Encounter Contemporary

Encounter was founded by Alexander Caspari in 2014. The gallery curates academically rigorous and immersive exhibitions, working with a core group of leading emerging and established international contemporary artists. We have successfully realised over forty curatorial projects across public and private spaces throughout London. Since its inception, Encounter has focused on building dynamic relationships with both new and established collectors, institutions, and foundations, who are dedicated to supporting diverse contemporary art practices.

In Autumn 2022, Encounter launched its first permanent space in Lisbon. The gallery, comprised of seven exhibition rooms, two viewing rooms, and a sculpture garden, will be located in a large 19th Century apartment on Rua de São Bernardo next to Jardim da Estrela and The British Embassy.

For Lisbon Art Weekend- Encounter presents work by Anthony Cairns who is based in London and works across photography, installation and sculpture. Preoccupied with the material process of photography and its intrinsic interplay with technology, at the root of Cairns’ practice is the fusing of advanced means of image reproduction with traditional processes.

Jahn & Jahn

After a long collaboration with Collector Heiner Friedrich (founder of Dia Art Foundation), Fred Jahn founded Galerie Fred Jahn in Munich in 1978. Since then the focus of his program has been on international contemporary artists such as Georg Baselitz, Gerhard Richter, Per Kirkeby, and Fred Sandback.

In 2008, Matthias Jahn opened his own gallery at Baaderstraße in Munich, which initially concentrated on young artists from Günther Förg’s milieu. The gallery later expanded its program to likewise engage with international contemporary art. In 2017, Fred Jahn and Matthias Jahn’s galleries merged to form Jahn und Jahn (in Munich).

For Lisbon Art Weekend- Jahn & Jahn presents “14 rooms” featuring work from Heinz Butz, Fernanda Fragateiro, Imi Knoebel, and Kirsten Ortwed.  By including the works of artists represented by the gallery, and the participation of one invited Portuguese artist, Jahn und Jahn underlines the long-term commitment to the new location and the future potential of this project. The exhibition title 14 rooms refers to the typology of the new gallery location, a 19th Century apartment that, thanks to its characteristic sequence of rooms and structural particularities, allows multiple possibilities of dialogue and display. All artworks that have been carefully selected for this presentation are characterized by a naturally playful as well as a conceptual approach to materials and colors in combination with a subtle spectrum of minimalistic forms and haptic contours. The arrangement within the exhibition space aims to emphasize delicate relationships and reinforce the dialogue between different artistic practices. From sculpture to works on paper and installation, the opening show revisits different contexts and modalities of experimentation developed throughout the years.

Every November the gallery platform Geneve. Art organizes Week-end Geneve Art. Three different organizations — Art en Vieille Ville, Genève Art Contemporain, and Quartier des Bains launched GENEVE ART, which is a joint communication medium that promotes all of Geneva’s art institutions, museums, galleries, and art spaces. 

Tali Lennox at Sebastien Bernhard
Lennox’s figures are often in repose, but never vulnerable. They are in various stages of almost ritualistic torpid regeneration and repair; undergoing a radical transformation while gazing defiantly at the viewer who they invite arcanely to gaze upon their metamorphosis. Yet the mystery of the exact transformation defines the appeal of the collection as Lennox builds a fortress and weaves a labyrinth of suggestions and symbols, only ever half pulling back the velvet curtains.

Rudolf Polanszky at Mezzanin
Mezzanin presents a solo exhibition of Austrian artist Rudolf Polanszky, for this exhibition, he will be showing his recent body of works from his noted series “Reconstructions and Translinear Transformations”.

Accidental order or calculated disorder are omnipresent enigmas in Polanszky’s work. There is at first sight the obvious simplicity of the structure as a misleading exercise for the viewer. But the beauty of the “Reconstructions” lays in its complexity, which has been governed by the concept of chance, and the constant freedom of the result. It is a creative union as well as a metaphysical statement and does not present any difficulties to sensing the unusual beauty of its abstract forms or experiencing the depth of its perplexing range of materials. However, it could cast doubt on certain concepts we traditionally take to be basic and unproblematic, like rationality, utility, and expectation.

