Josephine Meckseper

born in Lilienthal, Germany
lives and works in New York

Josephine Meckseper’s exhibition at Arndt & Partner transformed the commercial zone of the gallery into a conceptually politicised territory. Characterised by everyday and ready-made objects that act not just as commodities but as symbols of an ideology, her radical signature exposes the flaws in US politics since 2001.
One should pay particular attention to the quiet, low-key symbols in her installations. The inconspicuously effective “Unable Bodies” (2008) – a walker decorated with a foxtail, a bible and an oil canister – makes a provocative, almost absurd reference to wounded veterans returning from war. “Blackwater” (2008) is a C-print bearing the logo of America’s largest private security and military company. The purposely soothing formalism of the piece debunks entrepreneurial and military interests.
“Fall of the Empire” (2008) is a display cabinet reminiscent of a conventional retail display. The items that Meckseper has arranged here – such as a glossy Hummer advertisement, a bathroom mat featuring a silver sculpture of an angel, and the head of a mannequin wrapped in cellophane – draw parallels between the fall of the Roman Empire and the decline of US hegemony.

In addition to successful solo exhibitions, for example at migros museum für gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Ausstellungshalle für zeitgenössische Kunst Münster, Germany, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis (all in 2009), at MoMA, New York and Bremer Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst (2008) and at Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (2007), she has also taken part in numerous national and international group exhibitions including the upcoming “Whitney Biennial 2010”, New York and “Contemplating the Void”, des Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (both 2010), „Morality: Beautiful from Every Point of View“, Witte de With, Rotterdam, „1989. End of History or Beginning of the Future? Comments on a Paradigm Shift”, Kunsthalle Wien, „MAN SON 1969. Vom Schrecken der Situation“, Hamburger Kunsthalle (all in 2009); „Prospect.1 New Orleans“ (2008); “Whitney Biennial 2006: Day for Night, Whitney Museum of American Art”, New York.

EXHIBITIONS:

26.02. – 16.04.11
Josephine Meckseper
“Contaminator”
Solo presentation at ARNDT, Berlin

29.4. - 30.5.2010
“Changing The World”
Group exhibition at ARNDT, Berlin
with Erik Bulatov, Sophie Calle, William Cordova, Wim Delvoye, Anton Henning, Thomas Hirschhorn, Ilya und Emilia Kabakov, Jitish Kallat, Jon Kessler, Karsten Konrad, Julije Knifer, Enrique Martinez Celaya, Josephine Meckseper, Vik Muniz, Muntean Rosenblum, Julian Rosefeldt, Charles Sandison, Dennis Scholl, Nedko Solakov, Hiroshi Sugito, Ena Swansea, Mathilde Ter Heijne, Keith Tyson, Ralf Ziervogel

23.09. – 23.10.2008
Josephine Meckseper
Solo exhibition at Arndt & Partner, Berlin

CATALOGUE AVAILABLE

Josephine Meckseper, exhibition view at Arndt & Partner, 2008, Photo Bernd Borchardt

Feb 20, 2010

2010 WHITNEY BIENNIAL 25 FEBRUARY TO 30 MAY 2010

Josephine Meckseper is participating at this years Whitney Biennial
An interview with the curator Francesco Bonami, with an Biennial Preview and Artist Photos has been publiched in:
Interview magazine

Nov 1, 2010

'The Right to Protest' - Josephine Meckseper is part of the group exhibition at the Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, as well as in the SARJAH Biennale, curated by Suzanne Cotter and Rasha Salti

Duration of the exhibition: 14 October - 30 November 2010

Dez 28, 2007

Publication: Josephine Meckseper

Josephine Meckseper, catalogue, 2007

Publisher: Hatje Cantz,Ostfilern
Edited by Marion Ackermann, foreword by Marion Ackermann, interview with the artist by Simone Schimpf, texts by Okwui Enwezor, Christian Höller
German/ English
168 pages, 140 illustrations, 112 in color
25,10 x 30,70 cm
hardcover
ISBN 978-3-7757-1986-5
Price 25 €

Exhibitions

26.02. - 20.04.2011
Josephine Meckseper
Contaminator
Solo presentation at ARNDT Berlin

Josephine Meckseper, Contaminator, 2010, Video, color, sound, transferred to Blu-ray

23.09. – 25.10.2008
Josephine Meckseper
Solo exhibition at Arndt & Partner, Berlin

Josephine Meckseper, solo exhibition at Arndt & Partner, Berlin

Arndt & Partner are delighted to present the first solo show by Josephine Meckseper in Berlin.
Josephine Meckseper has been living in the United States since the beginning of the 1990s and has since maintained a notable critique of the internal and foreign political occurrences in her chosen home. This summer, the European public gained an impression of the election campaign machine during “election year” when Barak Obama made his appearance at Berlin’s Victory Column. The significance of this election year and the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war are reflected in the exhibited work of the New York-based artist.
Meckseper transforms the commercial zone of the gallery into a conceptually politicized territory. Through her radical signature use of display systems and commodity structures, she exposes the flaws of US politics since 2001.
One should pay particular attention to the quiet, low-key symbols in the exhibition. Vis-à-vis the display cabinet entitled Fall of the Empire is the inconspicuously effective work with the working title Walker. A walking frame adorned with a fox tail, a bible and an oil canister. A provocative, almost absurd reference to the injured, returned war veterans, as is the logo of the Blackwater Group, America’s largest private security and militia firm, that campaigns with the slogan: “American’s Veterans Serving America…Again!” In her Film 0% Down she refers to the militaristic advertising rhetoric of the automobile industry and lays open their crude sales tactics used during the war. Meckseper also picks up on this theme in her collages on canvas. Images of American cars still wrapped in plastic and apparently unused play ironically upon a car-centred American society that is so willing lead by the automotive industry.
Meckseper skilfully re-contextualises and dissects the phenomenon of American society, in particular through the incorporation of the rhetoric and strategies of politics and advertisement in her work.
Born in Lilienthal, Germany, Josephine Meckseper studied at the California Institute of the Arts, California and at the Universität der Künste, Berlin. She lives and works in New York. In addition to successful solo exhibitions, for example at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (2007) and the Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen (2008), she has also taken part in numerous national and international group exhibitions including; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (1999), at the Frankfurter Kunstverein (2003), at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, und at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (both 2006). Currently her work can be seen in the exhibition New Photography 2008: Josephine Meckseper and Mikhael Subotzky in the MoMA, New York (until 05.01.2009).