June 22, 2022 |
“A dream in neon, glitter and haute couture” is how the Galerie Gugging defines its latest debut, created in partnership with Christopher Kane. Ever the exhibitionist, Curated by Christopher Kane is a presentation of the designer’s own artistic outputs, alongside a personally selected collection of works by other contributing ‘Gugging Artists’.
Nestled amongst the Vienna Woods, less than 20km north west of the Austrian capital, Galerie Gugging is recognised for its international outlook and original presentations of the Art Brut movement. A self-confessed fan of the genre – perhaps unsurprisingly, given its basic translation to ‘raw art’ – Kane praised the freedom that such approach enables: “There’s a spontaneity to Art Brut or Outsider Art – that feeling of a skill or expression that just seems to come from nowhere, the absence of ego in art brut is what makes it so interesting to me.”
So, what can we expect from the exhibition? Like many pent-up creatives during the pandemic, Kane sought a renewed purpose through his craft and rekindled his passion for painting – as seen through the namesake label’s SS21 collection, which saw the designer hand paint directly onto a slew of one-off frocks.
The resulting work caught the eye of gallery director Nina Katschnig, and a bold new collaboration was born. The artworks on display vary in their size and materials, whether its neon six-foot canvases or small scale hand drawn portraits Kane likes to dub The Brats. The finished product is a fundamentally simple construction of Kane’s expressive personalities, yet entirely flamboyant and provocative.
If his work with Galerie Gugging is anything to go by, Kane is entering an exciting new phase in his career, one that his catapulted by hedonistic creativity and total control of his artistic output. The result is an exchange of artistic experience between Kane and the Gugging collaborators, one that signals to the next era of Kane’s brilliant career.
‘Curated By Christopher Kane’ is open at Galerie Gugging from June 23 – October 9 2022.
