Redesign of von Bartha’s Basel gallery to open January 2017

The launch of the renovated gallery will coincide with a solo exhibition by Ricardo Alcaide.

 

 

The new space, redesigned by Zurich-based architect Lukas Voellmy (Luvo architects), will reveal site-specific installations throughout the gallery by four artists from von Bartha’s roster: Karim Noureldin, Sarah Oppenheimer, Boris Rebetez and Superflex. It will also feature a reading room for visitors with access to a significant collection of books, catalogues and other printed materials.

 

 

In 2008 the two Lukas Voellmy and Chasper Schmidlin oversaw the initial conversion of a petrol station into the von Bartha Basel art gallery. Following this, von Bartha worked with Lukas Voellmy on the realisation of New York artist Sarah Oppenheimer’s large scale installation for Art Basel Unlimited, 2009. Lukas Voellmy has since designed numerous private homes across Switzerland.

 

 

Running alongside the inaugural presentation of the renovated gallery will be an exhibition from Venezuelan artist Ricardo Alcaide, who joined von Bartha earlier this year. The exhibition features new installations, including wall and floor pieces, which make comment on the urban environment.

 

 

Working in an almost anthropological manner, Alcaide explores the relationship between architecture and economic precarity. Poetic yet political, his paintings, sculptures and installations expose what is concealed or overlooked within urban situations. Employing a minimal aesthetic, Alcaide‘s work comments on the miscalculated utopianism of Latin-American Modernism, and its aftermath.

 

The exhibition runs from 13 January – 18 March 2017.