Songs before Sunrise explores the tension between inner imagination, historical awareness, and the inescapability of our personal perspective on the world.

Between painting, drawing and sculpture, across two floors of the gallery, the artists gathered here interweave past and present in a dreamlike visual language in which the boundaries between reality and imagination are dissolved. In his poem “Vereinsamt” (1884), Friedrich Nietzsche portrays a bleak winter landscape that can be read as a symbol of existential loneliness and metaphysical longing. The crows caw, the snow looms ominously, and man, feeling uprooted, remains isolated within himself. It is this Symbolist atmosphere that characterises the exhibition Songs before Sunrise at Sprüth Magers’ London gallery.

 

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

 

The crows caw
and go with zipping wings to the city:
soon it will be snowing.
Happy is he who now yet has a homeland!

Now you stand numbly,
gazing backward, ah! for how long already?
Why, you fool,
did you flee into the world as Winter approached?

The world – a door
to a thousand wastelands silent and cold!
He who has lost
what you have lost, never stops anywhere.

Now you stand pallid,
cursed to wander in the winter,
like smoke
that is always seeking colder skies.

Fly, bird, rasp out
your song in the melody of a bird of the wastes!
Hide, you fool,
your bleeding heart in ice and sneers!

The crows caw
and go with zipping wings to the city:
soon it will be snowing.
Woe is he who has no homeland!

–Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900), “Vereinsamt”, written 18841

 

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Oliver Bak
Coma Crossing, 2025
Oil and gesso on canvas
68 × 76 cm | 26 3/4 × 30 inches
69.5 × 77.5 cm | 27 3/8 × 30 1/2 inches (framed)

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Oliver Bak
Coma Crossing, 2025
Oil and gesso on canvas
68 × 76 cm | 26 3/4 × 30 inches
69.5 × 77.5 cm | 27 3/8 × 30 1/2 inches (framed)

Oliver Bak
Coma Crossing, 2025
Oil and gesso on canvas
68 × 76 cm | 26 3/4 × 30 inches
69.5 × 77.5 cm | 27 3/8 × 30 1/2 inches (framed)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Oliver Bak
Coma Crossing, 2025 (detail)

Oliver Bak
Coma Crossing, 2025 (detail)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Oliver Bak
Coma Crossing, 2025

Oliver Bak
Coma Crossing, 2025

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Oliver Bak
Opal, 2024
Oil, gouache and gesso on canvas
68 × 76 cm | 26 3/4 × 30 inches
69.5 × 77.5 cm | 27 3/8 × 30 1/2 inches (framed)

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Oliver Bak
Opal, 2024
Oil, gouache and gesso on canvas
68 × 76 cm | 26 3/4 × 30 inches
69.5 × 77.5 cm | 27 3/8 × 30 1/2 inches (framed)

Oliver Bak
Opal, 2024
Oil, gouache and gesso on canvas
68 × 76 cm | 26 3/4 × 30 inches
69.5 × 77.5 cm | 27 3/8 × 30 1/2 inches (framed)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Oliver Bak
Opal, 2024 (detail)

Oliver Bak
Opal, 2024 (detail)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Oliver Bak
Opal, 2024

Oliver Bak
Opal, 2024

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By examining the artistic signature of Oliver Bak’s pictorial worlds, we recognise a painterly trajectory that reveals a constitutive pictorial hierarchy. Viewing Bak’s paintings creates a state of suspended vision.

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

 

Oliver Bak
Poppyhead, 2024
Bronze
16.5 × 17 × 25 cm | 6 1/2 × 6 3/4 × 9 7/8 inches
Edition of 3 + 2 AP

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Oliver Bak
Poppyhead, 2024
Bronze
16.5 × 17 × 25 cm | 6 1/2 × 6 3/4 × 9 7/8 inches
Edition of 3 + 2 AP

Oliver Bak
Poppyhead, 2024
Bronze
16.5 × 17 × 25 cm | 6 1/2 × 6 3/4 × 9 7/8 inches
Edition of 3 + 2 AP

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Leonor Fini’s Paysage (1955) evokes Nietzsche’s dark landscape with its soft, intangible forms—a world in which the visible melds with the unconscious.

