Lot Essay
Peter Friedl lives and works in Berlin and New York. He has made a steady incision into the methods and conventions of contemporary art. After publishing many reviews and essays on contemporary theater, Friedl turned to his own artistic production in the 1980s. His work-consistently heterogeneous in classical terms of medium, style, and meaning-highlights political awareness, autobiography, permanent displacement, design interventions, potential counter-imagery, and the reinvention of genres left over from the history of Modernism. Solo exhibitions include Peter Friedl -Out of the shadows, Witte de With, Rotterdam (2004) and Peter Friedl: Work 1964-2006 Miami Art Central/Miami Art Museum, Miami and MAC, Muse d'Art Contemporain, Marseille (2007). Group exhibitions include [based upon] TRUE STORIES, Witte de With (2003); Be what you want but stay where you are, Witte de With, Rotterdam (2005); Documenta 12, Kassel (2007); Micro-narratives: Tentation des Petites Ralits, Museé d'Art Moderne de Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne (2008); Bildpolitiken, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2008); Vincent Award Biennial, Stedelijk Museum (2008); and Working, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel (2008). In 2009 he will be presenting his work in MAN SON 1969: Vom Schrecken der Situation at the Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg and Col.lecció, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona.