6 + 3 = 1

Barbara Seiler Zurich is pleased to present a group exhibition titled ‘6 + 3 = 1’ with six young artists from Switzerland and Germany, each artist showing three works, forming one exhibition.

Daniel Karrer (*1983 Basel, CH) moves predominantly in the broad field of painting. Between reproductions of the digital image world and the painting traditions of past centuries, Karrer’s pictures reflect current pictorial memory. This is shaped by past pictorial ideas as much as by current pictorial aesthetics and wrestles with the contradictions of a medium that offers infinite dimensions or relentless flatness under visual aspects. Since 2016 he has been working with painting behind and on glass.

Ivan Mitrovic (*1985 Basel, CH) juggles with traditional artistic images and refers to the history of the representation of the body in art and the associated problems of objectification, mystification or glorification. In this way, Mitrovic takes up the traditionally representative character of painterly works in private homes and public buildings. The work ‘Shopping Bag’ questions the roles of the individual and the mass. The bag, reminiscent of the sobriety of luxury brands, is both a carrier and container of ideologies. But it also serves as a status symbol in today’s consumerist frenzy. The strings of the oversized bag seem to grin delusionally at us, assuring us that consumption will make us happy.

Karen Amanda Moser’s (*1988 Bern, CH) conceptually oriented practice seeks out existing structures, which she draws attention to with subtle gestures in order to enable a critical gaze. The medium of language is at the same time a site of reflection on the work, but often itself an object of investigation. Institutions, collections, archives, or social manners are mapped, if not shaped, in it. The work ‘Expanding Day’ refers to a circle in motion. The material absorbs light during the exhibition’s opening hours, which it emits again at nightfall. In this way, the expanding day shifts in time to a moment that is inaccessible. ‘Romantic Dates’ is an ongoing series to which a new date is added each month. A year or the current month can be displayed. Each month is sold only one time. The work ‘Still Life’ are arranged images of still life mostly in kitchens of online real estate rental offers, the image taken is enlarged, giving it a picturesque blur.

Leticia Perrenoud (*1992, Bülach, CH) is an artist who works with everyday found objects, raw materials, texts and images in the broadest sense. Her artistic practice appeals to notions of memory, aesthetic perception, and poetry in the making. With her gesture-rich mises en scènes, she re-appropriates spaces and things, questions the context in which the pieces are placed, and examines their function. She aims to shoot films without a camera, project images without a projector, and see through exhibition walls to reflect moments delicately suspended in time. The work ‘Tapestry’ is a scenographically designed wallpaper that describes seven different scenes in space with texts representing seven days.

Milva Stutz (*1985, Zurich) deals in her work with the ambiguity of gender and body in real and digital space and shows videos, drawings and sculptures. Her work features large-scale drawings of seemingly detached young adults in lush natural settings. Milva Stutz searches for forms of representation of new body and role images and questions the male image of the female body that predominates in art history. But the attribution of biological sex is shaken. Gender characteristics turn out to be symbolizations that, in their ambiguity, take up and undermine socially constructed notions of masculinity and femininity.

Jan Zöller’s (*1992 Karlsruhe and Offenburg, DE ) works reflect themes and experiences of reality of the artist. Romantically perceived or transfigured questions about the future, visions and profession become leitmotifs – without irony. Pub visits, exhibition openings or the purchase of new shoes appear as motifs on painted canvases. Other works contain allegories of friendly togetherness or social experience: getting to know each other in a bar, sharing a cigarette, and traditional meeting places such as public fountains and swimming pools. Zöller’s artistic practice includes not only painted canvases, but also performance, sculpture, and installation. These practices form a solidarity that is reinforced by Zöller’s use of social codes and signs such as raindrops, trees, birds, legs, hammers, and fountains in his works. In his titles Jan Zöller picks up selected song lyrics, proverbs and well-meant advice and slightly changes their wording.