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until 19.11. | #3607ARTatBerlin | BORCH Gallery presents from 16. September 2022 the exhibition The Balcony by the artist Wardell Milan
Wardell Milan’s work explores the absurdity of politics, socio-political structures, power dynamics, sensationalism and the impact of these forces on the personal existence of each individual. The Balcony refers to the play of the same name by Jean Genet (1956) and alludes to the relationship between performer and spectator in a theatre situation. For Milan, the audience watches the action “as if they were sitting on a balcony, watching the melodrama unfold before them.” In his work, human bodies and their surroundings become stages on which issues of gender, race, sexuality and power are negotiated.
Milan began his work on The Balcony in 2019 with a series of eight etchings. This first collaboration with BORCH Editions was also his first exploration of the print medium. In 2022, he returned to Copenhagen and expanded the portfolio with a second series of eight etchings subtitled The World is Made of Eggs. Although both series were created at different timesToggle to prevent Google Anal , they are clearly influenced both by the circumstances of their respective creation and by Milan’s way of engaging with the visual culture around him, particularly news images.
In the first days in the studio, Milan made preliminary drawings for which he used pictures from newspapers or magazines as models. He first transferred these drawings in line etchings onto copper plates and then experimented with numerous other intaglio techniques. The results are prints with complex patterns and line drawings in a wide range of grey tones that create resolutely contemporary and politically charged visual narratives in traditional printing techniques.
“When I work, I become very aware of images and their impact: images that show war and destruction, but also images that show beauty, not only change and influence my mood. They also have an impact on what each*individual aspires to and the extent to which one wants to pull out of or engage with the world.” – Wardell Milan
Wardell Milan’s artistic practice includes large-scale figurative drawings, painting, photography and collage. He uses material from a variety of sources such as magazines, coffee table books, historical artworks or family snapshots. His themes oscillate between reflections on current world events and meditations on his own personal experiences, exploring topics such as gender performance, identity and body modification, and social and political structures.
Vernissage: Friday, 16, September 2022, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Exhibition dates: Friday, 16. September – Saturday, 19. November 2022
to the gallery
Image caption: Wardell Milan, Our Lives to Live, 2022, detail, from the portfolio The Balcony: The World is Made of Eggs, etching, 39,5 × 50 cm
Exhibition Wardell Milan – BORCH Gallery | Zeitgenössische Kunst | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Galerien Berlin | ART at Berlin
