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Tatjana Gerhard at Mayday

Solo Show «Schutzwall», September 25 until October 30, 2022

Artists

Tatjana Gerhard

Institution

Mayday

Location

Basel

Download

Press release (PDF)

Website

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Exhibition View Tatjana Gerhard Solo Show «Schutzwall» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday

For the solo exhibition titled "Schutzwall," Tatjana Gerhard creates a room-spanning wall painting at Mayday. She expands the characteristic ceramic tiles of the space into a ruin-like masonry with gaps and openings. This installation allows for views through, changing perspectives, and encounters, serving as an atmospheric backdrop for Gerhard's paintings on canvas.

In her paintings, veiled faces, grotesque grimaces, or deformed body parts emerge from dark backgrounds, often dramatically staged. The motifs draw from a rich visual history and cultural origins, evolving into unique creatures and images through the painting process with sketchy lines, contrasting color fields, and overlapping layers of paint.

The openings and breakthroughs in the masonry are reflected in the depicted figures - appearing hollowed out, perforated, or split; they collapse inwards or outwards, threatening to burst the pictorial space or be overwhelmed by it. Gerhard explores the relationship between interior and exterior, facade and hidden elements. The space becomes a protective barrier, the images turning into shields.

She questions whether they are defenses against external threats or the abysses of human relationships. Through her rapid and gestural painting style, Gerhard reveals the artifice of the depicted structure - the trompe-l'œil effect is transparent, the illusion crumbles. This highlights the ambivalence of walls as both refuge and boundary, isolation and permeability, as well as the power of painting itself.

Tatjana Gerhard, born in 1974 in Zurich and currently based in Ghent, Belgium, studied at the School of Design and Art in Zurich. She has held solo exhibitions at various venues, including Helmhaus Zurich, Centre culturel suisse in Paris, Galerie Rotwand in Zurich, and PLUS-ONE Gallery in Antwerp. Her works have been featured in numerous group exhibitions both domestically and internationally, including at SMAK in Ghent and Kunstmuseum Bern. She is represented in various public and private collections.

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Exhibition View Tatjana Gerhard Solo Show «Schutzwall; view on Tatjana Gerhard, Head, 2022» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday

Exhibition View Tatjana Gerhard Solo Show «Schutzwall» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday

Exhibition View Tatjana Gerhard Solo Show «Schutzwall; view on Tatjana Gerhard, In der Welt, 2022» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday

Exhibition View Tatjana Gerhard Solo Show «Schutzwall» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday

Exhibition View Tatjana Gerhard Solo Show «Schutzwall; view on Tatjana Gerhard, Verhängnis, 2022» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday

Exhibition View Tatjana Gerhard Solo Show «Schutzwall» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday

Exhibition View Tatjana Gerhard Solo Show «Schutzwall; view on Tatjana Gerhard, Darunter, 2022» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday

Exhibition View Tatjana Gerhard Solo Show «Schutzwall; view on Tatjana Gerhard, Gerhard dancing with the Devil, 2022» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday

Exhibition View Tatjana Gerhard Solo Show «Schutzwall; view on Tatjana Gerhard, Personen, 2022» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday

Exhibition View Tatjana Gerhard Solo Show «Schutzwall; view on Tatjana Gerhard, Gespräch, 2022» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday

Exhibition View Tatjana Gerhard Solo Show «Schutzwall; view on Tatjana Gerhard, Descent, 2022» at Mayday, Basel, 2022 / Photo: Moritz Schermbach / Courtesy: the artist and Mayday