"OWL STRETCHING TIME"Berlin, March 19th - April 24th, 2010


Eddy Smith, Kopf, 1923

Connecting different geographical and historical positions, 'Owl Stretching Time' brings together artists who share an irreverent attitude toward the boundaries of the mediums and genres in which they work. The exhibition is comprised of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, collages and ceramics.
These artists share a sensibility for extracting elements from their initial cultural context thus connecting sources that get culturally re-positioned through fantasy and desire. Their works tend to confound any clear identification or reduction to a single communicative meaning.
Installed side-by-side, these relatively disparate works lay bare the continuities and rich cross-connections within their practices. The breadth of back-and-forth in the exhibition makes evident the artists' translation of subject and sensibility across mediums, cultures, and artistic eras, all seemingly directed by a playful ambiguity and a subtle sense of humor.
The title of the exhibition refers to the 4th episode of the British TV series 'Monthy Python's Flying Circus, aired on BBC on October 26, 1969. The name was in origin a proposed name for the series itself. Starting with a gentle, guitar-strumming singer, the scene quickly changes to an art gallery, where the quality of masterpiece paintings is being judged by how they taste**. A witty and grotesque parody of how aesthetical values can be perceived and consumed.


Meuser, Sie sollen erst einmal die Eier sehen, die kommen gleich mit dem Laster hinterher, 2007


Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, Schlafender 1929


Installation view


Nicholas Byrne, Beau Dial, 2009


Installation view, in the foreground: Eva Löfdahl, Untitled, both 2009


Johanna Kandl, Untitled, 2009


Lili Dujourie, Roman 18-12, 1978


Installation view


Sarah Crowner, Installation view


Erik Dietman, Erik Dietman Oil Painting, 1977


Erik Dietman, Erik Dietman Oil Painting, 1977 (detail)


Matthew Brannon, Is and Is Not, 2010


Sam Windett, Thrasher (left) and Lift Craft (right), both 2009


Tamar Halpern, Franky, 2009


Lili Dujourie, Stil Leven 22-3, 1976


Nicholas Byrne, Ringer, 2009