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Leonor Fini
Paysage (Landscape), 1955
Oil on canvas
45.72 × 64.77 cm | 18 × 25 1/2 inches
66 × 85.1 × 5.1 cm | 26 × 33 1/2 × 2 inches (framed)

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Leonor Fini
Paysage (Landscape), 1955
Oil on canvas
45.72 × 64.77 cm | 18 × 25 1/2 inches
66 × 85.1 × 5.1 cm | 26 × 33 1/2 × 2 inches (framed)

Leonor Fini
Paysage (Landscape), 1955
Oil on canvas
45.72 × 64.77 cm | 18 × 25 1/2 inches
66 × 85.1 × 5.1 cm | 26 × 33 1/2 × 2 inches (framed)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Leonor Fini
Paysage (Landscape), 1955

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

 

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Alexej von Jawlensky
Kleiner Kopf, ca. 1922
Oil on cardboard
17.5 × 14 cm | 7 × 5 1/2 inches
46.5 × 42.5 × 6 cm | 18 1/4 × 16 3/4 × 2 3/8 inches (framed)

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Alexej von Jawlensky, on the other hand, focuses exclusively on the human face: in Kleiner Kopf (ca. 1922), he reduces form to its essence and creates an inner world that, in Symbolism, points far beyond the individual. His inexhaustible variation of colours and forms resembles a meditation on the human soul itself.

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Alexej von Jawlensky
Kleiner Kopf, ca. 1922
Oil on cardboard
17.5 × 14 cm | 7 × 5 1/2 inches
46.5 × 42.5 × 6 cm | 18 1/4 × 16 3/4 × 2 3/8 inches (framed)

Alexej von Jawlensky
Kleiner Kopf, ca. 1922
Oil on cardboard
17.5 × 14 cm | 7 × 5 1/2 inches
46.5 × 42.5 × 6 cm | 18 1/4 × 16 3/4 × 2 3/8 inches (framed)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Alexej von Jawlensky
Kleiner Kopf, ca. 1922

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Alexej von Jawlensky, on the other hand, focuses exclusively on the human face: in Kleiner Kopf (ca. 1922), he reduces form to its essence and creates an inner world that, in Symbolism, points far beyond the individual. His inexhaustible variation of colours and forms resembles a meditation on the human soul itself.

In his paintings, Andro Wekua strives to explore the boundaries between interiority, symbolism and abstraction. He uses a transcendent, dreamlike visual language that he locates in an undefined reality.

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Andro Wekua
E., 2005
Oil paint and silkscreen ink on black cardboard
29.1 × 23.1 cm | 11 1/2 × 9 inches
51.7 × 45.7 cm | 20 3/8 × 18 inches (framed)

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Andro Wekua
E., 2005
Oil paint and silkscreen ink on black cardboard
29.1 × 23.1 cm | 11 1/2 × 9 inches
51.7 × 45.7 cm | 20 3/8 × 18 inches (framed)

Andro Wekua
E., 2005
Oil paint and silkscreen ink on black cardboard
29.1 × 23.1 cm | 11 1/2 × 9 inches
51.7 × 45.7 cm | 20 3/8 × 18 inches (framed)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Andro Wekua
E., 2005

Andro Wekua
E., 2005

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In his paintings, Andro Wekua strives to explore the boundaries between interiority, symbolism and abstraction. He uses a transcendent, dreamlike visual language that he locates in an undefined reality.

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Andro Wekua
Box, 2008
Ceramic
76 × 91 × 51.5 cm | 30 × 35 7/8 × 20 1/4 inches
Edition of 2 + 1 AP

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Andro Wekua
Box, 2008
Ceramic
76 × 91 × 51.5 cm | 30 × 35 7/8 × 20 1/4 inches
Edition of 2 + 1 AP

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Andro Wekua
Box, 2008

Andro Wekua
Box, 2008

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Andro Wekua
Box, 2008

Andro Wekua
Box, 2008

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

 

The artists featured in Songs before Sunrise do more than simply imagine a world; they engage in a dialogue with it, navigating between the past, the future and the fleeting moment that is our present.

