Skin of the Shapeshifter

We are delighted to announce the opening of the group exhibition Skin of the Shapeshifter. Spotlighting female contemporary artists, the show assembles multiple perspectives on womanhood and the body, as well as different materialities, involving media as diverse as painting, video, and object-based installations. The body, whether individual or social, human or nonhuman, emerges as something that transforms, producing fascination. 

‍

ARTIST BIOS

‍

Born and raised in Romania in the 1990s, Andreea Anghel currently lives and works in Wrocław, Poland. She received an MA from the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design, Wrocław, Poland. Her work mixes ready-mades, found pieces of mid-century furniture, assemblage as a writing technique, with newly built elements and curiosity cabinets that involve durational and emotional labour. Inspired by situations and elements that at first glance may seem common, Anghel’s artistic language reverts that easiness and brings forth uncanniness in a sensibility that channels both care and irony.

‍

‍

Hadassah Emmerich (b. 1974 in Heerlen, NL), lives and works in Brussels. She received her Master degree in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London (2005). Body and identity, the sensory and the sensual, the commodification of the erotic and the exotic: these are frequently recurring themes in Emmerich’s work. The sensuality of her painting resides not only on the surface of the (erotic) image, but also in her refined use of colour and technical execution. Since 2016, Emmerich has worked with a new painting technique, using stencils cut from vinyl flooring, which she covers with ink and then impresses onto canvas, paper or a wall. (Text by Nina Folkersma)

‍‍

Kristin Wenzel (b. in 1983 in Gotha, East Germany) lives and works in Bucharest and Gotha. She received an MA from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 2013. Drawn to micro-architecture, such as kiosks, vitrines and flower shops, the visual scanning and mapping of places and buildings is an ongoing process undertaken by the artist. She tackles the implications of public architecture as both ‘memory foam’ – inscribed with its particular history – and open structure – allowing it to be strayed from its original design. The notion of transformation, be it conceptual or material, permeates her entire practice and connects the past and present through processes of collecting and reinterpreting. 

‍

Lorena Cocioni (b. 1995) lives and works in Bucharest. She received an MA from the University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca, Romania. In her practice, she often uses the body senses and the ritual component of everyday actions, such as washing, combing hair, (un)dressing and taking care of the body. From the use of delicate pink hues, feathers, toiletry soaps to glass and metal shapes, she brings together different materials alongside her ceramics. She plays with them creating apparently fragile, yet very consistent works that resemble an almost ancient past, as well as a blurred future. 

‍‍

Maria Guță & Lauren Huret have been based in Switzerland for over ten years, actively participating in exhibitions, festivals, teaching, performing, and delivering lectures and workshops both in Switzerland and internationally. Since 2020, they have been working together as a duo, engaging in joint reflections on the state of contemporary imagery, celebrity culture, and the impact of media on our identities. At the core of their collaboration lies a mutual fascination with the phenomenon of hyper-mediated and over-exposed figures within the framework of contemporary communication techniques. They refer to this as «media bewitchment» and find particular interest in how it influences our behaviours.  In 2023, they received the Swiss Art Award, one of the most prestigious contemporary art prizes.

‍

‍

This project is financed with the support of EEA Grants 2014-2021 within the RO-CULTURE Program. 

‍

The installation by Swiss-based artists Maria Guță & Lauren Huret is supported by Swiss Sponsors’ Fund, a common project of the Swiss Embassy and the Swiss-Romanian Chamber of Commerce. 

‍