We can imagine “Reconstructions and Transilinear Transformations” as a meditation on live matter that exists not only as a real palpable universe, but also as a lens that is constantly changing focus, narrative, and reflection in both the artist’s and viewer’s perspectives. Polanszky’s artistic genius is evident in the way he uses methodical inconsistency as a creative space of absolute freedom that he then generates in terms of the principles of chance, engaging in a process that produces complex elements from simpler ones, and provides a continuously novel creative journey. (Lara Pan)

The group show “PSYCHIC SELF-DEFENCE” at Galerie Mighela Shanma, brings together five artists who share an understanding of painting as the eclectic representation of a mental state, along with a narrative literalism where reference points are disrupted. By exploring the therapeutic power of the creative process that addresses physical and spiritual needs, this show engages in exchange, interpretation, and intervention. Psychic SelfDefence brings new information and a different perspective to each of the artists’ practices by moving the lines and questioning their introspective stories by beautifully echoing the domestic qualities of the gallery space with selected works by Dorian Büchi (CH), Richard Burton (UK), Pepe Dominguez (SP), Chloe West (US), Thomas Harker (UK).

Joana Vasconcelos, Ai Weiwei “Melting Pot” at Gowan Contemporary
The exhibition presents a selection of works by Joana Vasconcelos including ceramic and textile pieces alongside two ceramic works by Ai Weiwei. Both artists ironically question contemporary society, its sociocultural norms, and collective identities.

By revisiting the readymade and the parameters of New Realism and Pop Art, both artists ironically question contemporary society, its sociocultural norms, and collective identities. Their nonconformist visual language, often referring to the history of art and playing with the codes of luxury and design, or with the potential of elements drawn from the domestic universe, allows artisanship and industry, tradition and modernity, popular culture and erudition to coexist.

SKOPIA Art contemporain presents a solo show from Francis Baudevin

Francis Baudevin creates paintings from found compositions of graphics designed for various products, primarily pharmaceuticals, as well as logos and album covers. In the appropriation, Baudevin’s main act is that of removal: he takes away the type, leaving only the graphics, and so no products are identified or advertised. He never varies the colors from those of the original, and his only real departure is scale, with the original enlarged to the canvas or the wall by ten times or more.
“I prefer to participate in reviving modernist abstraction,” Baudevin has said, “rather than [to] comment on some observation or other as to the exhaustion of forms and concepts. I am not resigned at all—on the contrary, I feel a real empathy toward the cultural project of modernity”, connecting to a long line of Swiss painters Oliver Mosset and Max Bill.

Xippas gallery presents a solo exhibition of the NY-based artist Vera Lutter, renowned for her single-edition photographs created with a camera obscura, here she presents images of architecture, urban sites, landscapes, and works of art.  If her subjects aren’t immediately recognisable, it’s due to the (negative) inversion of the tones from the development process due to the long exposures thus captured inducing a sensation of a mirage that plunges the viewer into deep contemplation.

Max Goelitz was formerly the director of the Häusler Gallery, and later took over the gallery space of Häusler Contemporary on the prestigious cultural/shopping strip of Maximilianstraße in Munich. Goelitz has quickly established himself on the international art scene with a contemporary program and also has been busy on the art fair scene with consistent presentations. The gallery represents established and emerging artistic positions in conceptual art and post-minimal art and focuses on the interface between art and the latest technologies. What distinguishes Max Goelitz beyond that is his expansive international network. Max Goelitz consistently pursues a collaborative approach, working with a number of partner galleries around the world- including London’s Lisson Gallery for Haroon Mirza’s Berlin exhibition.

In Berlin, Max Goelitz takes over the former premises of Alexander Levy in the commercial building at Rudi-Dutschke-Strasse 26 in Kreuzberg. A central location close to art institutions and numerous galleries- including Galerie Crone, Barbara Thumm, and Carlier/Gebauer. 