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Eugène Carrière
Portrait Elise Carrière, circa 1890
Oil on canvas
35 × 27 cm | 13 7/8 × 10 5/8 inches
47.5 × 40.3 × 5.7 cm | 18 3/4 × 15 7/8 × 2 1/4 inches (framed)

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Eugène Carrière
Portrait Elise Carrière, circa 1890
Oil on canvas
35 × 27 cm | 13 7/8 × 10 5/8 inches
47.5 × 40.3 × 5.7 cm | 18 3/4 × 15 7/8 × 2 1/4 inches (framed)

Eugène Carrière
Portrait Elise Carrière, circa 1890
Oil on canvas
35 × 27 cm | 13 7/8 × 10 5/8 inches
47.5 × 40.3 × 5.7 cm | 18 3/4 × 15 7/8 × 2 1/4 inches (framed)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Eugène Carrière
Portrait Elise Carrière, circa 1890 (detail)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Eugène Carrière
Portrait Elise Carrière, circa 1890

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Eugène Carrière
Double portrait, circa 1880
Oil on canvas
27 × 35 cm | 10 5/8 × 13 7/8 inches
29.6 × 37.6 × 3.1 cm | 11 5/8 × 14 7/8 × 1 1/8 inches (framed)

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Eugène Carrière
Double portrait, circa 1880
Oil on canvas
27 × 35 cm | 10 5/8 × 13 7/8 inches
29.6 × 37.6 × 3.1 cm | 11 5/8 × 14 7/8 × 1 1/8 inches (framed)

Eugène Carrière
Double portrait, circa 1880
Oil on canvas
27 × 35 cm | 10 5/8 × 13 7/8 inches
29.6 × 37.6 × 3.1 cm | 11 5/8 × 14 7/8 × 1 1/8 inches (framed)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Eugène Carrière
Double portrait, circa 1880 (detail)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Eugène Carrière
Double portrait, circa 1880 (detail)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Eugène Carrière
Double portrait, circa 1880

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Eugène Carrière, whose painting exhibits links to Picasso’s Blue Period, opens up a new level of perception with his fog-shrouded figures: that which is visible remains in motion, intangible like a memory. His works combine the intuition of Symbolism with an inkling of the avant-gardes to come.

 

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

 

With their sculptures, Enzo Cucchi and Enrico David create body images that oscillate between materiality and transience. They ask what remains after disenchantment—when symbols fade and only their traces remain.

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enrico David
Untitled Lamp, 2024
Cold cast bronze, steel, onyx, electrical components
265 × 125 × 105 cm | 104 1/4 × 49 1/8 × 41 3/8 inches
Edition of 3 + 2 AP

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enrico David
Untitled Lamp, 2024
Cold cast bronze, steel, onyx, electrical components
265 × 125 × 105 cm | 104 1/4 × 49 1/8 × 41 3/8 inches
Edition of 3 + 2 AP

Enrico David
Untitled Lamp, 2024
Cold cast bronze, steel, onyx, electrical components
265 × 125 × 105 cm | 104 1/4 × 49 1/8 × 41 3/8 inches
Edition of 3 + 2 AP

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enrico David
Untitled Lamp, 2024

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enrico David
Untitled Lamp, 2024 (detail)

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enrico David
Putting Up with It, 2022
Cast reinforced concrete, graphite
145 × 75 × 35 cm | 57 × 29 1/2 × 13 7/8 inches
Edition of 5 + 2 AP

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enrico David
Putting Up with It, 2022
Cast reinforced concrete, graphite
145 × 75 × 35 cm | 57 × 29 1/2 × 13 7/8 inches
Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Enrico David
Putting Up with It, 2022
Cast reinforced concrete, graphite
145 × 75 × 35 cm | 57 × 29 1/2 × 13 7/8 inches
Edition of 5 + 2 AP

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enrico David
Putting Up with It, 2022

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enrico David
Putting Up with It, 2022

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enrico David
Putting Up with It, 2022 (detail)

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

 

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enzo Cucchi
Religione, 2011
Bronze and wooden base
55 × 60 × 60 cm | 21 5/8 × 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 inches
Edition of 3

