Melissa Gordon (Cambridge, MA, USA, 1981) continues with her Female Readymade series investigating the ambiguity and elusiveness of the concepts related to artworks and the voices and bodies behind them.
Within the fixed space of the gallery multiple walls are erected - be it a brick wall, a chain-link fence or a safety mesh, the artist silkscreens these physical borders onto the paintings. That way, the limits of actual spaces are brought into the conversation through the paintings and the elements that are a part of them. The viewer is placed in the middle of an ongoing investigation, finding clues in things like letters, hooks, handles, pieces of clothing, and mythological monsters, all used and applied in a different manner, referring to other gestures made in her previous work.
Gordon has exhibited both in Europe, UK, and US with the most notable shows at the Towner Gallery, South London Gallery, RCA London, Eastbourne, Vleeshal, Middelburg, Wiels, Brussels, Museum Dhont Dhaenes, Sint-Martens-Latem, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. She is currently a professor of painting at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts.
Daya Cahen (Amsterdam, NL, 1969) focuses on forms of political influence and the systematic manipulation of the human being. Her main interest lies in the power of mass media and its use in the construction and presentation of propaganda, indoctrination, or manipulation.
Having two parents who survived WOII as Jewish children, the artist grew up with the notion that the world can change on you in a day and you never know at which end of the line you will end up. A society can turn against any group of people. Investigating how these developments of indoctrination, radicalization and fear of otherness can arise within society form the starting point for all Cahen’s work.
Cahen’s works have been widely exhibited in institutions such as Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; the Moscow Museum of Modern Art; Dutch Photo Museum, Kunstmuseum Bonn, De Appel arts centre, all Amsterdam; Wiels Brussels, Centre Pompidou and Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Her films have been screened in various international film festivals including Short Film Festival Oberhausen, IDFA, International Film Festival Rotterdam and was nominated for a Golden Bear (Short Film) at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007.