Zeller van Almsick, Vienna & Shore, Vienna - Dialogue
Sophie Serber and Edin Zenun
For 2022 Art-o-rama’s Dialogue Section, Zeller van Almsick and Shore Gallery present a duo show of the two up-and-coming artists Edin Zenun (MK/AT, 1987) and Sophie Serber (US, 1993).
Edin Zenun’s work outlines a careful observation of the image and style clashes that coexist everyday. From the golden ornament to the sprayed tag that runs on its surface, Zenun samples these fragments to organize them into subtle compositions. Likewise, his colors mixed with clay and natural pigments imprint a quiet note. Each painting is, thus, a score built from orchestrated reminiscences and homages.
In contrast, Sophie Serber’s work questions the fragile border between sense and nonsense. Hence, Serber takes the clown as a symbol for tragic affective representations. It also stands as an alter-character who can act whimsically and subvert control and behavioral boundaries.
For this series, she overlays images of clowns m a coloring book, making the lines of the coloring pages reflective—a surface treatment used for safety and visibility to prevent danger. This way, the lines meant to provide stable meaning and bound the characters merge and become less useful. The lines fail to fully represent the clowns, which themselves exist as a nameable “other.” The clowns give us a place, as separate m them. The caricature helps us make sense of ourselves because we are not it. It shows us where we stand and who we stand by. When you call something nonsense, it means you make sense, but this border is rather fragile and subjective.
Edin Zenun
*1987 in Skopje (MK)
Lives and works in Vienna (AT)
Edin Zenun’s work centers on the pictorial and its intrinsic questionings around composition, the interaction of form and color, and materiality by exploring handmade organic pigments, oil, and clay. He graduated m the University of Fine Arts Vienna; since 2017, he is a board member of Project space Pina and the Exhibition Platform Haus Wien.
Some selected solo shows are: (2021) Strangers and Conman, Suzieshride, Vienna (AT), (2020) Amygdala, curated by Kerstin von Gabain, Zeller van Almsick, Vienna (AT), (2020) Dunkelblau riecht salzig, Kommod, Vienna (AT) (2020) Poesie, Bologna, Amsterdam (NL), and (2018) Artist Statement, Parallel, Vienna (AT)
His work has been exhibited in collective exhibitions at MAK, Vienna (AT), Belvedere 21, Vienna (AT), Spazio Murat, Bari (IT), Innsbrucker Kunsthalle, Innsbruck (AT), AutoItalia, London (GB), Zeller van Almsick, Vienna (AT), among others.
Sophie Serber
*1993 in Santa Cruz, CA (US)
Lives and works in Amsterdam (NL)
Sophie Serber (Santa Cruz, US) currently lives and works in Amsterdam. She studied Fine Arts at Pratt Institute, New York, and at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie.
Recent exhibitions of her work include: Disneyland Paris, Melbourne; Mery Gates, New York; Shore Gallery, Vienna; Montez Press Radio, New York; Bologna, Amsterdam; Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art, Middelburg; Galerie Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam; CAVE3000, Berlin.