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enzo Cucchi
Religione, 2011
Bronze and wooden base
55 × 60 × 60 cm | 21 5/8 × 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 inches
Edition of 3

Enzo Cucchi
Religione, 2011
Bronze and wooden base
55 × 60 × 60 cm | 21 5/8 × 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 inches
Edition of 3

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enzo Cucchi
Religione, 2011

Enzo Cucchi
Religione, 2011

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enzo Cucchi
Religione, 2011

Enzo Cucchi
Religione, 2011

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enzo Cucchi
Religione, 2011 (detail)

Enzo Cucchi
Religione, 2011 (detail)

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enzo Cucchi
Mirare, 2016
Bronze and steel wire
26 × 53 × 19 cm | 10 1/4 × 20 7/8 × 7 1/2 inches

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enzo Cucchi
Mirare, 2016
Bronze and steel wire
26 × 53 × 19 cm | 10 1/4 × 20 7/8 × 7 1/2 inches

Enzo Cucchi
Mirare, 2016
Bronze and steel wire
26 × 53 × 19 cm | 10 1/4 × 20 7/8 × 7 1/2 inches

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enzo Cucchi
Mirare, 2016

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Enzo Cucchi
Mirare, 2016

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Similar to Nietzsche’s philosophy, where the “eternal recurrence” calls for constant self-reflection and reinvention, the exhibition Songs before Sunrise also focuses on artistic transformation. Here, artists reflect on the past to forge a new perspective on themselves and the world.

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Anne Imhof
Untitled (Cerberus series), 2024
Pencil on paper
3 Parts
Part 1: 21 x 29.5 cm | 8 1/4 x 11 5/8 inches
35 x 43.7 x 3 cm | 13 7/8 x 172 x 1 1/8 inches (framed)
Part 2: 26 x 51 cm | 14 1/8 x 20 inches
50 x 65 x 3 cm | 19 3/4 x 25 5/8 x 1 1/8 inches (framed)
Part 3: 36 x 51 cm | 14 1/8 x 20 inches
50 x 65 x 3 cm | 19 3/4 x 25 5/8 x 1 1/8 inches (framed)

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Anne Imhof
Untitled (Cerberus series), 2024
Pencil on paper
3 Parts
Part 1: 21 x 29.5 cm | 8 1/4 x 11 5/8 inches
35 x 43.7 x 3 cm | 13 7/8 x 172 x 1 1/8 inches (framed)
Part 2: 26 x 51 cm | 14 1/8 x 20 inches
50 x 65 x 3 cm | 19 3/4 x 25 5/8 x 1 1/8 inches (framed)
Part 3: 36 x 51 cm | 14 1/8 x 20 inches
50 x 65 x 3 cm | 19 3/4 x 25 5/8 x 1 1/8 inches (framed)

Anne Imhof
Untitled (Cerberus series), 2024
Pencil on paper
3 Parts
Part 1: 21 x 29.5 cm | 8 1/4 x 11 5/8 inches
35 x 43.7 x 3 cm | 13 7/8 x 172 x 1 1/8 inches (framed)
Part 2: 26 x 51 cm | 14 1/8 x 20 inches
50 x 65 x 3 cm | 19 3/4 x 25 5/8 x 1 1/8 inches (framed)
Part 3: 36 x 51 cm | 14 1/8 x 20 inches
50 x 65 x 3 cm | 19 3/4 x 25 5/8 x 1 1/8 inches (framed)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Anne Imhof
Untitled (Cerberus series), 2024 (detail)

Anne Imhof
Untitled (Cerberus series), 2024 (detail)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Anne Imhof
Untitled (Cerberus series), 2024 (detail)

Anne Imhof
Untitled (Cerberus series), 2024 (detail)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Anne Imhof
Untitled (Cerberus series), 2024 (detail)

Anne Imhof
Untitled (Cerberus series), 2024 (detail)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Anne Imhof
Untitled (Cerberus series), 2024

Anne Imhof
Untitled (Cerberus series), 2024

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

 

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Anne Imhof
Untitled, 2024
Bronze cast
129 × 117 × 24.3 cm | 50 7/8 × 46 × 9 5/8 inches
Edition of 3 + 1 AP

