CvB Singles Uptown Remix presents a survey of work created since 2000—rags, mushrooms, a “soft” fence, an enormous octopus and other curious objects from Cosima's diverse oeuvre.
Von Bonin is famous for her deep-seated distrust of the “professional” artist—the assumed expert in matters of aesthetic self-importance. Instead her creative impulse could originate in some urban tale, possibly propelled further by a studio assistant, and perhaps completed by a museum guard or installer: all experts in their own arenas. Bonin's art happens somewhere in the process of translation, but if her career is filtered through a 25-year long apprenticeship in art-making, then a greatest hits show presents a conundrum: each title is formally complete and exquisite.
Published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at Petzel Gallery, New York, from September 16 to October 31, 2015.
The work of Cosima von Bonin (born 1962, Mombasa, Kenya, lives and works in Germany) has been exhibited widely throughout the United States and internationally. Solo exhibitions include MUMOK, Vienna (2014); Artipelag, Sweden (2013); Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis (2011); Arnolfini, Bristol (2011); Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva (2011); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2011); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2010); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2008); documenta 12, Kassel (2007).
