Art Cologne7.11.2024–10.11.2024Sarah Bogner, Andrew Gilbert
Sperling at Art Cologne Collaborations, together with Livie, Zurich, presenting Andrew Gilbert and Sarah Bogner.
Livie, Zurich, and Sperling, Munich, are pleased to present Sarah Bogner and Andrew Gilbert at Art Cologne Collaborations, two artists known for their inventive way of drawing animals. Like in fables, the featured anthropomorphized animals suggest a fictionality and lightness at first sight but after closer inspection they serve as revealers of human society.
The best way to approach one of Sarah Bogner’s (b. 1980, Munich, lives and works in Vienna) joyful paintings, is to simply observe the anthropomorphic creatures populating her world: half horse, somewhat human, but fully formed they cavort around, dancing, smoking. Their mouths are open, wisps of smoke or speech-bubbles that curl in complex forms escaping: are they in conversation, or merely sharing a convivial moment smoking cigarettes? Similarly, the smiling little ambiguous head/ eye creatures, dapper in their cowboy hats, float against a calm lilac background. The horse-creature and the “friend”, as she calls the disembodied heads that appear serially in her works, are her companions in painting, metaphors for artistic and emotional states. Her protagonists act as ciphers to a personal mythology: neither horses, nor people, nor eyes, nor heads, they are nonetheless fully formed characters with intimate friendships that a viewer can only guess at.
In Bogner’s works, colors, shapes, and light create a sense of immediacy. Her surfaces are flat, only the play of the light across the surface of the glossy egg-tempera and acrylics she uses adding contrast and depth to her translucent palette.
Andrew Gilbert (*1980 in Edinburgh, Scotland, lives and works in Berlin) explores the profound and often troubling connections between historical representations of animals and the cultural narratives that shaped colonialism. Through his drawings, he delves into the tradition of depicting nations as animals – a practice prominent in European political cartoons of the 19th century. Iconic representations such as Great Britain as a lion and Russia as a bear highlight the role of animal imagery in nationalistic discourse. Additionally, he addresses the controversial “Human Zoo” colonial exhibitions, using these to frame a broader commentary on the objectification and dehumanization in colonial practices. Inspired by diverse historical sources and personal reflections, Andrew Gilbert’s work investigates the dual process of animalization and humanization as seen through the lens of advertising, art, and imperial ideology. From his squirrel-drawings that initially symbolized anti-colonial resistance to their evolution into satires of consumerism, the artworks serve as a critique of societal values and historical narratives. Influences like Aldous Huxley’s “Of Ape and Essence” and H.G. Wells’ “The Island of Dr. Moreau” provide a backdrop of speculative fiction where the moral implications of these representations are scrutinized.