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Anne Imhof
Untitled, 2024
Bronze cast
129 × 117 × 24.3 cm | 50 7/8 × 46 × 9 5/8 inches
Edition of 3 + 1 AP

Anne Imhof
Untitled, 2024
Bronze cast
129 × 117 × 24.3 cm | 50 7/8 × 46 × 9 5/8 inches
Edition of 3 + 1 AP

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Anne Imhof
Untitled, 2024

Anne Imhof
Untitled, 2024

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Both Conny Maier and Guglielmo Castelli work within a pictorial realm that oscillates between intoxication, dream and Symbolist transcendence. While Maier evokes a state of ecstasy and dissolution through exaggerated physicality and expressive deformation, Castelli creates atmospherically dense spaces in which figures appear to have fallen out of time. His diffuse, often removed figures are reminiscent of the Symbolist idea of an imaginary sphere beyond visible reality, whereby Maier’s raw, physical depictions meet Castelli’s poetic transcendence in a field of tension between instinct and introspection, matter and vision.

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Conny Maier
The waterer, 2024
Oil, oil stick, and pigment on canvas
180 × 130 cm | 70 7/8 × 51 1/8 inches
182.6 × 132.6 × 5 cm | 72 × 52 1/8 × 2 inches (framed)

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Conny Maier
The waterer, 2024
Oil, oil stick, and pigment on canvas
180 × 130 cm | 70 7/8 × 51 1/8 inches
182.6 × 132.6 × 5 cm | 72 × 52 1/8 × 2 inches (framed)

Conny Maier
The waterer, 2024
Oil, oil stick, and pigment on canvas
180 × 130 cm | 70 7/8 × 51 1/8 inches
182.6 × 132.6 × 5 cm | 72 × 52 1/8 × 2 inches (framed)

Details
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Both Conny Maier and Guglielmo Castelli work within a pictorial realm that oscillates between intoxication, dream and Symbolist transcendence. While Maier evokes a state of ecstasy and dissolution through exaggerated physicality and expressive deformation, Castelli creates atmospherically dense spaces in which figures appear to have fallen out of time. His diffuse, often removed figures are reminiscent of the Symbolist idea of an imaginary sphere beyond visible reality, whereby Maier’s raw, physical depictions meet Castelli’s poetic transcendence in a field of tension between instinct and introspection, matter and vision.

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

 

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Guglielmo Castelli
Everything seems calculated to be fatal, 2024
Oil on canvas
60 × 80 cm | 23 5/8 × 31 1/2 inches
62 × 82 × 7 cm | 24 3/8 × 32 1/4 × 2 3/4 inches (framed)

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Guglielmo Castelli
Everything seems calculated to be fatal, 2024
Oil on canvas
60 × 80 cm | 23 5/8 × 31 1/2 inches
62 × 82 × 7 cm | 24 3/8 × 32 1/4 × 2 3/4 inches (framed)

Guglielmo Castelli
Everything seems calculated to be fatal, 2024
Oil on canvas
60 × 80 cm | 23 5/8 × 31 1/2 inches
62 × 82 × 7 cm | 24 3/8 × 32 1/4 × 2 3/4 inches (framed)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Guglielmo Castelli
Everything seems calculated to be fatal, 2024 (detail)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Guglielmo Castelli
Everything seems calculated to be fatal, 2024

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Guglielmo Castelli
border exercises, 2024
Oil on board
40 × 50 cm | 15 3/4 × 19 3/4 inches
42 × 52 × 7 cm | 16 1/2 × 20 1/2 × 2 3/4 inches (framed)

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Guglielmo Castelli
border exercises, 2024
Oil on board
40 × 50 cm | 15 3/4 × 19 3/4 inches
42 × 52 × 7 cm | 16 1/2 × 20 1/2 × 2 3/4 inches (framed)

Guglielmo Castelli
border exercises, 2024
Oil on board
40 × 50 cm | 15 3/4 × 19 3/4 inches
42 × 52 × 7 cm | 16 1/2 × 20 1/2 × 2 3/4 inches (framed)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Guglielmo Castelli
border exercises, 2024 (detail)

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Guglielmo Castelli
border exercises, 2024

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In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, art was characterised by the desire to transform the experience of Impressionism into an authentic and truthful interpretation of social reality, as exemplified in the works of Toulouse-Lautrec, for example.

