Josef Zekoff: Paradise Cat. CFA Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin

The facelessness of the protagonists in Josef Zekoff’ s paintings is one of their most distinctive features. From emblematic labyrinths – he does also paint ornaments and maps – to drawn stick figures, the in-between space occupied by these paintings encourages self-reflection, which does, however, require courage on the part of the viewer. Or as Florian Waldvogel writes in his introductory text: » Do the protagonists of his paintings seek an encounter with something that goes beyond the world of objects and fixed quantities? Is it, as Martin Heidegger writes in › What is Metaphysics?‹ , about an encounter with the › nothing‹ within › dread‹ ? Does the confrontation with › nothing‹ in Zekoff’ s paintings refer to our fear in the face of the original meaninglessness of the world, to the fact that it is existence that ascribes meanings to things?« The worldliness of the world, according to Heidegger, lies in this emptiness, and Zekoff’ s figures, unlike the viewers, do not dread nothingness. But as in Jacobean tragedy, fear needs the awareness of loss in order to survive. According to Marcel Proust, Florian Waldvogel concludes, the true paradises are those that have been lost.

Florian Waldvogel (b. 1969) is curating since his studies at the Stä delschule Frankfurt, where he was assistant to Kasper Kö nig. He managed for Kö nig the project » InBetween« , the art project of EXPO 2000 in Hannover, a guest professorship at Academy in Munich, the curating of a couple of exhibitions, here the Manifesta 6 at Nikosia, was followed by a curator job at Witte de With in Rotterdam, from 2009 he succeeded Ylimaz Dziwior as director of the Kunstverein in Hamburg. 2013 he left Hamburg, since April 2019 he is head of the art history collections at the Tyrolean State Museum Innsbruck. Josef Zekoff lives in Vienna. Nicole Hackert and Bruno Brunnet (the founder of the gallery in 1992) are a permanent part of the international gallery world with CFA situated now at Grolmanstraß e in Berlin/Charlottenburg. Their work is inherent part with the beginning of artistic careers of Cecily Brown, Peter Doig, Sarah Lucas, Jonathan Meese, Raymond Pettibon, TAL R, Daniel Richter, Dana Schutz, Norbert Schwontkowski, Katja Strunz, Juergen Teller, or Marianne Vitale, just to name a few. Nicole Hackert and Bruno Brunnet (the founder of the gallery in 1992) are a permanent part of the international gallery world with CFA situated now at Grolmanstraß e in Berlin/Charlottenburg. Their work is inherent part with the beginning of artistic careers of Cecily Brown, Peter Doig, Sarah Lucas, Jonathan Meese, Raymond Pettibon, TAL R, Daniel Richter, Dana Schutz, Norbert Schwontkowski, Katja Strunz, Juergen Teller, or Marianne Vitale, just to name a few.