Artists: Carla Arocha & Stephane Schraenen, Alexander Apóstol, Miguel Braceli, Alberto Cavalieri, Arturo Herrera, Suwon Lee, Victor Lucena, Alfredo Ramírez.

BIG
September 27 – December 20, 2015
Espacio Monitor
Caracas, Venezuela

Karla Franceschi C.

• Happenings

Artists: Carla Arocha & Stephane Schraenen, and Piotr Tolmachov.

Landscape and Spacing
Pulsar
November 6 – 22, 2015
Antwerp, Belgium

Pulsar is a new artist run, not-for-profit space located in Antwerp. Each month we feature works by local, international, established or emerging artists. A platform is offered for artist curated installations and exhibitions, encouraging a wide range of disciplines and practices.

• Happenings

Artists: Iván Argote, Arocha + Schraenen, Lothar Baumgarten, Matthew Buckingham, Elena Damiani, Adler Guerrier, Jorge Pedro Núñez, Edgar Orlaineta, Laercio Redondo, Matheus Rocha Pitta, Sergio Vega.

The Devil is in the details
Curated by Jesus Fuenmayor
September 17 – November 20, 2015
KaBe Contemporary
Miami, FL, USA

The title of the exhibition “The Devil is in the details” pretends to point towards the details’ appearances in a work of art that unexpectedly allow viewers to comprehend the work (and even history) in a different way, even when this reading betrays our expectations or completely twists a work’s initial intention. Instead of just speaking about how important the use of historiography is for this group of artists, the show draws attention to what Roland Barthes used to call the “Punctum.” That is, that detail in an image (or work) that escapes its own structure, shooting out like an “arrow” towards the viewer. The artists selected for this exhibition have turned to the representation of history not just as material itself but also as means by which to criticize how history is constructed. They are not just interested in the past tense or simply reviving archival strategies, but in putting the past in relation to the present and the future, creating overlapping temporalities that bring disparate moments together. scottrade site down

• Happenings

Artists: Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen, Francis Alÿs, Gaston Bertrand, Amédée Cortier, Raoul de Keyser, Walter Leblanc, Bernd Lohaus, Luy Mees, Gert Robijns, Timothy Segers, Boy and Erik Stappaerts, Philippe Van Snick, Jef Verheyen, Pieter Vermeersch.

The Gap: Selected Abstract Art from Belgium
Curated by Luc Tuymans
September 9 – December 6, 2015
Parasol unit
London, UK

Focusing on the notion of abstraction in twentieth-century and contemporary Belgian art and the varying sources of influence and inspiration among the artists of two generations, Tuymans has selected fifteen artists whose work either articulates a relationship to abstraction or takes as its cue the definition of abstraction. Although the artists themselves have emerged from different periods and motivations, a clear formal relationship between the selected works is apparent, and thereby reveals a current and earlier interest in abstraction that has not lost its relevance over recent decades.

Luc Tuymans, himself a figurative painter who constantly seeks to extend the traditional boundaries of his practice, has specifically selected these artists for the individual nature of their practice and the paradoxical way each of them uses their medium. Presented in the two gallery floors of Parasol unit, their works collectively investigate the potential, formal and conceptual tensions within the notion of abstraction.

Works by the earlier generation of artists represented in the show can be loosely situated within geometric abstraction and abstract constructivism, influenced by artists such as Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) and groups such as De Stijl (founded 1917) and the ZERO movement of the 1950s and 60s, as well as the American Colour Field painters. Whereas the more recent works by the younger generation of artists reconstruct and reinterpret the Modernist ideas and concerns from today’s artistic point of view. Ultimately, this exhibition highlights the diversity of artistic practice within abstraction, while revealing intergenerational influences and allowing viewers to explore and be challenged by the depth and limits of abstraction.

• Happenings

Artists: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen.

