Touch Me, Don't Touch Me

BIANCA PHOS
YORGOS STAMKOPOULOS

Opening
Tuesday, March 14, 6 – 9PM

Dear friends,
we are very pleased to present „Touch Me, Don’t Touch Me“, juxtaposing works by Bianca Phos and Yorgos Stamkopoulos. The exhibition is accompanied by a text from Hannah Marynissen.

Bianca Phos (*1985, Vienna) studied textual sculpture under H. Zobernig and video & videoinstallation under D. Margreiter at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She also studied at HFBK University of Fine Arts Hamburg in 2019 and Bazalel University of Art and Design Jerusalem in 2018.
Her interdisciplinary and cross-media practice, especially with sculpture and drawing, reflects sociosomatic relations and mutual dependencies. The material qualities and gestures often resonate with her interest in vulnerability (Verletzungsoffenheit) and the power to violate (Verletzungsmacht). In her work, she questions the essence of being human from a perspective that entangles environmental concerns as well as the dynamics of technological progress.
Phos’s works have been included in institutional shows at Kunst Haus Wien (2021), Belvedere 21, Vienna (2019), Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz (2016) and MUMOK, Vienna (2012). In 2021, she obtained the Emanuel & Sofie Fohn-Stipendium.

Yorgos Stamkopoulos (*1983, Katerini) lives and works in Berlin. He studied painting at Athens School of Fine Arts and Universität der Künste Berlin. He held a scholarship from the Onassis Foundation and is among the founders of the acclaimed art blog „Daily Lazy“.
Though a painter, Stamkopoulos’ studio practice is closer to the methodology of a sculptor. Creation through deconstruction, the colorful imprints in his art reveal after the casting material is being removed. Every gesture is instant but also delicately permanent when he paints on unprimed canvas.
Stamkopoulos’ works have been included in institutional shows at Bouzianis Museum, Athens, Neuer Essener Kunstverein (both 2018), MACRO, Rome (2017), Kunsthalle Athena ReMap 4, Athens (2013), Kunsthalle Athena (2010) and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2009). Solo exhibitions have included Nir Altman Gallery, Munich (2019), Kunst & Denker, Düsseldorf (2018), Mario Iannelli Gallery, Rome (2017). Group shows have taken place across Europe, i.e. at Callirrhöe, Athens (2022), MOUNTAINS, Berlin (2020) and The Breeder, Athens (2011). In 2023 he will take part in a group show at Municipal Gallery of Athens.