@briankokoska ‘s work resonates with tension between longing to connect, and self-imposed isolation. In his paintings, we meet figures who appear restless in their rural environs and yet who absolutely belong there. These works do not provide any answers, or even any proposals, rather they create space for us to contemplate and embrace our ambiguous relationship to human connection that has been brought on by both our shared experience of imposed isolation in 2020, as well as the development of social media technologies which have irrevocably changed the way we (dis)connect.
Brian studied at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and will have work on view with @peresprojects at Art Basel Miami Beach.
Views from ride me down easy at @openforuminfo
open forum is honored to present Brian Kokoska’s first solo exhibition in Europe, ride me down easy. The exhibition opens October 5th, from 5-7 pm at Lise Meitner Strasse 39, 10589 Berlin.
—
Of if you will, thrusting me beneath your clothing,
Where I may feel the throbs of your heart or rest upon
your hip,
Carry me when you go forth over land or sea;
For thus merely touching you is enough, is best,
And thus touching you would I silently sleep and
be carried eternally.
-Walt Whitman
ride me down easy... please be gentle, please be kind.
For many of us, the imposed isolation from 2020 has morphed into self-imposed exile from a (social)life which used to feel so normal, and now evokes nostalgia while seeming impossible to recreate. Despite their often bright colors and seductive figures, the paintings share an aura of melancholia.
Kokoska’s work resonates with tension between longing to
connect, and self-imposed isolation. In his paintings, we meet
figures who appear restless in their rural environs and yet
who absolutely belong there. These works do not provide any
answers, or even any proposals, rather they create space for
us to contemplate and embrace our ambiguous relationship to human connection that has been brought on by both our shared experience of the pandemic as well as the development of social media technologies which have irrevocably changed the way we (dis)connect.
ride me down easy consists of new oil paintings Kokoska created while in residency at open forum. For more information please contact [email protected].
Open Forum is honored to present She, Shapeshifter, Brazilian artist Camile Sproesser’s first solo exhibition in Europe. The exhibition consists of seven oil paintings on woven jute.
On first view, Sproesser’s paintings evoke associations with
archetypal mythologies, constellations and oracles. Digging deeper, they allude to that which connects these traditions globally… something unspoken… connections between disparate geographies and histories that can’t possibly be, but which we also can’t ignore.
Camile SPROESSER
She, Shapeshifter
September 13, 2024
open forum
℅ PERES PROJECTS
karl-marx-allee 82
10243 berlin
@openforuminfo[email protected]
VOMITORIUM
Paul Ferens
July 20th, 2024
17-20:00
open forum is proud to present VOMITORIUM, a solo exhibition of two new series of works by Paul Ferens. The first is a group of light boxes displaying the contents of “show fridges”, refrigerators seen in popular culture to be used by the wealthy to display the pristine, probably organic and definitely unused food.
These light boxes are installed in contrast to a new series referencing 17th century Dutch still life paintings. Much like this new series of paintings by Paul Ferens, these historic works were created at the height of Dutch culture and economic prowess, and depict seductive cornucopias of food, decomposing, and past its prime. This ostentatious display of intentionally wasted food and luxury objects in Ferens’ paintings, alongside the pristine see-through refrigerators appropriated from contemporary popular culture, highlight our society’s spiral into the depths of consumerism and frivolity.
Does history repeat itself? In 2024, it feels as if the question answers it self. But who’s and what history? Common understanding is that the vomitoriums of Ancient Rome were antechambers where the wealthy would purge during banquets in order to continue to gorge. In fact, the term refers to the exits of stadiums and theaters from which the masses would spew out onto the streets, drunk and satiated from the entertainment provided to them by elites.
Many of us find ourselves deeply hopeless and unsatisfied with current socio-political realities. We also find ourselves binging on social media as a way to numb our frustrations. Rather than passing judgment on this, Ferens’ work asks us to look at where we find ourselves within a larger historic cycle, and how we may find new ways forward.
VOMITORIUM by Paul Ferens opens July 20th, 2024 from 5-8 PM and will subsequently be on view by appointment.
[email protected]
DAS DING is an exhibition of new paintings by Daniele Toneatti, whose work both responds to, and echoes our era of image nihilism. In this exhibition, we encounter large scale paintings composed of clusters of pre and post internet imagery of “the self”, as well as small scale portraits of figures whose identities are both familiar and uncanny, with an aesthetic temporality existing between ruination and reparation.
This exhibition takes place both in Berlin and online, places both familiar with nihilism. When we think of what has preceded, and what succeeded past eras of mass nihilism, we cannot help but fear what may lay just beyond the precipice... and yet we have somehow, eventually, always found our way back to meaning.