Trace
May 1 – June 27, 2015
Galerie Isabella Czarnowska
Berlin, Germany

The title “Trace” already conveys an impression of the character of the exhibition and the atmosphere it will create. The artists will moreover venture beyond the physical boundaries of the space and open it up for new and unknown dimensions. As a result, the exhibition will exert a seductive lure and provide aesthetic pleasure by receiving and integrating each of the forms on view. At the same time, it will arouse suspicion and a feeling of uncertainty about what else will appear. The line between the utilitarian function of the architectonic space and a fictional, non-utilitarian one is very fine, and sometimes it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

In the installation Frieze II, the wall looks as if it was being deliberately peeled away to expose an unknown source of light. Room II raises questions about the condition of historical memories and their contemporary character. A marble floor structure running across entire gallery seems to allude to the foundations of another building. Perhaps the form refers to a building of the past, now existing as no more than a trace? Or why not think of it as an announcement of possible future events?

The Cabinet, Credenza and Bedside Table form a series of objects distributed throughout the gallery. Each of them features the finest palisander veneer. If at first sight they look like elegant pieces of furniture, on closer inspection we discover that the objects are non-functional. What is more, they have been perforated with perfectly round holes which lead the gaze right through to the other side. This singular gesture not only opens the objects up to new dimensions, but also emphasizes their non-functional character all the more strongly. A literal act of perforation, well known from everyday situations, means nothing more than the end of validity, and turns the furniture into useless objects but beautiful sculptures.

Earlier works by Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen were presented in the exhibition “Caraota Von Moules” with Arturo Herrera at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2012); in their solo exhibition “Persiana” at the Cultuurcentrum Mechelen, Mechelen, Belgium (2014); in “Landscape” in the Sala Juarez of the LARVA Laboratorio de Artes Veriedades, Guadalajara, Mexico, and in the show “In A Rhythmic Fashion” at Glyphotheque, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, Croatia (both 2015).

A catalogue entitled “What Now?” was published by the DISTANZ Verlag in conjunction with the first exhibition by Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen at the Galerie Isabella Czarnowska in 2013. The catalogue is available at the gallery as well as in bookstores worldwide.

• Happenings

Artists: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen

In A Rhythmic Fashion
March 4 – 27, 2015
The Croatian Academy of Arts Glypthotheque
Zagreb, Croatia

For their first exhibition in Zagreb, the Antwerp-based artist duo have devised P10, the tenth iteration of their P-series: modular veils or curtains made of identical Plexiglas elements, hooked together with s-brackets, that both divide, distort and reveal (possible) spaces. Their work, always devised according to site-specific considerations, shows how a regular exhibition location can be made to suggest limitless space that shimmers with depth and reflection.

extract of text by Kate Christina Mayne

• Happenings

Artists: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraene.

Landscape
February 1 – March 1, 2015
Café Benito / Sala Juárez
Guanajuato, Mexico

Image: courtesy of the artists and Hey Javier Mendez

• Happenings

Artists: Josef Albers, Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen, Pavel Büchler, Alain Franco, Dennis Tyfus, Peter Fengler and Pieter Vermeersch.

Threshold
November 15 – December 21, 2014
Cultuur Centrum Mechelen
Mechelen, Belgium

Met de tentoonstelling Threshold in De Garage, gaan Arocha en Schraenen in dialoog met werk van Pieter Vermeersch, Josef Albers, Pavel Büchler, Dennis Tyfus en Peter Fengler.

In deze tentoonstelling presenteren Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen hun meest recente werk Wall. Deze sculptuur is samengesteld uit verschillende keramische elementen in subtiel gekleurde glazuren het licht reflecteren en zo het werk een steeds veranderend uitzicht geven. Wall speelt, zoals frequent in hun werk, een buitengewoon optisch spel met de omgeving.
Op de openingsavond op vrijdag 14 november, zorgt de muziek van Alain Franco voor een gevoelige verkenning van de kloof tussen tijd en ruimte, aanwezigheid en afwezigheid, geluid en stilte.

• Happenings

Artists: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen

Persiana
October 25 – December 21, 2014
Cultuurcentrum Mechelen
Mechelen, Belgium

De overzichtstentoonstelling Persiana markeert tien jaar gezamelijke praktijk van het Antwerpse kunstenaarsduo Carla Arocha en Stephane Schraenen. De tentoonstelling brengt een ensemble van sleutelwerken samen in een nieuwe constellatie speciaal bedacht voor de tentoonstellingszalen van het cultuurcentrum.
Arocha en Schraenen hebben van de waarneming zelf het primaire onderwerp van hun artistieke aandacht gemaakt.

