John Knight at Galerie Neu, Berlin at The Intermission, Piraeus

Artist: John Knight

Exhibition title: Headshots, a work in situ, 2019 / Worldebt, 1994

Venue: Galerie Neu, Berlin, Germany, The Intermission, Piraeus, Greece

Date: September 18 – October 30, 2019 / November 1 – December 1, 2019

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist, Galerie Neu, Berlin and The Intermission, Piraeus

John Knight, Headshots, a work in situ, 2019 Latex, Helium, Fabric, Stainless Steel, Lead
Galerie Neu is pleased to present John Knight, Headshots, a work in situ, 2019 at The Intermission, Piraeus, Greece.

Since the late 1960s, Los Angeles-based artist John Knight has pioneered the practices of site-specificity and institutional critique, always interested in interrogating the underlying geopolitical and economic systems implicit in everyday convention. Eschewing a signature style, Knight prefers to work in situ, engaging with and responding to the context of each unique site. Often utilizing the visual strategies of architecture, advertising, and corporate design, Knight’s multilayered projects challenge the art establishment and its relationship to a larger global context.

John Knight (b. 1945) lives in Los Angeles and works in situ. Recent solo exhibitions include CCA Kitakyushu, Kitakyushu (2019), Ordet, Milan (2019), établissement d’en face, Brussels (2018), the Cultuurcentrum, Strombeek (2017); Cabinet, London (2016); Redcat, Los Angeles (2016); Greene Naftali, New York (2015); Portikus, Frankfurt (2013); and Galerie Neu/MD72, Berlin (2013).”

The second part of the exhibition (01.11.2019 – 30.11.2019) will be displaying for the first in Greece John Knight‘s seminal work: Worldebt, 1994, Lithography on aluminum, 165 parts, 8 x 13 cm each.

John Knight, Headshots, a work in situ, 2019, Latex, Helium, Fabric, Stainless Steel, Lead

John Knight, Worldebt, 1994 Lithography on aluminum, 165 parts, 8 x 13 cm each

Galerie Neu and The Intermission are pleased to present for the first time in Greece John Knight‘s seminal work: Worldebt, 1994.

The work consists of one hundred sixty-five slightly oversized credit cards created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, established at a meeting in the northern wilds of Bretton Woods, N.H., a year before the end of World War II.

On the front of each card has been printed a National Geographic-style lithographic photo of the country in debt alongside information regarding the dates it became members of the IMF, while the telephone number of the bank’s fraud and corruption hot line substitutes for an account number and Knight’s initials replace the “trade-mark” sign next to the word “Worldebt”.

Installation view, John Knight, Worldebt, The Intermission, Piraeus, 2019