From the exhibition series: “NITSCH. A homage by…”, the Nitsch Foundation and Ms. Rita Nitsch is pleased to announce ‘FROM PAIN COMES PAIN, THEN LAUGHTER’, a solo exhibition of British Born Artist Joseph Sakoilsky at the Nitsch Foundation, Vienna.
The third exhibition in the series: ‘NITSCH. A homage by….’ presents works by artists who influenced and accompanied Hermann Nitsch during his life, as well as those who have been influenced by Nitsch’s total body of work.
Joseph Sakoilsky is an actionistic painter and sculptor. The Artist’s relationship with the work of Herman Nitsch began in his childhood, first meeting Nitsch in 1997 at the Hermann Nitsch & The Orgies Mysteries Theatre exhibition in London, and since has followed the work and been influenced. He has attended Prinzendorf several times, and taken part in actions.
For this exhibition, Sakoilsky is exhibiting three series of works. Each work involves an actionist approach. The canvases are remnants of painting actions, the residue of the self through the processes of expulsion, exhaustion and release. The artist turns the internal to external. In the ‘Punch Painting’ series, the canvas is marked not by a brush, but with his own fist. In short and fast-paced actions, the colours explode onto the canvas, in hues taken from historically classical images.
The exhibited pieces reveal a common thread of physical and emotional endurance. Alongside paintings, actionistic performances and sculptures will also be shown. Two performance pieces to be shown are: “Expulsion,” which is based on the banishment from paradise of Adam and Eve. The artist and his wife, Kata Oelschlägel, wash each other with black paint, symbolising the Fall of Man. A second performance piece titled: ‘Carrying my own weight’, is the result of the artist carrying his own body weight across the studio floor, each drag, collapse and pratfall recorded by black paint.
Every human suffers, just some of us learn to laugh
Joseph Sakoilsky
The artist encourages the viewer to discover an absurd humour where the artist is in futile combat with the artwork. “From pain comes pain, then laughter!”
Joseph Sakoilsky “From pain comes pain, then laughter” June 28th – July 26th 2024 NITSCH Foundation
About the artist
Joseph Sakoilsky, born 1992 in Camden Town, London, is an actionistic painter and sculptor, currently residing and working in Vienna. He studied Graphic Design and Illustration at the University of East London and went on to work as an artist assistant for various established English artists. The artist is associated with post-radical actionism. Sakoilsky is characterised by his grotesque humorous approach towards life itself, encouraging the viewer to discover the absurdity and self-irony in their own human existence.
Selected exhibitions:
2023 – November – Dream on, Other island, Vienna
2023 – October – 150 Jahre, Büro Weltausstellung, Vienna
2023 – September – Parallel Vienna
2023 – August – Common ground, Palais Jåger-Mautner, Vienna
2023 – February – 1.5%, Plain art gallery, Vienna
2020 – February – Kunst the Clown and Friends, Gallery 46, London
2020 – March – Nothing is Square pt.II, Cultivate Gallery, London
2019 – March – Miniscule Part 2, Cross Lane Projects, England
2019 – May – Miniscule venice, Venice Biennale, Venice
2019 – April – Over and Over, Cultivate Gallery, London
2019 – February – Attract, Cultivate Gallery, London
2018 – October – PURE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CLEAN, Angus Hughes
Gallery, London
2018 – October – Protocol, Q-park, London
2018 – This Is The Gate of Heaven, Gallery 46, London
2018 – March – The Owlman Cometh – Vout-O- Reenees, London
2018 – February – Embracing the Underdog, Q-park, London
2017 – October – The Crash, Q-park, London
2017 – January – Chinese OPEN: Le Coq Artistes, Q-park, London
2016 – December – BIG DEAL NO 7 – SPACE, London
2015 – October – The Matchbox Project, The Other Art Fair
