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Claire Oliver Gallery
Presents
Gabi Trinkaus The Way We Are Told May 26 - June 23, 2016
Gabi Trinkaus The Way We Are Told May 26 - June 23, 2016
Civilizations are not remembered by their business people, their bankers or lawyers. They're remembered by the arts. Eli Broad In Gabi Trinkaus’ current body of work,
The Way We Are Told, the viewer is initially seduced by ultra-sexy images of beauty and glamour. However, with closer observation, we realize that laying just beneath the surface of the work is a powerful editorial on our present Instagram/Tweet social media driven culture. When self-worth is developed and destroyed 140 characters at a time, surface is often mistaken for substance. From a distance, the work Play without LIMITS (the bitch is back) appears to be a photographic portrait of a flawless women, an easily digestible Instagram selfie. Upon inspection, the work’s well developed layers reveal cracks in the mask shown to the “public.
” A guise of selfconfidence and importance placed upon her one edict at a time by CHANEL, GUCCI and Louis Vuitton. By borrowing from an aesthetic associated with the world of high end marketing, Trinkaus plays with the idea of seduction in her work while carefully commenting on the broader culture of material consumption. In bold contrast to the commentary on personal branding we see in the portrait works of Trinkaus, her distinctive urban landscapes address larger questions of social convention that define this moment in time.
From a distance the sparkling lights portray a cheery city view in the work SMELL LIKE THE lifestyle. As the viewer scrutinizes the surface of a Trinkaus work, it becomes evident that it has been constructed both physically and conceptually to raise questions on our private versus public personas, social roles and the pressure to "belong". Labels and text fragments, alongside champagne bottles, cars, watches, pistols and bling make up the glistening night roadways. This flotsam and jetsam of media content are woven into the larger optical impression, allowing the viewer to contemplate their unique role to play in this challenge of a globalized life.
“From the get-go I had a critical approach in mind, yet with a hint of humor and much sincerity. The media swatches allow me to go in all of these directions at the same time. This is why collage proved to be the ideal technique for this on-going surface vs substance vs society series of work.” said Trinkaus when asked about her exhibition The Way We Are Told. Gabi Trinkaus has works in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Salzburg. Her work was the subject of a solo exhibition at Neue Galerie, Graz; she was included in the 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art and has had a feature interview in
No Added Preservatives
proper love for pink
Follow
share some sparkle
PLAY without limits.
Unisexy
Superstay