08 Apr 2011

Alejandra Seeber at Haeusler Contemporary Munich

Haeusler Contemporary Munich is proud to present »Yes Yes«, the first solo exhibition in Munich of the Argentine-born artist Alejandra Seeber (b. 1968, lives and works in New York).

In this exclusive gallery presentation, Seeber will be showing a series of new paintings whose motifs are evocative of interior spaces. The result of a process-oriented practice, they unfold as interior monologues, opening up a wide field of associations and references.

Alejandra Seeber's work explores the possibilities of painting between figuration and abstraction. Its ambivalent visual language resists linear interpretation, combining abstract-expressive images with unexpected narrative suggestions. As well as the confrontation of highly diverse motifs, this antagonism is a defining trait of the artist's multi-facetted and complex work. 
Seeber's paintings often make reference to her personal experiences. In recent years, they have also included elements from the world of theatre, set in stage-like compositions. While reformulating everyday subjects through spontaneous painterly gestures remains central to Seeber's work, the allusions to reality in her latest paintings are less explicit. »Legend Box«, for instance, is dominated by intricate, brightly coloured structures, abstract pictorial compositions which, in conjunction with the more obvious elements, produce the impression of a sudden release of energy. »Before Things Are« immerses viewers in a colourful universe where, at second glance, the colourless, amorphous structures appear to be the main subject: still undefined in terms of form and function, they symbolise incompleteness while hinting to potential developments. 


In the words of the artist: »My paintings do not explain themselves. Rather, I prefer to leave questions open, presenting viewers with a decisive point of entry.«

In 2009 Alejandra Seeber's dynamic-expressive paintings were shown to great acclaim at the Mercosul Biennial in Porto Allegre, Brazil. In 2010 she took part in the exhibition »Ambigu« at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen. This groundbreaking show highlighted the balancing act of post-modern painting between abstraction and narration. »[T]his contemporary form of impure abstraction«, which »allows for the representation of fictitious worlds with essentially pictorial means«, was anticipated in the 1970s by the work of Raoul De Keyser and Mary Heilmann. Developing a unique, multi-layered, poetic and expressive pictorial language, Alejandra Seeber perpetuates this tradition in contemporary painting.

Alejandra Seeber's work has been shown at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen and in numerous international exhibitions, a.o. in New York, Madrid and Buenos Aires. Her work has been featuring in the State Collection of Prints and Drawings in Munich since 2009.

Hanna Kaiser