Reinhard Voigt • textiles • 26.04.–15.06.2024
Extended opening hours during Gallery Weekend Berlin:
Thursday, April 25, 11 am – 6 pm (Preview day)
Friday, April 26, 11 am – 6 pm (Preview day)
Saturday, April 28, 11 am – 7 pm (Public day)
Sunday, April 28, 11 am – 6 pm (Public day)
Soy Capitán is excited to announce the first collaboration with German artist Reinhard Voigt (b. 1940). Curated by Susanne Neubauer the exhibition “textiles” showcases drawings and paintings spanning 1968-2001 that convey the complexity inherent in his works. Voigt, an alumnus of the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg, Germany, is primarily recognized for his influence in 1960s Pop Art or as a pioneer of Pixel Art. Little consideration has been given to the influence he garnered from textile manufacturing, particularly the art of embroidery. Historically, this medium has been labeled as a housewife’s work and has therefore been overlooked or even excluded from “high art”.
By observing the works on display, a discernible grid structure emerges, a framework Voigt skillfully employs and which he copied from his mother’s embroidery work. The pieces on display not only demonstrate Voigt’s adeptness at drawing from textile works but also underscore his unique departure from the traditional modernist – that is, abstract – approach to the grid. In his practice, the grid is not used to replace the figurative image; rather, it serves as a formal tool for representing it, similar to the way it is utilized in embroidery. The developments of recent decades, especially with regard to the emergence of feminist art history, have proven the textile medium to be historically significant medium, and allow Voigt’s works to be viewed from a different angle and re-evaluated. Drawing from the traditionally female-associated medium of textile art, Voigt’s works simultaneously predict the advancement of the digital age. Through his practice, he deftly maneuvers the course of time, succinctly demonstrating the benefits of embracing new perspectives.
Reinhard Voigt studied Fine Arts at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Hamburg, DE from 1965 until 1971.
He has received numerous awards and grants, including the Werkverzeichnis-Stipendium of the Stiftung Kunstfonds in 2021, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2001, an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant in 1997 and a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes from 1976 to 1978.
Voigt’s works have been shown at various solo exhibitions worldwide, including: Pure Pleasure: Retrospektive Reinhard Voigt at the Neues Museum, Nuremberg, DE (2023/2024) and Die Quadratur der Farbe. Mode von Akris und Kunst von Reinhard Voigt, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, DE (2023/2024). Selected group exhibitions include: Good Vibrations, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen/Rhein, DE (2020); Rasterfahndung, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, DE (2012); The Table, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, DE (1998); Junge Deutsche Kunst, Gallery Ginza Five, Tokyo, JP (1974) and Gallery Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, DE (1973).
His work is also part of several private and institutional collections, such as in the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Bank of America Collection.
Reinhard Voigt, born 1940 in Berlin, lives and works in Berlin.