• Happenings

Artists: Allora and Calzadilla, Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen, Laura Belém, Jorge Méndez Blake, Leyla Cárdenas, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Jose Dávila, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Moris, Oscar Muñoz, Daniela Ortiz, Pablo Rasgado, Santiago Sierra, Melanie Smith, and Agustina Woodgate.

Limited Visibility
Curated by Patricia Garcia-Velez Hanna and Natalia Zuluaga
October 3, 2014 – January 4, 2015
CAM (Contemporary Art Museum) Raleigh
Raleigh, NC, USA

Voluntary omission, erasure, withholding, and concealment: these are the methods the artists in Limited Visibility employ in order to draw attention to that which is missing. The representations of absence such as the missing object of labor in Allora & Calzadilla’s sandpaper composition or the cutouts in Jose Dávila’s photographs play a key role in this exhibition as they determine, border and define the void they surround. What we see in these images, paintings, and installations is what is not there: each work absents presence and presents something absent. Seer, seen, and unseen come together here to evoke the haunted sensation of searching and looking. Though the aims of each of the works in this exhibition are different—from a demand for political representation to the materialization of an otherwise ephemeral moment—the artists in Limited Visibility draw our attention to the omitted, giving it a kind of determination or persistence that is hard to ignore. In each case, the viewer is required a certain amount of belief to fill in that which is not visibly available—these are not riddles, but questions with actual answers in the form of artworks.
Patricia Garcia-Velez Hanna and Natalia Zuluaga

Image: Top – Left to Right: Jorge Méndez Blake – Hotel Monturiol, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer – Make Out, Jose Dávila – Topologies of Belief, Allora & Calzadilla – Shape Shifter. Bottom – Left to Right: Laura Belém – Temple of One Thousand Bells, Santiago Sierra – 89 Huicholes, Moris – Miradas I

• Happenings

Artists: Carla Arocha- Stephane Schraenen, Antonio Asis, Paulo Castro, Sigfredo Chacón, Adriana Jebeleanu and Jorge Pedro Núñez

En blanco y negro
April 2014
Kabe Contemporary
Miami, FL, USA

En blanco y negro is a group show featuring works by six contemporary artists. The works that comprise this exhibition display a diverse array of techniques: drawing, painting, photography and sculpture, dating from 1969 to the present. The common thread that bonds these pieces evoke a distinct vocabulary of mass, line and texture utilizing black and white materials.

• Happenings

Selected Biographical Information

Solo Exhibitions

• 2014: “In A Rhyhtmic Fashion”, Glyptotheca, Zagreb ,Croatia.
• 2014: “(to be titled)”, L.A.R.V.A., Guadalajara, Mexico.
• 2014: “Persiana”, CC De Garage, Mechelen, Belgium.
• 2013: “Click”, KaBe Contemporary, Miami, USA.
• 2013: “What Now?”, Isabella Czarnowska Galerie, Berlin, Germany.
• 2013: “Sunday”, Wako Works of Art, Tokyo, Japan.
• 2012: “Looking For Clues”, ltd Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA.
• 2012: “The Discrepansy Between the Pale and the Dark Zone”, Ganes Pratt, MALA Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
• 2012: “After”, CAB de Burgos, Burgos, Spain.
• 2011: “Cabin Fever”, Cabin, Antwerp, Belgium.
• 2011: “Five Colors”, Editions Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• 2011: “Circa Tabac At the Wallace Collection”, curated by Ken Pratt, Wallace Collection, London, UK.
• 2010: “Undertow”, KaBe Gallery, Miami, FL, USA.
• 2010: “25°85’08” N – 80°12 ‘03””, Agency PLC at NADA Miami, Deauville Hotel, Miami, FL, USA.
• 2010: “Waterloo Station”, Peter Pilotto winter collection  2011, Fashion Week, Waterloo Station, London, UK.
• 2010: “As If”, Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA.
• 2010: “Sequence #4”, Koraalberg Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium.

