The exhibition "the last days in chimalistac" at Kunsthalle Basel is the first solo show by Leonor Antunes in Switzerland.
The Portuguese-born, Berlin-based artist has used the entire ground floor gallery of the Kunsthalle to present an installation that encompasses a series of sculptural works engaging with the histories of 20th-century architecture, design and art. Antunes frequently takes as her starting point design objects, architectural details and art works belonging to the international Modern Movement. In her own sculptures, these earlier objects are reinterpreted in different materials and may thereby retain their original size or be scaled down. Most of the 20th¬century art works, objects and buildings addressed by Antunes are those that employ the grid as the organizational basis of their architectural volume, design or picture plane. The underlying presence of the grid becomes the most striking common feature of Antunes´s own sculptural pieces. These latter are realized in materials that have a natural or slightly antiquated touch to them, such as rope, wood, leather and brass, and use techniques often borrowed from vernacular traditions of craftsmanship originating from various locations, such as South America, Mexico and Portugal.

Leonor Antunes -

Kunsthalle Basel is proud to present the first solo exhibition of Allyson Vieira in Europe. The exhibition opens on Friday, September 13th, 2013.

In the exhibition The Plural Present at Kunsthalle Basel, Vieira is showing sculptures made of simple construction materials such as brick, concrete, metal and plaster. Two collapsing walls of aluminium bars – The Long Walls – determine the choreography and our perception of the gallery space. These establish the direction of movement along the longitudinal walls and at the same time, through their regular matrix, establish visual axes right across the room. Between the walls we encounter the central figural group, Beauty, Mirth, and Abundance. The three female figures in contrapposto are modelled out of bricks and make allusion to the much-copied marble statue group of the Three Graces today housed in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Leaning against the walls of the gallery are pieces from Vieira´s on-going Clads series, begun in 2012. They call to mind antique steles and wall reliefs, geological sediments, or minimalist sculptures such as John McCracken´s monolithic slabs.

Allyson Vieira -