Peter Freeman, Inc. is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Silvia Bächli, her fifth show with the gallery, and Eric Hattan’s first. The Basel-based artists have exhibited together regularly for more than 35 years.
Bächli’s primary medium is drawing; Hattan’s is video, sculpture, and installation. In their distinct bodies of work, the artists have in common a regard for the beauty in the ordinary; a sense of attention and openness to their surroundings and the movement of their bodies within space; and a spirit of playing with reality and legibility to create images that appear to simultaneously emerge and recede. Improvisation is important too, and place, both where they make and exhibit work. Here, they will exhibit both independent works, and work that they will make together, on-site.
Bächli presents drawings made during a recent residency in London; their color, gestures, scale, and compositions reflect her temporary studio space, and the particulars of inhabiting the city. Her installation here reflects a similar sensitivity to the gallery space. She writes, “In an exhibition I try to find a sounding total space with the drawings, placing the sheets in such a way that they relate to each other across the room and across the spaces in between. There are precise places, pauses and clusters, there are repetitions and echoes. This invisible net through the space connects the drawings and makes the space vibrate.”
Hattan sourced his materials locally upon arrival in New York; furniture, building supplies, electrical supplies, clothing, packaging, detritus are all possibilities. Spontaneity, coincidence, and a recognition of the mysteries present in even the most banal things play key roles in his thinking and creating; his interventions with materials range from minimal, to active manipulation. Throughout his work, moments of recognition are as frequent are those of disorientation.
Silvia Bächli (born 1956, Baden, Switzerland) represented Switzerland at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. Exhibitions of her work have been held at Kunstmuseum, Basel (2018), Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2014), and Centre Pompidou, Paris (2007), among others. Her work is in the permanent collections of many public collections, including Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Dallas Museum of Art; Kunstmuseum Basel; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.
Eric Hattan (1955 born in Wettingen, Switzerland) was awarded the 2016 Basler Kunstpreis in Basel. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions and performances in Europe and elsewhere, notably Kolumba, Cologne (2017), Centre culturelle Suisse, Paris (2017) Frac Paca, Marseille (2014), Mac Val, Vitry-sur-Sein/Paris (2009). His work is in the collections of Kunstmuseum Basel; Mamco Geneva, Arter Istanbul, CNAP Paris, and FRAC Marseille, among other public institutions.
The two artists will be exhibiting together at Kunsthalle Karlsruhe from 12 July to 29 September 2019.
A reception for the artists will be held Tuesday 16 April from 6 to 8 pm. For reproduction requests, interviews with the artists, and general inquiries, please contact the gallery at 212-966-5154 or info@peterfreemaninc.com.