni, who gained an increasing reputation between 2007 and 2012 in London and Portugal. In 2012 Rechsteiner decided to work solo again.
Gardar Eide Einarsson (1976, Oslo, Norway) is currently based in Tokyo. He received his education from the National Academy of Fine Art, Bergen; Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Kunste – Städelschule – Frankfurt and the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York City. His solo shows include ARoS Aarhus Art Museum; Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth (USA); Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art (Norway); Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva (Switzerland); and Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (Germany). He has also exhibited in venues including Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark); MoMA PS; MARCO Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Vigo (Spain); Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto (Portugal); Istanbul Museum of Modern Art; Palais de Tokyo, Paris and has participated in the Whitney Biennial, and the Sydney Biennial among others. Einarsson’s work is represented in a number of public collections including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; SFMoMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Fransisco; Museum for Moderne Kunst Frankfurt (MMK), Moderna Museet, Stockholm and the Norwegian National Museum of Art, Oslo.