These ideas also found expression in an intense reflection of the dramatic inner world of the modern individual. Rosemarie Trockel draws on this artistic attitude by reproducing a slightly reduced oil-on-canvas copy of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s La Grosse Maria, Vénus de Montmartre (1884). Trockel adds a mark to the right of the model’s left breast and retitles the work Reborn with Spot (2011). The concept of rebirth in Trockel’s work can be understood metaphorically as a process of overcoming existential loneliness and the transformation of the self through confrontation with the past and the future.

 

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Rosemarie Trockel
Reborn with Spot, 2011
Oil on canvas
75 × 61 cm

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Rosemarie Trockel
Reborn with Spot, 2011
Oil on canvas
75 × 61 cm

Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London
Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

Rosemarie Trockel
Reborn with Spot, 2011

Rosemarie Trockel
Reborn with Spot, 2011

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Songs before Sunrise – Group Exhibition – London

All installation views: Ben Westoby / Fine Art Documentation

 

Oliver Bak (*1992, Copenhagen, Denmark) lives and works in Copenhagen. Recent solo exhibitions include Ghost Driver, or The Crowned Anarchist, Sprüth Magers, Berlin (2024), Caves in the Sky, Cassius & Co, London (2023) and Sick with Bloom, ADZ Gallery, Lisbon (2022). From December 2024 to May 2025, Oliver Bak is part of the group exhibition The Flowers of Evil at the Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg, Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
 
Eugène Carrière (1849–1906) was a distinguished French Symbolist from the fin-de-siècle period. During his lifetime, he exhibited at Libre Esthétique, Brussels (1894, 1896, and 1899), Munich Secession (1896, 1899, 1905, and 1906), and the Berlin Secession (1904). His work is included in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Tate, London; The National Gallery, London; Art Institute of Chicago; British Museum, London; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D. C., among others. His most recent retrospective was in 2006 at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
 
Guglielmo Castelli (*1987, Turin, Italy) currently lives and works in Turin, Italy. He has had recent exhibitions at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice (2024); Villa Medici, Rome (2024); Aspen Museum, Colorado (2023); Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas (2023); The Cabin, Los Angeles (2020); Fondazione Coppola, Vicenza (2019); and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2018). Castelli’s work has been featured in group exhibitions at Triennale Milano (2023); Maxxi L’Aquila, Italy (2023); Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin (2022); Parkview Museum, Singapore (2018); Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2018); and Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna (2016). 

 

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Enzo Cucchi (*1949, Morro d’Alba, Italy) currently lives and works in Rome and Ancona, Italy. In 2004, he received the Premio Artista dell’Anno from the Comuni di Belluno e di Cortina d’Ampezzo, and, in 2008, alongside Ettore Sottsass, he was awarded the PAALMA: Premio Artista + Architetto La Marrana Arte Ambientale. Cucchi has had solo exhibitions at MAXXI, Rome (2023); Museo Correr, Venice (2007); Sezon Museum of Art, Tokyo (1996); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1986); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1986); The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (1984); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1983), among others. His work has been featured in Documenta 7, Germany (1982 and 1987); the 39th Venice Biennale (1980); Biennale de Paris (1980); and Bienal de São Paulo (1979).
 
Enrico David (*1966, Acona, Italy) currently lives and works in London. He received his BA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins in 1994. A retrospective of his work will open at Castello di Rivoli, Turin in October 2025. He has had recent solo exhibitions at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2023); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, D.C. (2019); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2018); UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2013); New Museum, New York (2012); Museum Für Gegenwartskunst, Basel (2009); Seattle Art Museum (2008); Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh (2008); Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2007); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2007); and Tate Britian, London (2005). In 2019, David represented Italy in the 58th Venice Biennale in a co-presentation with artists Liliana Moro and Chiara Fumi.
 
