GRITLI FAULHABER presents a series of new works on canvas in this exhibition titled “Les Garçonnes”, a reference to the subculture of women in the “roaring twenties”. The 1920s flapper-like style of bobbed hair, knee-height skirts, and make up went along with female emancipation: women were suddenly and playfully adopting stereotypical male behaviors such as smoking, drinking, driving, and sexual promiscuity. There was an attempt to overturn socially forced codes on female gender roles: The romantic glamor of the period hid its darker premise.
The artist roughly divides these paintings into two groups (one is magenta-heavy, the other plays with yellow and blue), in which color takes center stage. The artist’s interest in historic painting and fashion snippets, such as the illustrations by Danish artist Gerda Wegener, features predominant color fields. Bodies of color are brought to life near human bodies, occasionally obscuring or concealing them, indicating the history of her subjects is presented beyond mere illustration. She says, “I walk past them instead of looking at them.”
Faulhaber’s painting in this exhibition is more evocative than scientific. A historical phenomenon with current implication is evoked without definite statements. Formal inventions prevail over simple communication of the facts. We seem to enter a collage of images translated into paintings, reminiscent of a collection of jpegs on a crowded desktop used for research. Ohne Titel (Wahlverwandtschaften, Zitronengelb, Gold), 2024, is archetypal of her artistic process, with empty placeholder squares upon which the next reference image could be painted once found.
BIO
GRITLI FAULHABER (b. 1990 Freiburg im Breisgau, DE) lives and works in Zürich. Solo and two-person exhibitions include Theta, New York (2024), Istituto Svizzero, Milan (2023); Galerie Nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna (2023); BOOKS, Paris (2021); Sangt Hipolyt, Berlin (2020); Cherish, Geneva (2019). Recent group exhibitions include Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich (2024); Sweetwater, Berlin (2023); Theta, New York (2022); Swiss Art Awards, Basel (2022); Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg (2022); Artgenève, Geneva (2022); Fonda, Leipzig (2021); Galerie Lange + Pult, Zürich (2021); Kunsthaus Langenthal, Langenthal (2021); Kunstverein Leipzig, Leipzig (2020); Museum im Bellpark, Kriens (2020); Cité des Arts, Paris (2019). She is a 2022 recipient of the Swiss Art Award as well as the Working Grant of the City of Zürich.
