SLUR | Exhibition group | Aurel Scheibler

until 08.11. | #4817ARTatBerlin | Aurel Scheibler presents from 11. September 2025 the group exhibition SLUR by the artists Schutter, Tom Chamberlain, Jack Pierson, Andy Warhol, Alice Neel and Öyvind Fahlström.

The English word “slur” is one of those terms that can be interpreted very differently depending on the context.In music,for example, it refers to a curved sign placed over notes and, with it, the indication that they should be played smoothly and seamlessly. Slur also denotes an extremely offensive and socially unacceptable term intended to denigrate and insult. In addition, it refers to inarticulate, unclear, or incorrect pronunciation, where words run into one another.

Tom Chamberlain Slur, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 90 x 100 cm © Tom Chamberlain

Slur takes its title from the painting by Tom Chamberlain in this exhibition. It is a work of ephemeral form. Our perception is destabilised, for in its appearance Chamberlain’s work operates on the boundary between something and nothing.The canvas reveals no structure, and the countless thin layers of paint show no brush marks. What was just supposedly seen dissolves again,and the eye wanders,searching for support on the smooth surface.

David Schutter‘s works,such as the painting AIC G 219 shown here, like Chamberlain’s painting, initially reveal little.Viewed from a distance, it appears to be a quasi-monochromatic canvas; upon approaching,the impression of minimalism fades before the delicate color gradations, the subtle interplay of nuances, and the clearly visible facture.The starting point for each of Schutter’s works is an intensive engagement with older paintings.He meticulously analyses Dutch or French paintings from past centuries, but the cryptic acronym of the work’s title reveals too little to reveal any connection to the image referenced.

David Schutter AIC G 219, 2014 Öl auf Leinwand 41 x 37,8 cm © David Schutter

Schutter explores the experience he has when contemplating the work in situ, in a phenomenological sense, and transfers this, along with his analytical engagement with the circumstances of its creation, into his own work.If we consider works of art as representative in the philosophical sense,the question of what they actually “represent” comes to the fore. A work of art is never merely a material form- canvas, paper, and paint- but appears as the expression of something absent: an idea, a feeling, an experience, or even a transcendent truth.

Alice Neel Cyrus the Gentle Iranian, 1976 Oil on canvas101,6 x 76,2 cm © The Estate of Alice Neel

In Andy Warhol‘s drawing of a head, in Alice Neel‘s oil portrait of a young man, and also in Jack Pierson’s photographic image of a body, a person becomes present in their absence: Alice Neel confronts us with the penetrating gaze of the young man,of whom we know only his first name, posing casually in an armchair, exuding a convincing calm. AndyWarhol’s drawing of a young man, who’s first name we do not even know, comes across as much more impersonal and rigid,as the line is reduced to mere contour. The artistic idiosyncrasies known to both Neel and Warhol are thus present in both works.

AndyWarhol ohne Titel, 1956/57 Ballpoint pen on paper 43,7 x 35,8 cm

The situation is different with Jack Pierson‘s photograph: while the image, in its staging and chosen detail, is certainly typical of his artistic style, the nature of the medium might convey a sober inventory of what we see. Were it not for the increase in scale of the depicted flesh and denim,we might not even be aware of the its representational nature.There is no longer any distance between the work and the viewer, and the gaze becomes an almost haptic experience.

Jack Pierson BLUE JEANS (NATHAN), 2020 Archival pigment print | Ed.1/5 101 x 152 cm © Jack Pierson

In addition, there is Öyvind Fahlström‘s work Nightmusic 4, created as one of his last works in 1976.Fahlström,a thoroughly politically minded artist, was a chronicler: he collected information and facts, established connections, and artistically processed them all in his works. As a visionary,he further developed what he found and thus envisioned the scenarios of a bleak future,as depicted in Nightmusic 4. Fahlström’s works open a resonant space for meaning that cannot be reduced to its material support.Their representational power thus lies not in depicting,but in visualizing:they bring to life meanings that only come alive upon observation.

Opening: Thursday, 11. September 2025, until 9:00 pm

Exhibition dates: Thursday, 11. September – Saturday, 8. November 2025

Image caption title: Night Music 4: Protein Race Scenario (Words by Trakl, Lorca, Plath and Pietri), 1976 Variable painting, magnetic elements, acrylic and ink on vinyl and shaped metal board 161 x 224 cm © 2025 SharonAvery-Fahlström /VG Bild-Kunst,Bonn,Foto:Gunter Lepkowski

Exhibition SLUR – Aurel Scheibler | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galleries | ART at Berlin