Artpace Unveils Gabriel Vormsteins First American Museum Project

An Artist's Largest Work Transforms the Hudson (Show)Room
01.13.11

SAN ANTONIO, TX - Artpace San Antonio is pleased to announce the opening of Gabriel Vormstein's first solo museum show and American museum project, The Teeth of the Wind and the Sea. The artist has filled the walls of the Hudson (Show)Room with paintings, drawings, and collages-primarily on gessoed newspaper-featuring fragments of images from myriad sources. Additionally, the artist has created a discrete catacomb or side chapel filled with plaster relic-like constructions and paintings that refer to the ephemeral nature of existence. It is the largest work the artist has ever made in his career, dramatically shifting the scale from more intimate portrait-like works to a painting that completely encompasses its environment and submerges viewers into it.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
German artist Gabriel Vormstein utilizes themes of failure and death in his paintings and sculptural works as catalysts for inquiry and innovation in the arts. Inspired by the work of Egon Schiele, he reexamines the romantic, emotionally charged gestures found in early Modernist painting. He frequently works on raw and primed newspaper as his canvas, selecting and redrawing figures from art history and fashion magazines and offsetting them with abstract imagery and collage. His choice of organic, low-cost materials, such as newspaper, not only recalls the type of media used in the Arte Povera movement from the late 1960s, but suggests a connection between the degrading effects of age that newsprint and the body share.

Vormstein was the recipient of the Graduiertenstipendium des Landes Baden-Württemberg Award in 2002 and is nominated for the 2009/2010 Sovereign European Art Prize. His work has been included in museum exhibitions in Europe, such as Seltsam, so lose im Raum, Kulturstiftung Schloss Agathenburg, Germany (2010); Made in Germany, Kestner Gesellschaft, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Kunstverein Hannover, Germany (2007); and Of Mice and Men: 4th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art, curated by Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni, and Ali Subotnick, Germany (2006). This will be his first solo museum show in the world and his first American museum project.

EXHIBITION DETAILS AND RELATED EVENTS
Exhibition Dates
January 13-May 1, 2011

10-minute Tour: The Teeth of the Wind and the Sea: Gabriel Vormstein
Friday, January 14, 2011
1pm

Private Tours
Tours in both Spanish and English are available by appointment. To schedule a group tour, contact Matt Johns at mjohns@artpace.org or call 210 212 4900 x314.

ABOUT ARTPACE
Artpace San Antonio serves as an international laboratory for the creation and advancement of contemporary art. Artpace believes that art is a dynamic social force that inspires individuals and defines cultures. Our residencies, exhibitions, and education programs nurture the creative expression of emerging and established artists, while actively engaging youth and adult audiences.

Artpace is located downtown at 445 North Main Avenue, between Savings and Martin streets, San Antonio, Texas. Free parking is available at 513 North Flores Street. Artpace is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, 12-5 PM, and by appointment. Admission is free.

© 2011 Artpace San Antonio

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org