Spanning two floors of its gallery, David Zwirner Hong Kong presents a survey of Isa Genzken’s more notable works from the past decade in the influential artist’s first solo exhibition in Greater China.
Despite the linear passage of time, Isa Genzken has remained young in terms of her groundbreaking career where she has continuously bent rules and blurred boundaries for more than four decades. Starting as a minimalist artist in the ’80s, she was influenced by other young artists in the ’90s and expanded to using more diverse mediums, such as kitchen utensils, in her sculpture and installation works. Informed by the legacy of the avant-garde movement from the 20th century whilst utilising the materials and forms of the 21st century’s global society, she is known today for her bewilderingly complex oeuvre encompassing sculpture, painting, collage, drawing, film, and photography. To quote American conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner: “They don’t have to know a damn thing about Isa Genzken. They don’t have to know her gender, it doesn’t have anything to do with her nationality; it doesn’t have anything to do with anything except with what you see… It is not at all a secret. It is not at all hidden.” The sentiment has proven true in Genzken’s solo exhibition at David Zwirner Hong Kong, where her key works of profound rebellion from the past decade are currently presented for the first time in Greater China—some of which also has never been shown before in the Asia Pacific region.