Our tenth solo exhibition of works by Gerwald Rockenschaub shows new and previously unknown works. The exhibition entitled 9102hoist / plasmatic breeze round-up is presented at our Fasanenplatz gallery and includes wall works and an object that—given their quasi-minimalistic nature—confront notions of space, color, form, materiality, and the phenomenon of their own optical viewing experience.

Rockenschaub works with a variety of synthetic and industrial materials: acrylic glass, colour vinyls, aluminium, MDF boards, etc. His art may have originated in painting from the 1980’s Neo-Geo movement; it has, however, subsequently developed increasingly towards video, sculpture, and installation. The technical production processes of his works have emerged as a theme—today the works are designed entirely on the computer. By additionally using the technical specifications as titles, Rockenschaub embraces the manufacturing processes. The practical realisation of the designs is delegated by the artist to professional specialist companies and experienced craftsmen.

In our exhibition 9102hoist / plasmatic breeze round-up, Gerwald Rockenschaub primarily shows pictorial wall objects. These are composed of acrylic glass and lacquered MDF boards, which reveal cut edges within apparently monochrome surfaces that become visible through the refraction of light. In addition to these strictly geometrical compositions that resemble paintings, a unicolored panel appears somewhat surprisingly as a kind of thematic “counterpoint”. An elegant, organic line runs through it and indicates a human profile. Another work is similarly surprising due to its sculptural-kinetic character: hanging like a pendulum from the ceiling, it plays with the otherwise rather static and minimalist framework of the exhibition space.

Rockenschaub’s unorthodox approach to ingrained visual expectations is essential to his artistic approach—he continuously seeks to thwart these in subtle, technically precise ways. The distinct proximity of his colours, shapes, and above all his artificial, synthetic materials to the world of product design is as familiar as it is alienating. The fact that Gerwald Rockenschaub‘s works provide a constantly reformulated dynamic within the genealogy of his practice—since the 1980s— sustains its currentness. We are very pleased to present his latest works in this exhibition.

Gerwald Rockenschaub (born in 1952 in Linz, Austria) lives and works in Berlin. His works have been presented in numerous solo exhibitions, most recently in the Sammlung Goetz, Munich (2017), previously in the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2016), in the Schaufler Foundation, Sindelfingen (2014), in the Secession, Vienna (2012), in the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (2011), in the Villa Stuck, Munich (2009), in the Kunsthalle Bern (2008), in the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (2007), in the Kunsthalle Nürnberg (2005), in the Museum of Modern Art, Vienna (2004). Until February 2, 2020, the Daimler Art Collection in Berlin is showing a group exhibition curated by Gerwald Rockenschaub under the title Sound on the 4th Floor.