STEFAN KERN

Stefan Kern
Missed the Turn
March 31 – April 28, 2007

Andrew Kreps Gallery is pleased to present Missed the Turn, the first U.S. solo exhibition by Hamburg-based artist Stefan Kern. Stefan Kern’s sculptures simultaneously appear as minimal art objects and objects from everyday life. Their brilliant, glossy surfaces can sometimes be used as benches, tables, bookshelves, or even seesaws. For Missed the Turn, instead of appropriating forms from furniture or interior architecture, Kern has looked to roadway barriers and emergency markers for inspiration.

The Gallery contains an array of accoutrements from an accident scene or construction site, complete with an emergency palette of neon yellow, orange, black, and white, in addition to the ubiquitous blue of plastic tarps. Although recognizable, the work also calls into question the definition of abstraction, by reminding you of the abstractness of objects we interact with on a daily basis.

All of the objects are dented, warped, and bent, as though the roadside objects have been involved in a collision, leaving them to form a seemingly accidental arrangement, yet they remain pristine; their slick coated surfaces completely intact. This shift back and forth between pristine sculpture and familiar, utilitarian object illustrates the contradictions that are central to Kern’s work.

Stefan Kern has exhibited internationally at museums and galleries including Galerie Michael Neff, Frankfurt, Galerie Karin Guenther, Hamburg, Sprüth Magers, Munich, Portikus, Frankfurt, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Goethe-Institut, Sao Paulo, and Bloomberg Space, London, England, Kunstverein Hamburg, and Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany.