The first institutional solo exhibition of the US painter Christina Quarles in Germany, shows an installation that occupies the entire exhibition space: gauze panels divide the rooms, similar to translucent theatre scrims used to reveal and obscure actors, décors, and objects. The formal language of Quarles’ paintings explores the experience of living in a racialized, queer body. Her figures contend with the boundaries of identity, as they intervene with complex patterns and planes.
In “Collapsed Time”, Quarles exhibits her paintings alongside works from the Nationalgalerie (National Gallery) collection by, Absalon, Vito Acconci, Stanley Brouwn, Daniel Buren, Annette Kelm, Nam Jun Paik, and Charlotte Posenenske. Quarles confronts several decades of diverse forms of artistic practices, from photography and sculpture to video and performance, that have dealt with notions of physical and psychological confinement, and their impact on the representation of the human body. The exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof features paintings and works on paper by Quarles from 2016 onwards, as well as a large-scale painting installation created for the show.
Exhibition Catalogue
The exhibition will be accompanied by a bilingual German-English publication featuring a curatorial essay by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, an extended inter-view with Christina Quarles and a contribution by Jillian Hernandez, Associate Professor at the Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies Research, University of Florida, USA
Curators
Curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, directors Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart.
A special exhibition by the Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin