For his second exhibition at Sadie Coles HQ, this particular group of Wilhelm Sasnal’s paintings takes an obliquely political viewpoint. The images tangentially refer to energy, power, geopolitics and oil. In addressing these subjects, he utilises an eclectic bank of references, often choosing to hone in on unexpected detail. Much of the imagery comes from photographic records of Sasnal’s recent travels through Europe, South America, Africa and Texas.
In his first show for Sadie Coles HQ, the Polish artist Wilhelm Sasnal presents a group of new paintings.
As a painter Sasnal deliberately eludes categorisation, working in both the abstract and the figurative, constantly shifting subject matter, technique and style. He often works from both his own snap-shots and appropriated images. Aesthetically, however, the paintings are far removed from the brashness of Pop. With their sober, measured tone they nod more towards the legacy of post-war German and American painting, existing in some respects as formal exercises.
The work toys with the conventions of representation. Sasnal’s use of perspective and focus disrupts our expectations - blue churches hang upside down; at a concert we see only the silhouetted heads and arms of a part of the crowd; at the zoo we are shown a section of the bleak grey stone walls of the enclosures; aerial views of vast sprawling industrial cities become abstract patterns. There is an air of detachment to these experiments through which he attempts to understand and record visual reality.
There is another dimension to these exercises which sees the medium itself become the subject, as Sasnal concentrates on new ways in which to manipulate and apply his paint. In painting seaweed he uses his bare hands, while in his image of a windy tree, it is as if the paint itself has been swept across the paper by the elements. We latch onto the subtitles of the paintings, which indicate to us the subject, while he works towards the real Untitled matter of the painting.
Wilhelm Sasnal was born in Tarnow, Poland, where he continues to live and work. He has had solo and group shows throughout Europe and in the USA, including one person shows this year at MUHKA in Antwerp, Kunstverein in Münster and Kunsthalle Zürich.
1972 Born in Tarnow, Poland
Lives and works in Tarnow
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2007 Wilhelm Sasnal, Hauser & Wirth, Zurich
Wilhelm Sasnal, Caixa Forum - Fundacio La Caixa, Barcelona
Wilhelm Sasnal, Anton Kern Gallery, New York
2006 Wilhelm Sasnal, Sadie Coles HQ, London
Wilhelm Sasnal, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
Wilhelm Sasnal – Wzorzec kilograma, Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw
2005 Matrix, The Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley (CA)
Wilhelm Sasnal – Chinati Artist in Residence, The Locker Plant, Marfa (TX)
Wilhelm Sasnal, Anton Kern Gallery, New York
2004 Wilhelm Sasnal: The Band, Hauser & Wirth, Zurich
Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Camden Arts Centre, London
Hydra Workshop, Hydra, Greece
ZawaSrod, Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich, Germany
Johnen & Schoettle Gallery, Cologne, Germany
2003 3 o’clock road block, Sadie Coles HQ, London
MUHKA, Antwerp, Belgium
Kunstverein, Münster, Germany
Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Irit Sommer Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2002 PHO, Galerie Johnen & Schöttle, Cologne, Germany
Show on your hands – Look – Come closer, Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw
Parel, Amsterdam
2001 Cars and Men, Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw
Everyday Life in Poland between 1999 and 2000, Galeria Raster, Warsaw
2000 Board Game, Galeria Potocka, Krakow
1999 The Hundred Pieces, Galeria Zderzak, Krakow
Painting, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
Selected Group Exhibitions
2007 The Weasel: Pop Music and Contemporary Art, South London Gallery, London
Door Cycle, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York
Airs de Paris, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Old School, Hauser & Wirth Colnaghi, London (traveling to Zwirner & Wirth, New York)
Very Abstract and Hyper Figurative, Thomas Dane Gallery, London (curated by Jens Hoffman)
Last News, Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk, Poland
2006 The Vincent 2006, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Imposion, Anton Kern Gallery, New York
At the Very Centre of Attention – Part 10, The Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
Melancholia, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Grey Flags, Sculpture Centre, Long Island City, New York
Yael Bartana, Dan Perjovschi, Wilhelm Sasnal, Eindhoven van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
I Still love the 20th Century, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Infinite Painting – Contemporary Painting and Global Realism, Villa Manin, Centro d’Arte Contemporania, Codropio, Italy
Painting Codes: I Codici della Pittura, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea di Monfalcone, Monafalcone, Italy (cat.)
2005 It takes some time to open an oyster, Centre Cultural Andratx, Mallorca, Spain
On Line, Louisiana Contemporary, Louisiana, Denmark
Rekjavík Arts Festival 2005, Rekjavík Art Museum. Rekjavík
What’s New, Pussycat, Neuerwerbungen und Sammlung Ströher,
The Triumph of Painting, Saatchi Gallery, London
Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
(my private) HEROES, Marta Herford, Herford, Germany
Accrochage: Selected Works, Marc Jancou Fine Art, New York
Expanded Painting, Prague Bienniale 2: International Contemporary Art, Prague (curated by Helena Kontova and Giancarlo Politi
2004 Works from the Boros collection (Werke aus der Sammlung Boros), Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe (cat.)
XXVI Bienal de Sao Paolo, Sao Paolo, Brazil
Some Forgotten Place, University of California, Berkeley Art Musuem, Berkeley (CA)
From Above, Georg Kargl, Vienna, Austria
2003 Creeping Revolution 2, Rooseum, Malmö, Sweden
Wilhelm Sasnal & Monika Sosnowska, Galleria Laura Pecci, Milan, Italy
2002 After Reality (Nach der Wirklichkeit), Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Pause, 4th Gwangju Biennial, Gwangju, South Korea
Urgent Painting, Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
2001 Painters’ Competition, Galeria Bielska BWA, Bielsko-Biala, Poland
The Good, Galeria Raster, Warsaw
1st Tirana Biennial, Tirana
Bureaucracy, Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw
In Between, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago (IL)
2000 Scena 2000, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
100% Painting, BWA Gallery, Poznan, Poland
1999 What you see is what you get, Medium Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
1997 Seven Young Painters, French Cultural Institute, Krakow
In his first show, the Polish artist Wilhelm Sasnal presents a group of new paintings.
As a painter Sasnal deliberately eludes categorisation, working in both the abstract and the figurative, constantly shifting subject matter, technique and style. The paintings exist in some respects as formal exercises. They toy with the conventions of representation, using perspective and focus to disrupt our expectations. They attempt to understand and record visual reality.
In many the medium itself becomes the subject, as Sasnal concentrates on new ways in which to manipulate and apply his paint. In painting seaweed he uses his bare hands, while in his image of a windy tree, it is as if the paint itself has been swept across the paper by the elements. We latch onto the subtitles of the paintings, which indicate to us the subject, while he works towards the real Untitled matter of the painting.
