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Eliza Douglas and Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) at Galerie Francesca Pia

Groupshow, October 26 until November 30, 2019

Artists

Eliza Douglas, Jade Kuriki Olivo, Puppies Puppies

Institution

Galerie Francesca Pia

Location

Zurich

Download

Press release (PDF)

Website

francescapia.com

Exhibition View Eliza Douglas / Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) Groupshow at Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich, 2019 / Photo: Annik Wetter / Courtesy: the artists and Galerie Francesca Pia

Galerie Francesca Pia is pleased to announce an exhibition by Eliza Douglas and Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) based on a dialogue between the two artists and a mutual reflecting on their respective artistic practices. The paintings by Eliza Douglas depict documentations of earlier costumed performances by Puppies Puppies in which her identity remained veiled. Only when the artist started hormone replacement therapy as a means to begin gender transition did both the artist’s body and her real name appear in her work. Douglas’s painterly depictions of these performances behind the grid of a window, provides a proverbial glimpse into Puppies Puppies’ artistic past.

Puppies Puppies’ (Jade Kuriki Olivo) performance in which she lies in an open coffin references her previous work but can also be seen as a metaphor for the dysphoria she feels as a queer/trans person—a disassociation from the body that people dealing with gender and body dysphoria can often experience. Death is also something we all have to contemplate. It can be an especially persistent subject when someone is dealing with depression or severe health concerns.

Eliza Douglas’s performance and corresponding video, showing a long sequence of fragmented scenes from the TV series The Walking Dead, introduces the zombie as an omnipresent motif in contemporary fashion, art, and the entertainment industry. Using the motifs of the corpse and the eternally undead, both artists reflect on the genesis of their work and their respective artistic practice as transgressive movements.

The preventive protection devices by Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo)—similar to the boarded-up windows, the iron gates, and the shelves full of supplies—convey the shared feeling of a diffuse threat and the overarching need to prepare for some sort of impending doom in a world that is rapidly deteriorating. Puppies Puppies dedicates her work in this exhibition to her father who recently passed away on September 28, 2019. He was often overly cautious and was consistently prepared for the worst-case scenario. He overcame huge obstacles in his life. Carlos Olivo was always prepared to take on an unknown threat.

Eliza Douglas (b. 1984, New York) lives and works in Frankfurt am Main and New York. Previous solo exhibitions include Overduin & Co, Los Angeles 2019; Jewish Museum, New York 2018; Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin 2017; Galerie Buchholz, New York 2017; Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden 2017; Folkwang Museum, Essen 2017 and Air de Paris, 2016. She is co-creator of music, art direction, costume designer and performer in: Anne Imhof: Sex, BMW Tate Live, Tate Modern, London 2019; Faust, German Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2017, Venice 2017; Angst II, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin 2016; Angst, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel 2016.

Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo), (b. 1989, Texas) lives and works in Los Angeles. She recently had solo exhibitions at Remai Modern, Saskatoon 2019; Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg 2019; Balice Hertling, Paris 2019; Queer Thoughts, New York 2019; Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin 2018; XYZ Collective, Tokyo 2018; Overduin & Co., Los Angeles 2017; Oracle, Berlin 2017; T293, Rome 2017; BFA Boatos, Sao Paulo 2016. Her work was included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial, and the 9th Berlin Biennale.

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Exhibition View Eliza Douglas / Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) Groupshow at Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich, 2019 / Photo: Annik Wetter / Courtesy: the artists and Galerie Francesca Pia

Exhibition View Eliza Douglas / Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) Groupshow (view on Puppies Puppies, Coffin (Sculpture & Performance), 2019) at Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich, 2019 / Courtesy: the artists and Galerie Francesca Pia

Exhibition View Eliza Douglas / Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) Groupshow at Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich, 2019 / Photo: Annik Wetter / Courtesy: the artists and Galerie Francesca Pia

Exhibition View Eliza Douglas / Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) Groupshow (view on Puppies Puppies, Survival Preparations (Dedicated to Carlos Olivo) (My Father) (RIP), 2019) at Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich, 2019 / Photo: Annik Wetter / Courtesy: the artists and Galerie Francesca Pia

Exhibition View Eliza Douglas / Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) Groupshow (view on Puppies Puppies, Survival Preparations (Dedicated to Carlos Olivo) (My Father) (RIP), 2019, detail) at Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich, 2019 / Photo: Annik Wetter / Courtesy: the artists and Galerie Francesca Pia

Exhibition View Eliza Douglas / Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) Soloshow (view on Puppies Puppies, Survival Preparations (Dedicated to Carlos Olivo) (My Father) (RIP), 2019, detail) at Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich, 2019 / Photo: Annik Wetter / Courtesy: the artists and Galerie Francesca Pia

Exhibition View Eliza Douglas / Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) Groupshow at Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich, 2019 / Photo: Annik Wetter / Courtesy: the artists and Galerie Francesca Pia

Exhibition View Eliza Douglas / Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) Groupshow (view on Eliza Douglas, Window (Puppies Puppies 1), 2019) at Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich, 2019 / Photo: Annik Wetter / Courtesy: the artists and Galerie Francesca Pia

Exhibition View Eliza Douglas / Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) Groupshow (view on Puppies Puppies, Iron Gate For Diamond Stingily, 2019) at Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich, 2019 / Photo: Annik Wetter / Courtesy: the artists and Galerie Francesca Pia

Exhibition View Eliza Douglas / Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) Groupshow at Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich, 2019 / Photo: Annik Wetter / Courtesy: the artists and Galerie Francesca Pia

Exhibition View Eliza Douglas / Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) Groupshow (view on Eliza Douglas, Apocalypse Apparel, 2019, detail) at Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich, 2019 / Courtesy: the artists and Galerie Francesca Pia