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until 21.11. | #2850ARTatBerlin | Köppe Contemporary presents the exhibition “Tomorrow Never Knows” by the artists Jim Avignon and Julia Benz starting September 29, 2020.
Under the title “Tomorrow Never Knows”, Galerie Köppe Contemporary with the artist Jim Avignon and the artist Julia Benz opens its doors for the first time since March 2020 on September 26th for a vernissage. With the title “Tomorrow Never Knows” the artists refer to a song of the Beatles from 1966 from the album Revolver.
Jim Avignon, painter and draftsman, illustrator, animator, concept artist, action and street art artist, songwriter, musician, performer and organizer of happenings, began his career in the early 1990s in New York and Berlin
Jim Avignon, It‘s Complicated, Mixed media on paper, 2020.
Meanwhile, Jim Avignon is internationally known as a “chronicler of urban life”, as he was once called, not only for his unmistakable visual language, but also for his actions in public space. The large-format paintings that the artist creates for his exhibitions are mostly created with acrylic paint on paper or cardboard. The coloring is reminiscent of pop culture, especially since the picture design is often determined by the signal-like primary colors red, yellow and blue. In terms of content, Jim Avignon constantly works with the means of figurative art, “carelessly mixing styles from advertising, poster art, comics, graffiti and classical painting”.
Jim Avignon, Last Orders, Mixed media on paper, 2020
Jim Avignon realizes his themes, which mostly oscillate between tragedy and comedy, with the means of the grotesque, satire and caricature. The viewer of his paintings experiences a furious panopticon of figures from all social milieus. One of the main settings of his motifs is the big city, with interiors in which people gather, such as clubs, bars, dance halls, restaurants or the home. Jim Avignon’s pictures deal with the attitude towards life of our time and with it “the extremes and the contradictions of a multinational society”. In the artist’s pictures everything is close together: lust for life and narcissism, love, lust and transience and “the circumstances and conflicts that shook the world”.
Julia Benz, Nostalgia, Acrylic, Ink aerosol on canvas, 160 x 120 cm, 2020
Julia Benz said in an interview: “Canvases, paper works, wall paintings, room installations and large-format works on canvas as well as on walls and house facades are my passion. Together with Jim Avignon and also referring to the title “Tomorrow Never Knows” the artist presents current works. Among other things she works with acrylic paint, ink or spray can. In her painting, concrete forms dissolve into abstraction and vice versa. “My aim is to stimulate the viewer to make his own associations with abstract allusions. Colors play an important role for me. For me, colors are a mirror of emotions (…)”, says Julia Benz.
Julia Benz, Journey, Acrylic, Ink aerosol on canvas, 150 x 220 cm, 2019
In addition to solo and group exhibitions, Julia Benz has worked with the Goethe-Institut on projects and workshops in Sudan, Uganda, Thailand, Finland and Brazil, among other places, and has realized large murals in private and public spaces, such as in the German headquarters of PayPal in Berlin or on the outside wall of the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum (Sudan). This year the artist created a fourteen meter long mural on acrylic glass for the c/o Galerie café in Berlin.
text: André Lindhorst
About the organization of the soft opening: The vernissage will take place under consideration of the applicable corona measures. You will find more detailed information on their website in due time.
Soft opening: Saturday, September 26, 2020, 3:00 – 10:00 p.m.
Exhibition dates: Tuesday, September 29 – Saturday, November 21, 2020
To the Gallery
Exhibition Jim Avignon + Julia Benz – Köppe Contemporary | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galleries | ART at Berlin