Group Exhibitions

• 2014: “Museum to Scale 1/7”, Kunsthal, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
• 2014: “HOW SIX MEN GOT ON IN THE WORLD”, Berlin, Germany.
• 2014: “Museum to Scale 1/7”, The Baker Museum, Artis-Naples, Florida, USA.
• 2013: “Selected Works: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen, Louis Lawler and Markus Döbeli Isabella Czarnowska Galerie, Berlin, Germany.
• 2013: “Museum to Scale 1/7”, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium.
• 2013: “Place Is the Space”, Contemporary Art Museum, St Louis Missouri, USA.
• 2013: “The Distaff Side”, The Melva Bucksbauam collection at the Granary, Sharon Connecticut, USA.
• 2013 :”CAB Burgos Collection”, El Centro de Arte Alcobendas Madrid, Spain.
• 2012: “Caraota von Moules”, with Arturo Herrera and Meyer Weisman, Künstlerhaus Bethaniën, Berlin, Germany.
• 2012: “Spectral Metropole”, curated by Ken Pratt, City Museum (Mestni Muzej), Vzigalica Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
• 2011: “New Art From Belgium”, Galerie Christian Nagel, Berlin, Germany.
• 2011: “You Never Walk Alone”, curated by Vanessa van Obberghen, Worksound, Portland, OR, USA.
• 2011: “Artefact 2011”, S.T.U.K., Leuven, Belgium.
• 2011: “New Art From Belgium”, Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne, Germany.
• 2011: “Carla Arocha – Stéphane Schraenen: Framed and Vaast Colson: Screwed”, BeLa Editions, Brussels, Belgium.
• 2010: “Into the Light”, December 9-19, 2010, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium.
• 2010: “The Raw and the Cooked”, curated by Clayton Press and Gregory Linn, Anna Kustera Gallery, New York, USA.
• 2010: “New Art From Belgium”, Galerie Christian Nagel, Antwerp, Belgium.
• 2010: “The State of Things”, curated by Ai Wei Wei and Luc Tuymans, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China.
• 2010: “POP-ARTPOP-ART”, NICC (New International Centre of Culture), Antwerp, Belgium.
• 2010: “Célébration”, F.R.A.C. Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France.

Publications

• 2014: SIMON, Joan, ‘The Women’: The Distaff Side. Sharon, CT,p 104
• 2013: NEHB, Julika, ‘What Now’, Kunst, Berlin, Germany. p 6-10
• 2013: PATT, Ken, ‘Account’, What Now?, Galerie Isabella Czarnowska, Distanz, Berlin, Germany. p 9-12
• 2013: MOLESWORTH, Helen, ‘Interview with Carla Arocha’, What Now?, Galerie Isabella Czarnowska, Distanz, Berlin, Germany. P14-22 / MOLESWORTH, Helen, ‘Interview with Stéphane Schraenen’,  What Now?, Galerie Isabella Czarnowska, Distanz, Berlin, Germany. P 24-31
• 2013: MOLON, Dominic, ‘Place is the Space: A Building, A Decade, An Exhibition’,Contemporary Art Museum St Louis, St Louis, Missouri, p 39, 41, 44-45
• 2013: KREUGER, Anders, The Collection as a Character, M HKA, Antwerp, p.69
• 2012: PRATT, Ken, ‘Global Positioning system (GPS) – Or The Bitter Tears of Caraota von Moules’: Caraota von Moules, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany.p 3-15
• 2012: (H)ART, ‘Protject of Arocha-Schraenen: Umbrellas In Olimpyc London, March, pp.21 (ill.)
• 2012: (H)ART, ‘After’ At CAB Burgos’, January, pp.15
• 2012: RICH, Sarah, ‘Afterthought’, exhibition catalogue After. CAB de Burgos,Burgos, Spain.
• 2012: RICH, Sarah, ‘Soto and You in Soto Paris and Beyond 1950-1970’, Grey Art Gallery, NYU, New York, pp. 45-53

Collections

• American Express, New York NY, USA.
• Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL, USA.
• Benedictine University, Chicago, USA.
• British Airways Collection, O’Hare International Airport, Chicago IL, USA.
• CAB De Burgos, Burgos, Spain.
• C.I.F.O., Miami, Fl, USA.
• F.R.A.C. Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
• F.R.A.C. Bourgogne, Dijon, France.
• Fundación Banco Mercantil, Caracas, Venezuela.
• MCA, Chicago, IL, USA.
• MOMA, New York NY, USA.
• MUHKA, Antwerp, Belgium.
• Nationale Bank Van België – Banque Nationale de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium.
• Stiftung Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
• Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA.

• Artists