ISTANBUL’74 presents There you are, an exhibition of new work by Sandro Kopp at Lehmann Maupin Gallery on view 25 January – 4 February, 2012 at 201 Chrystie Street.
In September 2011 Lehmann Maupin Gallery, launched its partnership with ISTANBUL’74, with a mission to foster a cultural exchange between New York and Istanbul. This month, ISTANBUL’74 will present an exhibition by painter Sandro Kopp in New York at Lehmann Maupin’s Lower East Side gallery. ISTANBUL’74, an Istanbul-based arts and culture platform focusing on the presentation of various cultural projects, first presented Kopp’s work at ISTANCOOL in 2011, in the exhibition titled Being With You, which featured Skype-sitting portraits with subjects such as Haider Ackerman, Ryan McGinley, and Waris Ahluwalia, among others.
Sandro Kopp’s There you are will feature a series of portraits painted from the artist’s skype-sittings with friends who become his paintings’ subjects. Hilton Als has said of the artist’s work, “In Sandro Kopp’s recent paintings, the sitter poses in a field of ether. The artist works in collaboration with his subjects, but at a remove: they pose in the terrible intimacy and distance that Skype affords them. Kopp can talk to his subjects, certainly, as they adjust their eyes to the image of the artist recording who they are, or thought they were, or who Kopp sees them as, but he can only touch you through paint, through his attention, and his various descriptions, on and off the canvas—seeing through modern technology but transmogrified, somehow, through the artist’s eyes, which is where vision belongs.” To demonstrate the communicative nature of the Skype-sittings, Kopp has dedicated a room to his favorite sitter, Waris Ahluwalia, who was also his first Skype-sitter in December 2009. The video installation and accompanying paintings are part of a larger project started in 2005, which involves Kopp painting Ahluwalia several times a year. In 2025, the Waris paintings will be exhibited together.
Sandro Kopp was born in 1978 in Heidelberg, Germany, of New Zealand and German descent. He started drawing and painting proficiently at a very young age and had his first solo exhibition when he was seven years old, his second when he was fifteen. After graduating Abiltur majoring in Fine Art and English, Kopp moved to New Zealand in 2000. The following three years were spent studying, painting and exhibiting in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, where he lived in the creative collective, The Factory. Having left New Zealand in 2005, the next years where spent nomadically roaming around between Italy, New York, France and the UK. Since 2009 he has been based in the Highlands of Scotland. Kopp has exhibited internationally, most recently at the National Portrait Gallery, London in 2007; the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2008; and at the Istancool arts festival, Istanbul, Turkey in May 2011.
In October 2010, Lehmann Maupin took its first step at establishing an on-site presence to build on their longstanding relationships in Istanbul, presenting “Five in Istanbul: A Selection of Artists from Lehmann Maupin Gallery” at the Borusan Müzik Evi, featuring the work of Hernan Bas, Tracey Emin, Teresita Fernández, Tony Oursler and Jennifer Steinkamp. In September 2011, Lehmann Maupin launched its partnership with Istanbul’74, presenting the work of artist Tracey Emin and hosting a celebration in her honor to mark the occasion. Lehmann Maupin has given important artists their first one-person exhibitions in New York including Tracey Emin, Anya Gallaccio, Shirazeh Houshiary, Do Ho Suh, Juergen Teller, and Adriana Varejão. In addition, the gallery has exposed emerging talents, such as Mickalene Thomas, Hernan Bas, Angel Otero and the Japanese artist Mr., through exhibitions at the gallery and participations in select art fairs. Our program includes important artists such as Lee Bul, Ashley Bickerton, Gilbert & George, Teresita Fernandez, Tony Oursler, Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Nari Ward, and Erwin Wurm. Founded by partners Rachel Lehmann and David Maupin, Lehmann Maupin first opened in SoHo, and moved, in September 2002, to its present location in Chelsea. A second New York gallery space opened in late 2007 at 201 Chrystie Street in Manhattan's new cultural hub, the Bowery area.
Founded by Demet Muftuoglu-Eseli and Alphan Eseli in late 2009, ISTANBUL’74 cultivates platforms that connect Istanbul to the international cultural community. Thriving on creative exchange and operating in non-traditional ways, ISTANBUL’74’s program brings together thought leaders from the worlds of fashion, film, music, art, design architecture and performing arts. One of the organization’s major efforts has been the conception of ISTANCOOL, the Istanbul International Festival of Culture. Past Participants of Istancool have included Terry Gilliam, Zaha Hadid, Tilda Swinton, Reha Erdem, Marco Mueller, Sophie Calle, Jefferson Hack, Stephen Jones, Kirsten Dunst and many more. In 2011, ISTANBUL’74 presented Stephen Jones’ “Accent of Fashion,” the MoMu Hats retrospective and most recently an exhibition of work by Sandro Kopp. ISTANBUL’74’s art space is located in one of Istanbul’s oldest districts- Karakoy.