Benefit of the Doubt
Gerry Bibby, Rochelle Feinstein, Sophie Gogl, Lorenza Longhi, Henrik Olesen, SoiL Thornton, Sung Tieu
March 9 – May 29, 2021
Deborah Schamoni
Mauerkircherstraße 186
Munich, Germany
Benefit of the Doubt at Deborah Schamoni. Exhibition view.Benefit of the Doubt at Deborah Schamoni. Exhibition view.SoiL Thornton, Swatched Class Act, (ceramic boot licker), 2020, Wood glue, gorilla glue, epoxy and potting soil, Bondo auto body filler, shoe polish and spray paint on CNC routed MDF coated with FR polyuria, primed and sprayed white, 120 x 120 x 10 cmBenefit of the Doubt at Deborah Schamoni. Exhibition view.Sung Tieu, Untitled (In Cold Print), 2020, Wall mounted stainless steel stool 47,5 x 51 x 36 cmSung Tieu, Untitled (In Cold Print), 2020, Floor mounted stainless steel stool, 47,5 x 51 x 36 cmSung Tieu, Untitled (In Cold Print), 2020, Prügelei auf Spielplatz, 2020, Print on newspaper stock, 49,5 x 31 cmSophie Gogl, Anna III, 2019, Acrylic on wood, 120 × 80 cmSophie Gogl, Anna III, 2019, Acrylic on wood, 120 × 80 cmBenefit of the Doubt at Deborah Schamoni. Exhibition view.Benefit of the Doubt at Deborah Schamoni. Exhibition view.SoiL Thornton, Isolation from fallen halt and intelligence in mirroring (remember Allen), 2019 Aluminum protective enamel paint and spray paint on wood panel, 156 x 218 x 6,5 cmBenefit of the Doubt at Deborah Schamoni. Exhibition view.Gerry Bibby, Vision of Excess 11. Distortion, 2020, Wood, metal, glass, paint, paper, sound, variable dimensions, 50 x 65 x 70 cmBenefit of the Doubt at Deborah Schamoni. Exhibition view.Benefit of the Doubt at Deborah Schamoni. Exhibition view.Gerry Bibby, Vision of Excess 9. Surface Hiccup, 2020, Wood, metal, glass, paint, paper, sound, variable dimensions , 64 x 85 x 85 cmBenefit of the Doubt at Deborah Schamoni. Exhibition view.Gerry Bibby, Vision of Excess 8. Transit, 2020, Wood, metal, glass, paint, paper, sound, variable dimensions, 60 x 80 x 85 cmBenefit of the Doubt at Deborah Schamoni. Exhibition view.Henrik Olesen, 3.Auflösung, 2020, Silicone on cardstock, 39,5 x 52 x 1 cmHenrik Olesen, 5.Auflösung, 2020, Silicone on cardstock, 39,5 x 52 x 1 cmHenrik Olesen, 6.-7.Auflösung, 2020, Silicone on cardstock, Part 1: 39,5 x 52 x 1 cm , Part 2: 39,5 x 52 x 1 cm , Overall dimensions: 86 x 52 x 1 cmHenrik Olesen, Auflösung II, 2020, Silicone on cardstock 39,5 x 52 x 1 cmBenefit of the Doubt at Deborah Schamoni. Exhibition view.Benefit of the Doubt at Deborah Schamoni. Exhibition view.Rochelle Feinstein, The Year In Hate /January February, 2018, Silkscreen and acrylic on canvas, 122 x 127 cmRochelle Feinstein, The Year In Hate /January February, 2018, Silkscreen and acrylic on canvas, 122 x 127 cmRochelle Feinstein, The Year In Hate /March April, 2018, Silkscreen and acrylic on canvas, 122 x 127 cmBenefit of the Doubt at Deborah Schamoni. Exhibition view.Lorenza Longhi, Untitled, 2020, Silkscreen on fabric mounted on wood panel, aluminium, screws, 83 x 59 x 3 cmLorenza Longhi, Untitled, 2020, Silkscreen on fabric mounted on wood panel, aluminium, screws, 83 x 59 x 3 cmSoiL Thornton, Mirroring from there to here for the most genderless rudiment (Salo’)(unformed entry), 2020, 120 sstainless steel baoding balls balls of 2″, Dimensions variableSoiL Thornton, Mirroring from there to here for the most genderless rudiment (Salo’)(unformed entry), 2020, 120 stainless steel baoding balls of 2″, Dimensions variable
All images courtesy of the artists and gallery. Photos by Ulrich Gebert.
We are pleased to announce Benefit of the Doubt a group show taking place at Deborah Schamoni gallery in March 2021. This exhibition brings together works by artists Gerry Bibby, Rochelle Feinstein, Sophie Gogl, Lorenza Longhi, Henrik Olesen, SoiL Thornton and Sung Tieu to engage in questions around recognition proper to the aesthetic and socioeconomic dimensions of contemporary art.
The artists invited share a concern in the context, production and reception of contemporary art and the historically and institutionally limited legibility of forms, materials and mediums as they confront common registers of naming, redirecting the processes of their own signification by engaging in idiosyncratic idioms, peculiar syntax and uneasy semiotic puns.
In times of climactic polarization, politics and languages of recognition in the public sphere and in the spaces of art are revealed as double-edged swords. The exhibition focuses on works positioned in an unresolved dispute between formulating subjects and drawing attention to conditions of their very material subjection: reluctant to justify themselves as either reference or abstraction, container or content, revelation or formal withdrawal, their material and formal strategies willingly problematise the predicaments of their own valorization.
How to allow for readings that interrupt the short circuit of prevalent liberal-capitalist interpretations? In a cultural logic that favors the authority of individual experience, can the body of work operate independently of the body of the artist?
The works in Benefit of the Doubt address such questions through material critique that permeates the socioeconomic and historical circumstances of their production and reception. This exhibition wants to suggest that the untranslatable or vernacular in aesthetic experiences are not to be seen as a textual disadvantage but as a structural advantage harboring potential of transformative productivity.
Text by Franziska Sophie Wildförster