The 160 square meter exhibition space will allow for varied art presentations to take place alongside the Munich shows. “We want to be dynamically involved in the gallery scene, and with that, strengthen the connections we have with our artists and collectors who live in Munich,” says Max.

A recent wave of controversies and boycotts has swept over the German & Berlin art scene, including a public backlash against Walter Smerling, the curator who had facilitated the ‘Diversity United’ exhibition in Moscow and spearheaded the (doomed) Kunsthalle Berlin. Hundreds of artists signed an open letter condemning Kunsthalle Berlin, citing the instrumentalization of culture as well as opaque flows of capital. Followed by the documenta debacle and another lackluster Berlin Biennale. Even frieze magazine noted: “Despite some worthy presentations, this year’s edition adds little to the ongoing conversation about decolonization”. 

VIENNA

With Presenhuber and Podnar opening new gallery spaces in Vienna – along with Johann König’s short-lived pop-up space- has refocused attention on a city revered for its museums and artistic legacy (Klimt, Schiele, Franz West)- but as ArtNet News noted Vienna’s gallery scene “remains relatively local. But it has deep roots in art history, esteemed museums, a well-informed public, and wealthy collectors “.

Actually, this is the second wave of international galleries moving to Vienna with Croy Nielsen and Exile galleries relocating in 2018.

Gregor Podnar is a contemporary art gallery established in 2003. Before launching his own commercial gallery, Podnar was the director of the non-profit Škuc Galerija (in Ljubljana) – later he started his gallery activities in the small town of Kranj surrounded by the picturesque landscape in Slovenia. The gallery moved in 2005 to the city center of Ljubljana and in 2007 moved to Berlin, now Podnar has relocated to Vienna- a city with a much stronger relationship to Eastern European art.

As a curator, Gregor Podnar has been working internationally since the mid-90s and the gallery’s program has developed out of his endeavors in the curatorial field of contemporary art. Beginning with an Eastern European focus over the last decade the gallery reached out to a wider international context. In this context, Julije Knifer, one of the founding members of the 1960s Croatian avant-garde group Gorgona, founded in Zagreb in the 60s, represents a meaningful forgotten nucleus of international exchange of modern and neo-avant-garde art. Other historical Croatian positions include Goran Trbuljak, and Tomislav Gotovac as well as Russian conceptualist Vadim Fishkin and Hungarian photographer Attila Csörgő. 

Podnar’s Vienna space near the Volksgarten in the city center is just a short walk from Eva Presenhuber’s new space which opened in Feb 2022. 

Gallerist Eva Presenhuber has made a career for herself in Zurich and New York and works globally with many international artists. Recently she opened a gallery in Vienna of all places, partly because Presenhuber is a native Austrian- so this is a homecoming of sorts.

Back in the 80s, Eva studied at the University of Applied Arts but did not see herself as an artist. In 1989, she took over the non-profit art space Galerie Walcheturm in Zurich and started her career as a gallery owner, later opening a space with Hauser & Wirth. But, “Vienna is a matter of the heart,” says Presenhuber.

Compared to her locations in Zurich and NYC, rents in Vienna are considerably cheaper- even if Presenhuber doesn’t like to quote figures. She has rented space at Lichtenfelsgasse 5, in a prime downtown location- wedged between Parliament and the Rathaus (City Hall). 

But why is the gallery owner really expanding to Vienna? Does she see great potential for new customers here? The market is not the main idea, she stresses; 90 percent of the gallery trade is global. Organizing more exhibitions means more merchandise, so more sales on-site or later at fairs.

Presenhuber says it’s important to “bring her artists to Vienna.” For one thing, many are not yet represented in any Viennese gallery. For another, many are not even familiar with the city. The program of Galerie Eva Presenhuber includes internationally known names such as Adam Pendleton and Carroll Dunham, Steven Shearer, and Amy Feldman.