Leonor Fini (1907–96) was born in Argentina but lived and worked in Paris, France. During her lifetime, Fini was included at an important Surrealist exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1936, and the landmark exhibition 31 Women, organized by Peggy Guggenheim at her gallery Art of This Century in 1943. She was the subject of retrospectives at Lilley Museum of Art, Nevada (2021); Museum of Sex, New York (2018); Bildmuseet, Sweeden (2014); Museo Revoltella, Trieste (2009); Nagoya City Art Museum, Japan (2005); Museo Teatrale alla Scala, Milan (2005); Panorama Museum, Germany (1997); Musée du Luxembourg, Paris (1986); Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Turin (1983); and Seibu Museum, Japan (1972). Recently, her work was included in The Witch’s Cradle, one of five historical sections embedded within The Milk of Dreams, the main exhibition of the 59th Venice Biennale (2022) and Surrealism Beyond Borders at Tate Modern, London (2021).
 
Anne Imhof (*1978, Gießen, Germany) lives and works in Berlin and Los Angeles. Selected solo exhibitions include Armory Park Avenue (2025), Kunsthaus Bregenz (2024), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2022), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2021), Tate Modern, London (2019), Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2016), Kunsthalle Basel (2016), MoMA PS1, New York (2015), Carré d’Art – Musée d’Art Contemporain de Nîmes (2014), and Portikus, Frankfurt am Main (2013). Her work has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including at Aichi Triennale, Aichi Prefecture (2022), Kunstmuseum Winterthur (2022), Tai Kwun, Hong Kong (2019), La Biennale di Venezia (2017), where she was awarded the Golden Lion, La Biennale de Montréal (2016), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2015), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015), and Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (2014).
 
Alexej von Jawlensky (1864–1941) was a key figure in the influential Der Blaue Reiter artist collective and, later, Die Blaue Vier. His work is included in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Museum Wiesbaden, Germany; Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; Cincinnati Art Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, among others. Jawlensky is currently the subject of a major monographic exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark.
 
Conny Maier (*1987, Berlin, Germany) currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany and Baleal, Portugal. She was awarded Deutsche Bank’s Artist of the Year Prize in 2021. Her work has been exhibited at Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (2024); Société, Berlin (2024); Villa Schöningen, Potsdam (2023); Ruttowski;68, Paris (2022); KÖNIG GALERIE, Seoul and Berlin (2021 and 2020, respectively); BOLD Room, Los Angeles (2016), among others. In 2023, Maier was the subject of an institutional exhibition at the Langen Foundation in Neuss, Germany, curated by Udo Kittelmann. 
 
Rosemarie Trockel (*1952, Schwerte, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. Solo exhibitions include MMK – Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2022–23), Moderna Museet Malmö (2018–19), Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin (2016), Kunsthaus Bregenz (2015), traveling exhibition at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, at the New Museum, New York and Serpentine Gallery, London (2012–13) and Wiels, Brussels, Culturegest, Lisbon and Museion Bozen, Bolzano (2012–13). In 2005, a major retrospective of her work opened at Museum Ludwig Köln, Cologne and traveled to MAXXI, Rome. In 1999, Trockel became the first woman artist to represent Germany at La Biennale di Venezia. Her work was also included in Documenta 10 (1997) and Documenta 13 (2012) in Kassel, as well as La Biennale di Venezia (2022).
 
Andro Wekua (*1977, Sukhumi, Georgia) lives and works in Berlin. Solo exhibitions include TANK Shanghai (2022), Kunsthalle Zürich and Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (both 2018), Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2016), Benaki Museum, Athens (2014), Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Kunsthalle Friedericianum, Kassel (both 2011), Wiels, Brussels, Museion Bolzano (both 2010), Museum Bojmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2007), and Kunst Museum Winterthur (2006). Selected group exhibitions include: Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2023), Haus der Kunst, Munich (2019), Fondation Vincent van Gogh, Arles, Albertina Museum, Vienna (both 2018), Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland (2016), the High-Line Art, New York (2015), Pinakothek der Moderne & Brandhorst Museum, Munich (2015), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2014), Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva (2013), New Museum, New York, 54th Venice Biennale (both 2011), Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich (2008), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2006), and 4th Berlin Biennale, Berlin (2004).

 

Sources cited:
1. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900), “Vereinsamt”, written 1884, translation © Emily Ezust, from the LiederNet Archive