Andrea Büttner

About

This exhibition presents a major survey of recent and new work by Andrea Büttner (b. Stuttgart, Germany, 1972), including video, sculpture, reverse glass painting and woodcuts. Büttner studied art history and philosophy and art, and completed a doctorate on the subject of shame and art in 2010. The broad range of work on display includes an interview with nuns discussing happiness and spirituality; an inventory of symbols such as a veiled figure, a donkey and a beggar; an ensemble of tables that evoke refectories, canteens and soup kitchens; and portraits of youths scrutinising some art. Running throughout such disparate techniques and subjects are a number of red threads: representations of hunger and poverty across art history from Ernst Barlach to Vincent Van Gogh; an interest in materials and textiles from nuns' habits to backrests and tents; and a grid-like motif that evokes institutional models and modernist design. All of these substantial themes carry a variety of personal, historical and symbolic associations presented from numerous different perspectives. The exhibition is accompanied by the artist's first monograph, produced in collaboration with MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt with support from the Andrea Büttner Exhibition Circle of Friends. The exhibition is supported by the Goethe Institute, London. With thanks to Hollybush Gardens, London.